Some of you might have already heard about something called “Sharing Knowledge Project.” The announcement online tells us that the project “offers international students or researchers at K.U.Leuven, who are from developing countries, the possibility to share their wealth of personal, intercultural and/or academic knowledge with Flemish students.” I’ve been taking part in this initiative since I began my PhD studies and I can confidently say that it delivers on its promise of a fruitful exchange of knowledge and diverse points of view.

The first time I participated in the project was in 2007. I gave two lectures in KaHo Sint Lieven in Ghent. I spoke with two classes of Flemish students about violence and suffering in my home country, the Philippines. I also tried to guide them through a reflection on these occurrences with the help of the lenses provided me by my field of study, philosophy. My point then was that violent action on others has something to do with being an autonomous human person; yet we emerge as free and separate individuals only thanks to our relations with others. The conclusion then is that violence is actually made possible by an original openness and relation with others. As you can see, this can be heavy stuff for people who have no or little background in philosophy. So it’s quite understandable that the students in both classes kept quite throughout the lecture.

The following academic year, I signed up for lectures at Groep T in Leuven. I used the same presentation and to my delight the students were a little bit more participative. But while I invited input from students by posing some questions during the lecture, I sort of monologued for nearly two hours. As any teacher would know, this can be quite exhausting if done on a regular basis and not always that enriching. After all, students are not passive containers into which we pour knowledge and out of which we extract what we’ve deposited come exam time. The teacher and contact person then at Groep T was aware of this and he gave me a valuable tip: come up with questions about your topic and give the students the time to discuss these among themselves.

I had the chance to try this suggestion out as I volunteered again to deliver lectures this school year. I was assigned to Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel. The topic of my presentation was cultural differences and communication. Drawing from the German Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, I tried to explain that there are very basic attitudes necessary for genuine communication to happen. One has to be willing to show one’s true self, to see the conversation partner as a whole and unique human person, and one has to remind oneself that the other can think for herself and make her own decisions. Then I pointed out that perhaps Buber did not give much attention to cultural differences, something that we have become keenly aware of in recent decades and which we have to take into account in any attempt to interact with people from different backgrounds. Differences are not only a fact but are always a potential source of misunderstandings and conflicts.

Now at the beginning of each lecture I gave the students time to discuss some questions related to communication, culture, cultural differences. I was very glad to learn that they already had some idea of these matters and a lot of them gave examples from their own experiences. Most of what they said were personal opinions yet it was quite interesting how these coincided with what philosophers say in their usually difficult writings. I don’t think it would be rash to say that there dialogue occurred between me, the students, and their (real) professor.

So as I said at the outset, the Sharing Knowledge Project undoubtedly fulfils its promise of an enriching exchange of information, opinions, and ideas. After each of my lectures in Brussels, I came back to Leuven happy because of having received so much in return from those students who had the courage to speak and share highly intelligent questions, examples, and insights. |