BREEDING GROUND The Social Sciences and its Role in the Development of Student Activism

Abstract

The researcher purposively chose student activism as the general topic of the study. Being a student activist himself, he hoped that this undergraduate thesis would yield significant insights on the development and improvement of the progressive student movement in the University of the Philippines Manila. In deciding the specific focus of the study, the impact of the social sciences department in raising student activism, the researcher intended to identify the potential of the faculty-student relationship in advancing the national democratic struggle within the campus. The research started by tracing the history of the radical student-faculty struggle in the University of the Philippines. With this, the researcher gained important knowledge of the dynamism between the students and their faculty in carrying-out the objectives of the progressive movement during the height of radical protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s. These facts are vital information for the comparative assessment of the current state of student activism. Evaluation of the present impact of the faculty in student activism was done through a series of surveys conducted among junior and senior students of the Department of Social Sciences, as well as with leading members of national democratic mass organizations coming from the same department. The researcher learned of the distinct degrees of effectiveness, with respect to raising activism, found in different academic and social components of the department. In addition, the evaluation also delved into the personal background of the student respondents, clearly differentiated its impact with that of the social sciences, and comparatively assessed their role in developing activist potentials of a particular individual. The faculty component of the study was a vital part in probing the tendency of the social sciences to incline their students to activism, if there is such. The comprehensive investigation of the dynamics within the department was done through interviews involving the department head and representative faculty members from each of its degree programs. With this, the study acquired understanding of the structure, culture, academic processes, and socio-political nature of the department, the individual and general standpoint of its faculty, and their impact on radical student activism. The results derived from these various investigations provided an objective assessment of the political science notion that students from the social sciences, who are required to achieve insights on the system, are the first to rebel against the system itself The researcher, among other considerations, conceptualized on the topic of social sciences, impact on student activism with the aim of confirming the relevance o f this statement in the contemporary period. Upholding the people's democratic rights and welfare has been the advocacy of the researcher, thus his active participation in the advancement of the national democratic struggle. With the accomplishment of this study, the researcher aims to deliver significant insights that may serve as aid in the strengthening of the radical student movement in the university, towards the fulfillment of a genuine social change.