SUBJECT TITLE : Community Engagement, Solidarity, and Citizenship

MODULE TITLE : Community Action

MODULE NO :3
NOMINAL DURATION : 4 Hours
LEARNING OBJECTIVES : At the end of this module, the student will be able to:
1. recognize the value of undertaking community action modalities;
2. identify opportunities to contribute to community development through solidarity;
3. acknowledge interrelationship of self and community in undertaking community action;
4. show an appreciation of the value of citizenship education in community engagement and nation-
building; and
5. analyze factors and make use of theories in describing and explaining the occurrence of social change.

MODULE CONTENT:
Community Action
Community action refers to collective efforts done by people directed toward addressing social problems
(e.g., social inequalities, environmental degradation, and poverty) in order to achieve social well-being. Community
action can take the form of community engagement and solidarity, which bolster citizenship in the process. The
changes brought about by community action can be understood by learning the concepts, factors, and theories of
social change.

Community Engagement
Community engagement refers to the process of developing partnerships and sustaining relationships with
and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity or common interests for the purpose of working for
the common good and of addressing issues that affect their well-being. Stakeholders from partnerships may include
organized groups, agencies, institutions, or individuals.
Community engagement in educational setting can take many forms, but the most common are service learning,
community outreach, and community engaged research.
● Service learning is a teaching methodology that employs community service and reflection on service to
teach community engagement, develop greater community and social responsibility, and strengthen
communities. Service learning projects are expected to be a collaborative effort between the community
and the students so that a certain community issue or social problem can be addressed. This initiative allows
students to develop leadership, communication, cultural understanding, and critical thinking-aside from
bridging social theory and practice.
● Community outreach refers to the voluntary services done by students, faculty, school, employees, or
alumni in response to the social, economic, and political needs of communities. This is done in order to
improve the community members’ quality of life.
● Community engaged research (CEnR) is a collaborative process between the faculty and/or student
researchers and the partner community in conducting research. Here, the communities are considered as
co-leaders in the design and conduct of the different phases of the research process. The research process
ranges from identification of research agendas; design and delivery of research tools; discussions on
culturally appropriate measures; ethical considerations in designing effective and well-received recruitment
strategies in gathering research participants; identification meaningful, creative and broad-reaching
avenues in disseminating the products of research; and implementation of research reciprocity projects. All
of these are geared toward strengthening the academic discipline of faculty or student researchers and
promoting the well-being of the partner community.

Levels and Modalities of Community Engagement

There are different appropriate levels of community engagement depending on the issue that being
addressed in the community, the objectives of engagement, and the decision of who among the community
stakeholders should be involved. The different levels are information, consultation, involvement, and active
participation.
● Information is a one-way relationship on disseminating information to community members. It covers
passive access to information by people via traditional media (posters, brochures, telephone calls, or word
of mouth marketing), mass media (newspaper, radio, television, Web sites), and social media (Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, etc.). it also includes more active measures to disseminate information through
community education and community campaign awareness activities.
● Consultation involves obtaining stakeholder approval for a particular initiative. It seeks to interact with
communities for the purposes of getting feedback without direct community participation in project design,
implementation, and evaluation. However, information gathered from consultation can be used to help
frame an issue, identify options for service learning/community outreach/CEnR projects, and enrich the
evaluation of the project.

BCT LEARNING MODULES S.Y. 2020-2021 1

 ● Active participation allows the involvement of community members in the planning, implementation, and
overall assessment of development initiatives. It emphasizes community knowledge, agency, control, and
ownership, which are defined as the outcomes and drives of community-centered development.
Modalities of community engagement:
● Transactions are one-way community projects or activities that come from the service providers to the
community. This may include volunteer work, free consultancy services, philanthropic cash donations,
skills transfer, and giving of technical support. In this level of community engagement, interaction with
the community is occasional, service comes on a need per need basis or is seasonal, and the service
provider has full control of the community engagement process.
● Transitional are two-way community projects brought about by the process of consultation and
collaboration between the service provider and the community. Repeated engagements between the
community and the service provider occur due to the infusion of consultation and collaboration
mechanisms in organizing and implementing community projects, but resources mainly comes from
the service provider, who is in full control of the community engagement process.
● Transformational are two-way community projects characterized by active dialogue and critical
reflectivity brought about by the process of involvement and active participation between the external
agent and the community. There is the involvement of joint learning and value-generation, and
community leadership in the decision-making process is prioritized.

Solidarity
Solidarity refers to the firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good by
mutually supporting and sustaining movements for social change and social justice. Such movements could be local
or global and it may take the form of policy and/or action advocacies. Solidarity often entails establishing ties with
people who are oppressed, marginalized, and/or vulnerable, such that their cause will be supported by whatever
feasible yet ethical means and that their rights will be advocated.
Emancipation Goals that Solidarity Strives
● Health for All. It pertains to the understanding that health-which is a state of complete physical, mental,
and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity- is a fundamental human right.
● Education for All. This refers to bringing the benefits of education to every citizen in society. Research
indicates that education enables people to perform better economically, enhances health and extends life
span, promotes civic engagement, and improves one’s sense of well-being.
● Good Governance for All. This pertains to capacitating local communities and institutions to manage and
regulate their own welfare in terms of economic security, socio-political well-being, and cultural
preservation and progress. At the same time, it shall help them establish an active partnership with their
respective local governments to engage in the design and implementation of economic, social, and
environmental policies; to enhance each other’s lasting development efforts; and to bolster citizenship in
the process.
● Economic Justice for All. It pertains to enabling all people-especially the poor; the disadvantaged; and
discriminated men, women, and youth, who are excluded from growth process- to contribute to and benefit
from the overall growth in the economy and be lifted above the poverty line. In order to achieve this,
strategies such as generating productive employment and engaging in entrepreneurial activities may be
implemented.
● Climate and Environmental Justice for All. This refers to the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of
all people in the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and
policies. It also includes the creation of policies and projects that will address the root causes of climate
change and the making of systematic changes that will attend to the disproportionate burden of the climate
crises on the oppressed, marginalized, and vulnerable sectors of society.

Citizenship
Citizenship, its most basic sense, refers to full membership in a community in which one lives, works, or was
born. However, there are three interrelated dimensions of citizenship that shape its common notion of
understanding.
● When viewed from a legal dimension, a citizen refers to a person who enjoys civil (freedom of speech and
right to own property), political (right to vote and hold public office), and social rights (right to education,
health, and social security). A citizen, in this context, also has the right to invoke protection by the law.
● When viewed from a political dimension, a citizen refers to a person who is a political agent and is actively
participating in society’s political institution and system. As a political agent, the citizen is expected to
participate in influencing the behaviour of political decision-makers, in the crafting of laws and policies, and
in encouraging other citizens to promote the common good.

BCT LEARNING MODULES S.Y. 2020-2021 2

 ● When viewed from an identity dimension, a citizen is considered a member of political community (nation-
state)that actively shapes his or her cultural identity. Here, a citizen is expected to demonstrate national
pride, loyalty, and love for his or her own country.

Citizenship Education in the Philippines

In the Philippines, every Filipino is expected to be a good citizen based on core Filipino values that are
considered integral components in nation-building. The core Filipino values can be derived from the Preamble of the
1987 Constitution, which states that:
We the sovereign Filipino people, imploring the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just humane society
and establish a Government that shall embody our ideals and aspirations, promote the common good, conserve and
develop our patrimony, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of independence and democracy under
the rule of law and regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace, do ordain and promulgate this
constitution.

Based on the Preamble, the core Filipino values are:

1. Pagkamaka-Diyos (being godly)- this encompasses faith in the Almighty God.
2. Pagkamaka-Tao (being humane)- this includes the promotion of the common good and valuing of truth,
justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace.
3. Pagkamaka-Bayan (being nationalistic and patriotic)- this includes securing the blessings of democracy and
respect for the rule of law, the Philippine government, and its instrumentalities.
4. Pagkamaka-Kalikasan (being caring for the environment)- this involves the conservation and development
of the country’s patrimony.

The Citizenship Advancement Training (CAT)-“aims to enhance the students’ social responsibility and commitment
to the development of their communities and develop their ability to uphold law and order as they assume active
participation in community activities and assisting the members of the community in times of emergency”
(Department of Education Order No. 50, series of 2005).
a. Military Orientation- provides learning opportunities for the students to gain knowledge, skills and
understanding of the rights and duties of citizenship and military orientation with focuses in leadership,
followership, and personal discipline.
b. Community Service- refers to any activity that helps achieve the general welfare and betterment of life of
the members of the community or the enhancement of its facilities, especially those devoted to improving
the health, education, safety, recreation, and morale of the citizenry.
c. Public Safety and Law Enforcement Service- encompasses all programs and activities which are contributory
to the maintenance of the peace and order and public safety and compliance with laws.

The National Service Training Program (NSTP) “is a program aimed at enhancing civic consciousness and defence
preparedness in the youth by developing the ethics of services and patriotism while undergoing training in any of its
three program components. Republic Act (RA) No. 9163.
a. ROTC- is a program institutionalized under sections 38 and 39 of RA No. 7077 designed to provide military
training to tertiary level students in order to motivate, train, organize and mobilize them for national
defence preparedness.
b. LTS- is a program designed to train students to become teachers of literacy and numeracy skills to school
children, out of school youth, and other segments of society in need of their service.
c. CWTS- refers to program or activities contributory to the general welfare and the betterment of life for the
members of the community or the enhancement of its facilities, especially those developed to improving
health, education, environment, entrepreneurship, safety, recreation, and morals of the citizenry.
The CAT and NSTP are service learning courses that help engage students with their communities. Through such
programs, students are not viewed as “future citizens,” but are rather considered as “citizens of today” who can
make significant contributions to their communities in the present.

Social Change
Social change refers to the alteration of social interactions, institutions, stratification systems, and elements
of culture over time. It could be manifested in the rise and fall of civilizations, changes in the function of
institutions, changes in the statuses and roles of people in society, changes in the structure and size of
families, and so on. Social change can be micro (subtle in daily social interactions) or macro (gradual
transformation that occurs on a wide scale which affects different aspects of society).
Social change is brought by different factors which could be internal or external. Internal factors are
differences that occur in the norms, values, and beliefs of people from different ages, gender, social class, caste,
psychosocial characteristics, ethnicity, and race. These often produce tension and conflict that lead to social change.

BCT LEARNING MODULES S.Y. 2020-2021 3

On the other hand, external factors, which are beyond human control, could be demographic, cultural, political, and
economic. The external factors are further explained in the following:
1. Demographic Factors. These refer to changes that occur in the number and composition of people in the
community brought about by variations in fertility rates, mortality rates, and migration rates.
2. Cultural factors. These refer to changes that occur in the elements of culture (symbols and language, norms,
values and beliefs, rituals, and artifacts) due to cultural diffusion, fission, and convergence. Cultural
diffusion refers to the spread of culture from one region to the other. Cultural Fission, on the other hand, is
the breaking up of culture into two or more independent units from a cultural origin. Finally, cultural
convergence is the fusion of two or more cultures into a new one, which is somewhat different from its
predecessors.
3. Political factors. These refer to changes that occur in the political structure and system of society due to
either reformist or radical approaches. Reformist approaches could be in the form of lobbying, creating and
implementing new laws, replacing persons in authority through elections, or creating new spheres of
influence to balance or shift centers of power. On the other hand, radical approaches are done through
revolutions (replacing people of authority by overthrowing them from their position against their will) or
war (fighting to death to compete over resources and/or outing a certain ideology into place).
4. Economic factors. These refer to changes that occur in the economic structure and system of society due to
modernization. Modernization is the transformation from traditional, rural, agrarian society to a secular,
urban, industrial society. The main element in modernization is industrialization, which is characterized by
an intensive use of machines and various forms of technology to manufacture goods and services previously
done manually by people. Industrialization then ushers urbanization, which is characterized by an increased
migration of people to urban areas or cities to find settlement and to work in manufacturing industries (car
factories, food and beverage factories, clothing factories, etc.), service industries (car centers, hospitals,
banks, etc.), and high-tech industries (research and development companies). The combination of
industrialization and urbanization bring forth secularization where religion significantly loses social and
cultural significance over the lives of people.
Theories on Social Change
1. Evolutionary- in this theory, communities are seen to go through a series of linear stages from simple to
complex, all geared toward a higher and more advanced stage of existence.
2. Cyclical- this theory presupposes that communities undergo a cycle of birth, maturity, decline, and death,
and that they undergo stages of ideational, idealistic, and sensate culture.
3. Functional- this theory presents that communities always operate on equilibrium where the social, cultural,
political, and economic structures of the community produce order, stability, and productivity.
4. Conflict- this theory explains that changes take place due to conflicts that occur in societies. Conflict arises
because of unequal relations among people on the basis of class, gender, age, race, and ethnicity.
5. Symbolic Interactionism- this theory argues that people in society continuously interact with one another,
and it is through this interaction that they are able to construct and alter existing social, cultural, political,
and economic structures. This means that it is up to the people if they want change because they are the
ones who create the structures and institutions that govern them.

ASSIGNMENT:
Which among the five theories of social change do you think is the truest in the society you live in? Explain your
answer for 20pts.
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REFERENCES:
Diana J. Mendoza, PhD and Ma. Lourdes F. Melegrito, PhD Cand.; Ronaldo B. Mactal, PhD. Community Engagement,
Solidarity, and Citizenship (The Padayon Series). https://h.phoenix.com.ph/senior_high/zeal-for-action-community-
engagement-solidarity-and-citizenship-the-padayon-series/

Prepared by: Necie Mae M. Agana/Jessa S. Gonzales

EVALUATION/ASSESSMENT/PERFORMANCE TASK:

BCT LEARNING MODULES S.Y. 2020-2021 4

DATE SUBMITTED:
NAME OF STUDENT:
STRAND:
MODULE NUMBER: 3

Instructions: Draw your own understanding about Community Engagement.

Criteria:
Content-25
Creativity-15

BCT LEARNING MODULES S.Y. 2020-2021 5