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 Community-Based Global Learning Collaborative.
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’s 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.”