Exploring the Lives of Marginal Groups in the Community: Subjective Experience and Public Response

Abstract

This project involves a wide range of teaching and learning activities aiming to develop a set of education materials complementing three core courses of the programme of Bachelor of Social Sciences in Applied Sociology (BSSAS), namely, SS3428 Applied Qualitative Research Methods (2012-13 Sem B), SS3427 Professional Internship in Applied Sociology (2012-13 Summer), and SS3418 Public Opinion Polling (2013-14 Sem A). Through active participative learning strategies, around 40 Year-two BSSAS students (3 year programme) will be involved with 8 local NGOs and 9 types of marginal groups in the community context of Hong Kong. Through guest lectures, community visits, social programmes and evaluations, in-depth interviews, and opinion polls, student participants will be able to 1) explore the experience of the chosen marginal groups; 2) conduct pertinent sociological and/or policy investigations; 3) solicit public opinions on the experience marginality in question; 4) articulate recommendations to ameliorate the situations of marginal peoples; and 5) disseminate newly discovered ideas and findings to wider society. Deliverables include 9 reports on the chosen marginal groups based on qualitative methods, 8 internship reports on the participating NGOs, 1 report based on the findings of the opinion polling, and a printed (and on-line) newsletter summarizing newly discovered ideas and findings to the university community, participating NGOs, and the media (e.g., press and TV). Feedbacks from the student and NGO participants will be collected as evidences of the effectiveness of the project.