<p><font color="#33711E"><strong>Day 3 – Session 6D: Sufficiency Economy and Participatory Development</strong></font></p>

Queen's Park 6, 13:30 - 15:00

13:30 - 13:50

6.D.1. Sufficiency Economy and Participatory Development: An Impetus for Generating Education Innovation for Social Engagement

Titiporn Siriphant Puntasen and Suwatchara Piemyati

Thammasat University, Thailand

In this paper, the authors explore the power of his Majesty the King of Thailand's sustainability theory, "Sufficiency Economy", as a catalyst for social change and to address the global social and environmental challenges that have become part of a day-to-day reality for the Thai people. Based on the authors' previous work, this paper highlights the need to mobilize sufficiency economy theory through the adoption of an innovative framework which requires change only at the technical level. In a partial attempt to answer the question: how higher education can become more relevant and responsive to the needs and conditions of society, the authors revisit the philosophical premises of participatory development and discuss their experience as social work educators in relation to the legacy of Thammasat University. The authors maintain that with dynamic utilization of sufficiency economy and participatory development as a practice method and pedagogy, the university can become a socially engaged institution that contributes directly to the sustainability of our world.

Download the presentation (pdf, 1.5mb)

13:50 - 14:10
6.D.2. How Green is the University? An Assessment of Bukidnon State University
Ricarte B. Abejuela III
Bukidnon State University, Philippines

Environmental education (EE) has been deemed an important tool in promoting sustainable development in society, particularly at the primary and secondary levels of formal education. A 2004 study on the status of EE in Bukidnon public schools showed that, based on the five objectives of EE (as defined in the Tbilisi Conference), the public schools of Bukidnon have only satisfactorily achieved two out of the five: Awareness and Knowledge. Work still has to be done on achieving the three other objectives: Attitudes, Skills and Participation. Since the majority of the teachers surveyed in the study came from Bukidnon State University (BSU), it is only appropriate that it be targeted as the primary venue where reorienting education must take place. As a teacher training institution, the teachers it produces should be properly oriented on EE and sustainability. This is so that they can teach this in the schools where they will be assigned, thus achieving the additional three EE objectives. Before BSU can be a preacher of sustainability, however, it must first become a practitioner of sustainability itself. This paper will discuss the assessment of BSU on its policies and practices, and its prospects for becoming a Green School.

Download the paper (pdf, 160kb) and presentation (pdf, 2.9mb)

14:10 - 14:30
6.D.3. Thai University Graduate and Undergraduate Involvement in a Participatory Development Project in Tak, Thailand
Linda Nowakowski, Ubon Ratchathani University, Thailand

The King of Thailand has proposed the Sufficiency Economy philosophy as an alternative approach to development. This approach requires little capital investment and no assistance from outside international agencies. It is a development approach that makes sense. Since this approach to development focuses on core sphere activities, a development index based on GDP would not see this development as being positive. Gross National Happiness indicators would, however, indicate positive development changes. A group has been working for several years in Tak Province in Thailand with a community of Karen people. Their goal is to build a sufficiency economy community and establish a school based on the King's ideas of learning-by-doing. One graduate student and four undergraduate students from Ubon Ratchathani University will go to Tak Province in the spring of 2008 to help with this project and provide them with the metrics to measure their development. The results of this work will be utilized to assist in the development of a resettlement village for child-headed households in Uganda in the spring of 2009.

Download the paper (pdf, 50kb) and presentation (pdf, 270kb)