Hosted virtually by Charles Sturt University in Australia, the event opened a new chapter in international ethical community-based education
On Tuesday August 26, Mathew Gendle, director of Project Pericles and professor of psychology) participated as a featured panelist in an online launch event for the Asia Pacific Hub of the聽.
Hosted by Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia, the Asia Pacific Hub will serve as a growing network of practitioners committed to ethical, inclusive, and impact-driven education. It will connect educators, students, and community partners through shared learning, regional storytelling, and transformative practice.
The event featured multiple panelists who shared their expertise on community-based approaches to global learning and ethical partnership development. Other members of the event鈥檚 panel were:
- Mike Bishop, managing director, The Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative
- Amy Somchanhmavong, associate director, Global Community-Engaged Learning Programs, Cornell University
- Janelle Wheat, pro vice-chancellor (Learning & Teaching), Charles Sturt University
Some session-supporting quotes and themes (provided by the event organizers) include:
On repositioning the Asia Pacific:
“We’re not bringing global learning to the Asia Pacific, we’re bringing Asia Pacific wisdom to global learning.”
On decolonial methodology:
“True decolonization means more than inclusion; it means fundamentally restructuring who leads, how we learn, and what counts as knowledge.”
On regional innovation:
“The Asia Pacific Hub isn’t adapting Western models, we’re generating distinctively regional approaches to ethical global engagement.”
On community leadership:
“Community-based global learning isn’t about working with communities, it’s about communities working with us on their terms, for their priorities.”
On epistemological pluralism:
“We’re moving from learning about other cultures to learning from other ways of knowing the world.”
On institutional transformation:
“Genuine partnership requires institutions to be willing to be fundamentally changed by the relationship, not just to create change elsewhere.”
On reciprocity redefined:
“Reciprocity isn’t about equal exchange, it’s about mutual transformation through sustained relationship.”
On postcolonial positioning:
“We reject the binary of helper and helped, instead embracing the complexity of mutual learning across difference.”