Posters (Asynchronous Session)
Rival Narratives : How the Diné and the U.S. Federal Government “Story” COVID-19 in Navajoland View Digital Media
Poster Session Jennifer Bess
Through the lens provided by Sara Cobb’s framework of rival narratives, this study contrasts Navajo (Diné) stories of COVID-19 with the federal government’s story of its service to the Navajo Nation during the pandemic. From a Diné perspective, COVID-19 is not a novel phenomenon, but another chapter in a 500-year history wherein smallpox, the 1918 influenza, and H1N1 have decimated Indigenous peoples, the latter two cases proving four to six times deadlier to the Diné than to the U.S population, respectively. Since the Navajo Nation’s COVID-19 infection rate exceeded that of New York in May, 2020, their story has taken on characteristics of a ruptured narrative. Broken by expressions of anguish and tears, individual stories shared via local and national media exemplify the impact of collective violence and trauma so deep as to rupture narrative structure and reflect the lack of agency experienced by the storytellers. In contrast, the federal government’s story of the pandemic recognizes only tacitly the that continuum liking settler-colonialism to globalization has made the Diné vulnerable to disease and, instead, centers on its own agency. The White House celebrates the CARE Act’s allocations for Native peoples and the coordinated response of federal departments, forecasting an epic victory in Navajoland. To what extent will the two narratives merge? In the course of the pandemic, will the federal government adopt a bridging narrative born of genuine reckoning? Or will marginalization and a failure in pluralism prevail in the form of two incompatible narratives?
Tax Exemptions of Cooperatives in the Philippines and in Other Countries: A Comparative Study View Digital Media
Poster Session Belinda S. Mandigma
The Cooperative Development Authority of the Philippines Chairman, Usec. Orlando R. Ravanera, declared that since the founding of the Rochdale Cooperative in England in 1884, different countries have adopted the cooperative form of organization that resulted in significant economic gains and social development. However, to facilitate cooperative activities, laws must provide tax exemptions to cooperatives. Scholars like Bundang claimed that tax exemptions of cooperatives must be strengthened to promote self-reliance among the members and to enable them to harness their capabilities towards the attainment of economic development and social justice. In view of the foregoing, it is worth exploring the tax exemptions of cooperatives in some countries to determine if different governments recognize the importance of these exemptions in cooperatives’ growth. The study will use systematic integrative literature review of documents that would be searched from databases such as Google scholar and JSTOR. Findings in this research could offer policy makers, especially those in the Philippine Congress, insights on the importance of cooperatives as partners in community and nation-building by different governments across the globe. Thus, to appreciate the role of cooperatives to the Philippine economy, especially during this COVID 19 pandemic, the two provisions in the Philippine Cooperative Code of 2008 that provide for the tax exemption and tax treatment of cooperatives are hopefully not repealed.
Impact of Service Learning on the Intercultural Competence of Pre-service Teachers View Digital Media
Poster Session Elizabeth Sandell, Lauren Lindmeier
Service-Learning expands domains of practice across the community and supports the development of culturally responsive practice among pre-service teachers. This study examined Intercultural Competence (ICC) among a group of university undergraduate students in the College of Education who participated in a course (Human Relations in a Multicultural Society) that required completion of 18 hours of service learning. For purposes of this project, ICC was defined as the capacity to gracefully adapt one’s behavior in order to interact well with people from a different culture. Service learning was broadly defined as learning through active participation in thoughtfully organized community service projects that are integrated into the academic curriculum. This study focused on the research question: How does the intercultural competency of pre-service teachers change after participating in service learning in the teacher preparation program? The methodology included a mixed-methods approach. Investigators analyzed archived quantitative data from 2016 - 2019. A survey, Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) (Hammer, 2003), was used before and after service learning. Results indicate that service learning experiences during teacher preparation have a positive impact on the ICC of undergraduate students. Investigators expect the project results will support future policies, curricula, and coursework on diversity and inclusion, multiculturalism, and intercultural competence for teacher education programs.
