Good Governance and Cultural Heritage Analysis Research @ DLSU-D

Good Governance and Cultural Heritage Analysis

Good governance and public service

Despite the current structure which empowers the local government units (LGUs), doubt remain whether the LGUs have done their share to better the welfare of their citizens. Despite best intentions, the inability to deliver quality public services may lie elsewhere. As described by Manasan and Huther and Shah, governance is a complex structure which involves both political and economic management. However, it is believed that making local governments responsive and accountable to citizens will help bring about “citizen centered governance”.

Questions that need answers are as follows: What is the status of intervention programs for the police force and databank of information in Cavite? How can the police force improve its public relations image in the province of Cavite? How can we improve delivery of social services to Cavitenos?

Humanities

Historical/Cultural Studies

That culture means religion and politics and art and literature, is too narrow a view of culture. That our original culture was perverted by an alien culture, we should understand precisely what we mean. And what do we mean? To Joaquin the conventional meaning of culture could be shifted to the history of culture. Thus, the guisado, pancit and adobo are part of Cavite’s cultural continuum.

McLuhan emphasized “That people tend to focus on the obvious, which is the context, to provide us valuable information, but in the process, we largely miss the structural changes in our affairs that are introduced subtly or over long periods of time. These range from cultural or religious issues and historical precedents, through interplay with existing conditions, to the secondary or tertiary effects in a cascade of interactions that we are not aware of.”

Questions that need answers are as follows: Should Caviteños therefore revise their idea of culture and/or concept of heritage? What did the experience of Spanish/American colonization do to the Caviteños? Do the historical facts tally with the Caviteños’ idea of what happened in the 16th century (17th, 18^th, 19^th century)? Did the rise of the pancit culture for example in the 17^th century corrupt the Caviteños’ Asianness or enforce it? What were the impacts of the Caviteños’ relations with the colonizers e.g. Spanish / American as far back as the 16^th century on their early culture?

National Discipline

Cross-Cultural Studies among Caviteños and Migrants

Presently, Cavite province has a population of over three million living in 20 towns and has been described as the fastest growing urban center in the Philippines. In-migration and other factors contributed in altering Cavite’s demographic patterns and settlement features from the early decades of the 18^th century up to the first decade of the 21st century. Pandarayuhan/Dayo is a byword in Cavite and among Caviteños. Essentially, it means movement from one place to another. Movement triggers change, and the province of Cavite has been responding to change. Today, Cavite is a first-class province with 829 barangays and seven districts, a tourist destination and a beneficiary of industrialization.

Questions that need answers are as follows: What were the major factors which altered Cavite’s demographic patterns from the early centuries of Spanish colonization up to the first decade of the 21st century? How does migration impact Cavite’s cultural, political, and economic development? How have cultural traditions changed in urbanized Cavite? Has the role of women changed in cross-cultural Cavite? How did migrants integrate into Cavite society?

National Discipline

In the utilization of communication/mass media in shaping the minds of Caviteños, discipline is said to be a value that should be inculcated at an early age. If people are not taught how to follow rules and regulations when they are still young, they will be shocked to realize once they enter the “adult” world that they will have a hard time coping with life if they keep deviating from the rules that put order in society.

Lack of discipline has been cited as contributing to the worsening state of traffic jams, garbage in the streets, disorderly queues, disregard for simple rules, etc. and in the words of Iida on discipline, “Filipinos have so much to learn”.

In this context, media can be considered a potent factor since the mass media is considered shapers of society that can lift it on to a higher level. The media is believed to play a critical role in every society in huge ways, most pointedly by helping to shape popular attitudes.

Questions that need answers are as follows: How has the use of mass communication affected discipline among Caviteños? What is the potential of mass media use in promoting discipline in Cavite? How can mass communication be utilized to promote discipline among Caviteños?

Education and Formation

Value formation

Value-based education boils down to curriculum and pedagogy which entails wider participation among all stakeholders especially in the local communities and barangays. Essentially, a curriculum which integrates the realities of globalization with local values will produce good results. Values which relate to the cultural, social and economic conditions of the province of Cavite will constitute a way forward in sustainable human development and nation building.

Questions that need answers are as follows: What kind of holistic formation program would promote shared integrity in government offices especially LGUs and law enforcement agencies like the PNP? How can we develop relevant curriculum to aid teaching and learning in formal and informal contexts? How can we design educational programs that promote capacity-building for local communities? What creative educational paradigm can promote the well being of the youth, especially the less privileged and those at-risk? How can we effectively partner with other stakeholders such as NGOs, POs, Church and Religious Institutions for the implementation of holistic formation programs?

Innovations in education

Issues like school dropouts, lack of values formation, outdated curriculum and lack of innovations in instruction tend to compound the problems in education. While there are government and private sector initiatives being done to give financial support to the poor, not a lot of potent knowledge base resulting from research and practice exist to support the efforts of school faculty and administrators, colleges of education, and the government agencies. Ultimately, in order to improve student learning and other related problems in education, some issues must be addressed such as refocusing attention of educators, research based teaching techniques, learning within the context of resource constraints, and values development.

Question that need answers are as follows: How do we improve school curriculum and instruction? What are the most effective ways to asses and evaluate learning? How do we evaluate an effective teacher education program? What kind of curriculum will prepare the teachers and students in dynamic educational environment? How can the school contribute to the government initiatives on education?

Socio-anthropological studies focusing on the province of Cavite

Using social change, modernization, development, and globalization in understanding the changes affecting the province, Cavite has been affected by the modern world system where communities are economically and politically interdependent. City, nation, and world increasingly invade local communities with their newfound knowledge and technologically advanced gadgetry. The world system and the relations among the countries within that system are shaped by the world capitalist economy. In this regard, Cavite is caught in this intricate web of change and “external cultural invasion” – a phenomenon which owes itself to the gradual decline of her traditional social, political, and economic culture.

Questions that need answers are as follows: What social-anthropological differences exist among upland, midland, and lowland communities of Cavite province? How do the current-day Caviteños deal with the phenomenon of socio-cultural change? Moreover, how do Caviteños deal with the phenomenon of globalization affecting their traditional social, political, and economic values?

Language and Communication Aspect

As in the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations, the biggest challenge is how language and communication can assist in the structural changes that will take place in the social, cultural and economic transformation of Cavite. Each of these contexts places on De La Salle University-Dasmarinas and its stakeholders huge responsibilities. Especially, the responsibility in formulating realizable communication skills as well as specific language training which may evolve out of the development dynamics in the province of Cavite.

Questions that need answers are as follows: How are existing signages on traffic rules and regulations and road courtesy understood in Cavite province? What communication media can be designed to better educate the citizens of the province on waste segregation and garbage disposal? What behavioral indicators influence or contribute to misinformation on the causes and effects of different issues in Cavite? What educative procedures in relation to potable water conservation can be employed in order that intervention mechanisms in terms of language use and communication processes are carried out in basic, secondary, and tertiary-level curricula? What communication media can be designed to better orient the citizens of Cavite on the integrity and professional competence of the Philippine National Police?

*NOTE: The above descriptions are exerpts from the Cavite Development Research Program. View the entire document here .

Research @ DLSU-D