Vol. 8 No. 1 (2025)

This journal issue offers a rich collection of multidisciplinary research, reflecting pressing concerns in economics, education, and community development. It begins with a study on the stock market awareness of college students at Pangasinan State University, underscoring the role of financial literacy in shaping informed investment decisions among future members of the workforce. Extending into community engagement, another paper examines cooperative awareness among stakeholders in Lingayen, Pangasinan, highlighting gaps in knowledge and proposing a training extension manual to strengthen grassroots economic participation. The issue then turns to an international perspective through an integrative review of Japan’s enduring English proficiency crisis, uncovering how entrenched grammar-translation pedagogy, weak classroom reforms, and native-speaker ideologies limit communicative competence despite decades of national initiatives. This work provides comparative insights into how cultural, structural, and pedagogical factors intersect to shape educational outcomes. Collectively, these contributions demonstrate the journal’s commitment to bridging local and global concerns. From the financial preparedness of Filipino students, to the cooperative movement’s role in community empowerment, and to the broader challenges of language education reform in Asia, this issue captures the complexity of social and educational systems. By weaving together research grounded in both quantitative data and integrative reviews, it offers actionable insights for policymakers, educators, and community leaders. Ultimately, the compilation reinforces the value of multidisciplinary inquiry in addressing economic development, education reform, and cultural transformation.