Baligtarin Mo! Overview

Baligtarin Mo! originated as an offshoot of a partnership in 2022 between the ASEAN University Network on Ecological Education and Culture (AUN-EEC), housed at the Ateneo Institute of Sustainability (AIS), and the Turn It Around! Flashcards for Education Futures (TIA), hosted by the Arizona State University and Artists Literacies Program. In this partnership, AUN-EEC and TIA produced a Southeast Asian collection of Turn It Around! cards, providing a platform for Southeast Asian youth to voice out their connections with, understandings of, and aspirations for the environment against the backdrop of the looming global climate crisis. The final AUN-EEC collection was published in the TIA website last May 2023 and is available online for public viewing.

Inspired by the volume and diversity of submissions from youth across the region, the AUN-EEC Secretariat decided to launch Baligtarin Mo!, a Filipino adaptation of Turn It Around!, with a recognition of how the country’s unique cultural, political, and ecological contexts may permeate into the Filipino youth’s relationship with the environment. In addition to continued collaboration with the Turn It Around! team, Baligtarin Mo! also receives support as a recipient of the 2023 Sandbox Residency Grant from Arete Ateneo.

In the spirit of instilling the reality of climate change with an unassailable shield of objectivity, there has been a prevailing inclination to present the issue under a technical  frame, particularly in academic circles. The drawback of sole reliance on this approach, however, is the threat of further desensitization and distancing from the urgency and proximity of the issue for the larger public. With this in mind, Baligtarin Mo! hopes to innovate climate education by employing two experimental pedagogies: experiential learning and artistic expression.

• Experiential Learning
  Unlike previous iterations of TIA, Baligtarin Mo! does not collect outputs through an open call for submissions. Instead, submissions are sourced from participants who first undergo an immersive learning experience conducted by a Baligtarin Mo! partner institution. These learning opportunities intend to expose participants to environmental realities, and in effect, allow for experience to be the starting point for more personal reflections, nuanced understandings, and grounded imaginations. 
   
• Artistic Expression
  Baligtarin Mo! seeks to take advantage of the role that arts has in improving communication of scientific topics by making information more accessible and utilizable across diverse contexts. Once participants have undergone their learning experience, they shall create an artwork and/or written prose based on provided prompts. It should be noted that artworks/outputs of any medium, and not just 2D digital/printed creations, shall be accepted in Baligtarin Mo!

It is the hope that Baligtarin Mo! will not only serve as a platform to facilitate meaningful experience, reflection, and expression for the participating youth, but that there may also be a cascade of impact for all those who view the collection, be it a policymaker, an educator, and even a fellow youth. In tune with the project’s name, Baligtarin Mo! believes that by turning around hierarchical structures of teaching, and unimodal approaches to ecological education, it shall also be possible for people to reconcile with the environment and ultimately turn around the trajectory of our home planet. 

Should you be interested in submitting an output for Baligtarin Mo!, kindly refer to the project mechanics on how to participate.