Article | Open Access
Cross-Cultural Collaborative Learning and Regional Revitalization: A Taiwan–Japan Case Study
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Abstract: This study examines how short-term, cross-cultural experiential programs support sustainability learning in higher education. The focus is on a case analysis of two Taiwan–Japan regional revitalization workshops held in 2024 and 2025. This research uses a qualitative-dominant mixed-methods design. Methods used include interviews, participant observation, instructor reflections, course artifacts, and post-program surveys. This research investigates how Taiwanese and Japanese students interpret local issues, negotiate intercultural collaboration, and develop practical, feasibility-oriented thinking during field immersion. Findings show that students deepened their understanding of sustainability by comparing revitalization contexts in both countries. The study recognizes how demographic trends, cultural identity, and institutional histories shape community development. Both groups improved their intercultural communication skills. Students learned to adjust language use, manage differing teamwork norms, and navigate trilingual communication. Field engagement strengthened the students’ sense of place and improved their ability to assess community needs and the proposal’s feasibility. Instructor reflections revealed the challenges of cross-cultural facilitation, such as language imbalance and varied student preparedness. The reflections also underscore the value of long-term institutional partnerships for meaningful engagement. This study contributes to sustainability education research by illustrating how comparative, community-based immersion can cultivate action competence, ethical awareness, and cross-cultural understanding within international higher education.
Keywords: cross-cultural experiential learning; intercultural communication; regional revitalization; sustainability education; university social responsibility
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© Hsiao-Chien Lee, Shingo Akaike, Yi-Juen Chen, Yi Tsai, Ay-Ling Huang, Kenji Okamura, Wen-Hong Liu. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction of the work without further permission provided the original author(s) and source are credited.