Prof. Allan B. de Guzman, PhD of the College of Tourism and Hospitality Management lectured on Pedagogy on Culture-based education on July 20, 2020 in a webinar organized by the National Commission on Cultural Education, which runs the Philippine Cultural Education Program.
De Guzman, a known advocate of cultural pursuits, encouraged the educators to consistently raise questions in pedagogy. “Question the way we teach, and we question the way students learn,” de Guzman said.
Moreover, de Guzman highlighted that an educator must have a firm understanding of culture. According to him, the educator must balance the three aspects of learning culture: enculturation, acculturation, then toward inculturation. “Karaniwan pong nabibigyan ng pansin ay ang acculturation, o ang pagkatuto ng mga bata ng mga iba’t-ibang kultura,” de Guzman said.
De Guzman said the growth of culture-based education as a transdisciplinary process was a long and challenging choice. “Bago natin marating ang transdisciplinary, mahalaga na tayo ay mag-intradisciplinary, multidisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, at interdisciplinary,” de Guzman said. Transdisciplinary was creating a unity of intellectual frameworks beyond the disciplinary perspectives
“Hinding-hindi tayo maaaring magturo ng ating asignatura gamit ang kultura hangga’t hindi natin mastered, o alam na alam ang ating itinuturo. At much more, ang sinasabi nating kultura (We cannot teach out subjects using culture unless we have mastered the subject matter and more so, culture itself),” he added.
In 2011, de Guzman was named Metrobank Foundation Outstanding Teacher for Higher Education. Apart from being a multi-awarded educator, de Guzman is also one of the University’s most prolific researchers. His expertise is on Adult Education and Educational Gerontology, Teacher Education, and Leadership Behavior and Comparative Education. Apart from CTHM, he also teaches at the Graduate School and is a researcher at the Research Center for Social Sciences and Education.
