A Duoethnography of Planning and Developing a Digital Storytelling Service-Learning Subject during Covid-19 Pandemic

This paper aims to highlight the important episodes of planning and developing a service- learning subject regarding digital storytelling and serving refugee children in Hong Kong, under the socio-cultural context mainly marked by the Covid-19 pandemic. Adopting the approach of duoethnography, narratives generated by the subject developers (i.e. the authors) during the stages of subject development were analysed. The narratives were supported primarily by communications from three sources: (i) the academic partners (i.e. the academic division’s subject development team, CPCE Taskforce for Service-Learning Subjects, and PolyU’s Service-Learning and Leadership Office) (ii) the community partner (Centre for Refugees, Christian Action) and (iii) the digital stories from the students and service recipients, the major assessed outcome of the subject. Initial findings suggest the importance of establishing strong trust with the community partner, identifying their needs prior to the subject planning, and adopting a “teacher entrepreneurship” mindset to temporarily shift subject developers’ attention towards the service “clients”. The findings may provide insights into how academic knowledge are recontextualised into practical knowledge, so that students can learn more deeply through service experience alongside the subject’s academic focus.