Sanrokan Conference celebrates culture & environment

Eduardo "Lolong" Firmalo, Governor of Romblon Province, welcomed participants to the Language and Education Symposium.

(May 2015) A recent conference held in the Philippines brought together representatives of government agencies, NGOs and education stakeholders to focus on bio-cultural and environmental issues. The 2015 International Sanrokan Conference on Biocultural and Environmental Studies was part of the centennial anniversary celebration for Romblon State University (formerly Odiongan Farm School). Among the participants were several SIL staff and members of the Bantoanon language team.

Four symposiums and a special workshop were held in different locations over the course of several weeks:

  • Environment and Climate Change (Sibuyan Island, 1-3 May)
  • Culture and History (Romblon Island, 5-7 May)
  • Archaeology and Museum Studies (Banton Island, 9-11 May)
  • Special Forensic Science Workshop (Tablas Island, 12 May)
  • Language and Education (Tablas Island, 13-15 May)
     

Each symposium included plenary lectures, paper reading, poster sessions, workshops, photo-exhibits, book launches, writing contests and eco-cultural activities. Language and culture topics on the schedule included: local histories of island communities, folklore, indigenous technology, traditional festivals, heritage and language studies, ethnoarchaeology, indigenous peoples’ rights, best practices in language teaching and grammatical analysis of Philippine languages.
 


All photos courtesy of Dr. Francisco Datar, used by permission.

The Language and Education symposium was attended by educators and language researchers. SIL’s Diane Dekker gave a keynote address entitled, “The promises and realities of Mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB MLE).” Dekker also gave a presentation on developing educational materials and shared a short remembrance of the late Norma Duguiang, a long-time colleague and MTB MLE advocate from Lubuagan. Other presentations by SIL staff included:

[This was] the first [time] that the provincial government and a state university have joined hands to host a conference of this nature. Together with generous education stakeholders like the Office of the Provincial Governor, the National Museum and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and local organizations like the Asi Center for Culture and the Arts and USWAG Bantoon, we were able to mobilize enough resources for the conference’s needs. 

Education stakeholders have begun moving away from a purely language and education perspective to one that is more inclusive of the other disciplines, especially science, mathematics, the arts and the environment. Our experience in this conference has added to our knowledge about what teachers in elementary, high school and college actually need to implement the new language-in-education policy and the K-12 curriculum.
—Dr. Ricardo Ma. Nolasco, Professor of Linguistics at University of the Philippines, member of SIL Philippines Advisory Council

In the future, a selection of papers from the conference will be published by Romblon State University.

*In absentia, paper read by Greg Dekker.

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