SFA-AGR-166-08

18 March 2008 – Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia Victoriano M. Lecaros reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that Dr. Allan De Guzman, PhD., of the College of Education, Graduate School of the University of Sto. Tomas, and professor from the Royal and Pontifical University in Manila, received the prestigious 2007 SEAMEO-Jasper Award given by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO). Dr. De Guzman won the award for his paper entitled, “Creating Space for Legitimate Participation of Youth in Education for Sustainability through Service Learning: Toward a Liberatory Praxis for Pedagogy of Sustainability”.

SEAMEO, with the support of the Canadian Government, administers the annual SEAMEO-Jasper Research Award to recognize exemplary research projects/studies done by Southeast Asians in selected fields. It also aims to stimulate continued interaction and knowledge-sharing among Southeast Asian and Canadian researchers. Each year, the competition covers a theme that is relevant to Southeast Asia. The SEAMEO-Jasper Research Award was established in 1990 and has since been awarded yearly.

The theme for the 2007 Award was Education for Sustainable Development: Improving Teaching and Learning for Southeast Asia’s Common Future. It aimed to highlight the achievements of the region’s researchers and educators in promoting the concept of sustainable development and encouraging deeper appreciation for environment and development issues among the young. It also underlined the importance of education in moulding future responsible citizens.

Dr. De Guzman is a member of various international scientific journals, author of internationally acclaimed publications, reviewer of scholarly articles in various fields of education such as pedagogy (the art of teaching), school-based management, educational technology, library science, etc. He has played an important role in popularizing different qualitative research methods such as doodling, portraiture, life story, appreciative inquiry, story network analysis, bibliometrics, narrative biographical and diary analysis in education studies – all published in widely read international journals.

Mr. Julito Aligaen, another Filipino and a high school teacher of the Asuncion National High School in Davao del Norte, won the SEAMEO-Jasper Award in 2006. END

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