U.P. Beta Sigma Fraternity of Southern California

Dr. Joe Lalas: The Visiting Professor

Brod Joe, UPD'69C

A letter to all my Beta Sigma Brothers.

This is a chronicle of my trip to the Philippines where I spent one-semester of academic sabbatical leave during the Spring of 2025. That’s my intention but writing is such a recursive process that it took a little sociocultural detour somehow which I think is more interesting than just a series of dates and activities. Here in this letter, I share my observations and experiences in the field of education in particular, and more broadly, about my glimpse of the social, cultural, some economic, and even, the political conditions there, not about partisan politics and political corruption but more on how I affirm or contest the current national narratives as I view them from my own personal values and principles. Most of you may, may have observed it, or may not know it, that I wear a critical set of lenses when I view the world and when I interact with people around me in various situations. Admitting it with humility, I have a critical mind and I use critical pedagogy in my teaching and professional development engagements. When Brod Randy Malayao, a peace negotiator, activist, and a public intellectual was murdered inside the bus on his way to his hometown, I honored him by memorializing him in the introduction of my book chapter on Criticality Across Topics: Making Classrooms as Democratic Spaces for Teachers as Cultural Workers (Martial Conversations in the Philippines (from Lalas & Strikwerda, 2021, Minding the Marginalized Students Through Inclusion, Justice, and Hope: Daring to Transform Educational Inequities).

Please hear me out as I make this point to all of us young-at-hearts and senior citizens in my letter. There’s so much each of us can contribute, even for a little bit, to improve the lives of people, young professionals, young students, and children including the traditionally marginalized people in our country. Contributions not just in terms of money and resources but our experiences that give us or have given us the expertise at certain fields. I learned about this very quickly! That even though I am a very retireable person in my age of 74, I can still give back to our country the knowledge and expertise I gained in the United States through my own hard struggle with sweat, tears, and sacrifices here when I started. Forever Young, Brothers. We just need to set a mission that we can do realistically, either individually or in groups!

Starting my adventure in the Philippines was a surprise dinner at Aristocrat with my high school friends just immediately after getting out of the Manila airport. Then, we had coffee and dessert at the historic Manila Hotel built in 1912.

For this sabbatical, I promised myself to listen more, re-learn, re-connect, and enjoy the experience. However, this mindset did not happen. I was to spend my whole sabbatical at Southern Luzon State University, located in Lucban, Quezon. I chose it because it’s my wife Linda’s hometown. But first I got invited in UP Diliman College of Education to do one afternoon session as a guest speaker to talk about Critical Race Theory (CRT), the focus of my book that was published in 2024. It is a controversial topic and I would say that with the U.S. stance on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), it is banned here. But we’re in UP Diliman, the hotbed of progressive ideas! It was a full-house/theater lecture on CRT with emphasis on its historical context, educational principles, and use of critical thinking in understanding the true useful meaningful application of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and social justice in K-16 inclusive education. The question and answer portion was alive with many questions raised and addressed. Thank you UP College of Education.

A few weeks after that, I commuted back to UP Diliman from Lucban to do a presentation on Critical Literacy in the Content Area on March 18 and on March 19, I was invited as a keynote speaker in the University of Santo Tomas to present my research on Critical Hope as a Vehicle for Equity.

Brods, you noticed that from my book chapter memorializing Brod Randy, there’s always the term “critical.” From my UP and UST presentations, invitations for me to be a keynote speaker or featured speaker started coming in. I was featured speaker at Sorsogon State University and University of Southern Mindanao and keynote speaker at Visayas State University. Aside from a critical point of view in teaching, I love sharing my work that has emphasized how social-educational justice drives the curriculum and instruction for ALL learners, regardless of their race, gender, ethnicity, religion, language, ability/disability, sexual orientation, social class, and citizenship status. The university professors, classroom teachers and administrators enjoyed it when as part of the seminar-workshop, I guided them in doing group demonstration on how an uncomplicated story can be used as a way of teaching complicated notion such as social justice through forming images based on prior experiences, literal and inferential comprehension, and enhancing engagement through sense of belonging, autonomy, and competence.

In particular, I had an amazing lecture-workshop event at the University of Southern Mindanao! The enthusiasm of the audience was contagious and inspiring. I also got blessed with more friends who are committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. I enjoyed the loving company and friendship of individuals who speak and belong to Tiboli, Maguindanao, Tausug, Iranon, Obo Manobo, and many other individuals who speak Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Visaya, Tagalog, Cebuano, and many others.

In my Sabbatical - Southern Luzon State University

I did a variety of sessions here as featured speaker and most of the time the keynote. I did some 6 – 7 big events for its faculty, mostly on research involving social justice and literacy development for children. I was very happy here contributing whatever I can to engage and inspire graduate students, faculty, and teachers to be confident in doing action research to benefit student learning. I also explored the “science of reading” and the history of pendulum swing in teaching reading. I shared with the faculty the different types of literacy pedagogies such the didactic, authentic, functional, and critical literacy way of teaching reading.

It was in the news in the Philippines that 18 million and more of high school graduates cannot read or do not have functional literacy. I covered this topic with the SLSU faculty. That teaching phonics is essential, but so is reading comprehension! In Philippine context, I emphasized that FUNCTIONAL LITERACY among students will be better facilitated by employing both approaches including reading-writing connection, motivation, engagement, and awareness of the students’ social, cultural, economic, and ability/disability backgrounds and other categories of difference. As one of my ways of thanking SLSU, I offered the services of my UP friends and colleagues - Dr. Dina Ocampo, former undersecretary of education and two of my former students who are now UP education professors, Dr. Maita Salvador and Dr. Grace Reoperez.

Other Beautiful Experiences; Some Sad But Hopeful

I was there as a bystander witnessing the election at one local precinct last May 2025. People poured in to vote and practice their democratic rights - wishing, wishing, just wishing and praying the best they can for a better tomorrow. I saw weak elderly voters held by families to be able to walk or on wheelchairs. I saw voters in long lines in their casual home shirts or plain home dresses wearing slippers and ordinary footwears fighting the big crowds for a space to walk and cast their votes. Democracy in action. Hope!!!! I wished quietly that Filipinos will vote for candidates who are strong EDUCATION advocates. Specifically, those who understand who our diverse Filipino learners really are, how to recognize their needs, how to value them regardless of their social, economic, and cultural backgrounds and identities, how to motivate them, and how to engage them to become critical thinkers.

In Lucban, I walked everyday early in the morning. Although I speak the language, born and raised as a Tagalog speaker, being away as a resident of the Philippines for over 50 years can be quite a challenge because the “cultural capital” has changed - norms, tricycle as mode of transportation, overcrowding, booming restaurants and local eateries, styles of casual attires, coffee shops, and this particular town has transformed into metropolitan-like center with a huge State University with over 10,000 students! I love the afternoon and early evening walks and “people watching” because of the cool weather. It’s different and exciting!

In Rosario, Cavite, when I commuted to this town where I was born and raised, the changes were overwhelming. While riding the commuter bus, I saw poverty as shown by families in squatter areas with homes situated in the dirty water. Regardless, as I viewed the bay couldn’t help but admire it and thought to myself that while I saw many changes, its natural beauty and splendor are still evident. While I was enjoying my stay in the Philippines very much, I felt homesick at times on my bus ride as I miss all my connections and relationships in my sunny California community.

One Sunday morning, I choked up and cried silently on my walk home. After nearly 50 years of not walking the neighborhood where I was born and raised, I witnessed amazingly overwhelming changes, very difficult and even, emotional for me to describe! Chatted with a couple of older folks who I still recognized by really trying hard and both thought I was one of my older brothers and named/called me with my brother’s name. But I’m glad also that I was able to establish some surprising friendship with a tricycle driver and two 2nd and 3rd graders. Lito, the tricycle driver, 64 years old, of a very, very old unmotorized pedicab. I gave him my cold bottle of mineral water and a handful of my coins that I didn’t bother to count (at least 50 - 60 pesos). Willingly he gladly gave me permission to take a picture of him and we did a selfie as well. Then, I met these two boys: Jerwin (a third grader) and JR (a second grader). Jerwin sells peche-peche, a dessert, after school and asks for loose change while opening the door of McDonald restaurant. He said his classmates know that he begs for money. On the other hand, JR doesn’t go to school anymore. He said his teacher dropped him from the list because of bad attitude and absences. A second grader drop-out?? Admittedly, he said he steals food at a local grocery store with an older boy named James. After talking to them and giving them some advice, I treated them with a chicken McDonald burger meal! JR said he’s full after eating 5 peche-peche that I offered him earlier. But still Jerwin shared his chicken burger with JR and also saved a piece for her sister at home. I cried silently on my walk home. The house where I grew up is colored yellow and the Lalas family and oldest brother own the apartment in pink in the same Lalas family compound. I miss this place so much.

To conclude my Brothers, when we do re-immersion, we will be seeing two worlds from a dual set of lenses! Regardless of where you live, a powerful reminder of how beautiful this diverse world is and how beautiful our country the Philippines is. No culture is better than another or no country, however militarily equipped and economically affluent, one country must not subordinate and have control over other nations. We are sharing this world and let’s all be thankful. We may be aging but it’s never too late to be productive and do something good to make this world a better place. Many changes are happening around us in the U.S. I’m sure we still have some strength remaining, physically and mentally, to commit to social justice and anti-subordination stance just like how we walked as Betan Giants in Diliman and other UP campuses.

Sincerely,
Joe Lalas 69C