Understanding Education Issues in Taiwan and Rethinking How Teachers “Learn to Lead” (I)

@University of Turku, Educational leadership, management, and administration.

This article offers a broader understanding of the image of education in Taiwan after the education reform in the 1990s and how teachers learning to understand “teaching as leadership”. First dealing with historical context, political situation, the changing social value toward education, and the complexity of curriculum, education reform is political in the Taiwanese context. In the face of challenges and problems, strategies have been taken in both alternative and mainstream approaches, trying to improve social equity student’s well being and national competitiveness. However, new strategies can always come with new problems and resistance. Hence, understanding education reform in a bottom-up trajectory and structural perspective is essential. We will later discuss how Taiwanese educators respond to the challenges brought by lower birth rate, globalization and digitalization, and the new curriculum in both mainstream and alternative ways. By the end, the article Introduces two alternative teacher training programs in Taiwan endeavouring to offer diverse but equal education. Also mentioned how youth startups/ organizations respond to education issues and raise social awareness of lifelong learning innovatively. In conclusion, a call for a more inclusive and multicultural sensitive teacher leadership training framework is proposed.

Keywords: public education; alternative teacher training program; leadership; educational entrepreneurship

01 Preface: Taiwanese education system and society in a nutshell

Located in East Asia, Taiwan is a country boasts a population of 23.78 million people living in 36,193 square kilometres islands. Due to geographical politics, Taiwan has highly complicated historical relations with Japan and China. In the field of education, for instance, the modern education system was first introduced to Taiwan as a six-year primary school during the Japanese colony (1895–1945). After the Republic of China government’s (KMT) takeover in 1945 and retreated from “the Mainland” in 1949 due to the loss of civil war with the Chinese Communist Party, education was once a political tool of nationalism and anti-communism. In 1968, to raise people’s education/ literacy level and offer a high-quality workforce for economic development, the basic compulsory education was extended to nine years.

Educational Reform: from monotonous to diverse

Before the abolition of the Martial Law period (1949–1987), the national curriculum was highly centralized and it delivered anti-communist ideology. Dialects such as Taiwanese, Hakka, and indigenous languages were forbidden to speak in school life, only Mandarin as “national language” was allowed. At that time, other languages and cultures which are different from Chinese Mandarin were oppressed and the relationship between teachers and students was hierarchical.

The abolishment of the Martial Law in 1987 ensures everyone’s basic civil rights such as freedom speech, assembly, and press. It triggered a thriving process of political democratization, protests almost happened every week calling for diverse issues such as indigenous rights, women rights, environmental conservation, and education reform. On the education reform movement in 1995, the school system, curriculum, and high school/ college entrance exam system were all harshly criticized. The public appealed for four requirements including (1) realising smaller schools and classes (2) building high schools and colleges widely (3) push for the modernization of education and (4) establishing the Educational Fundamental Act, requiring the government to put more emphasis on multiculturalism, relieve the burden of students, and reverse the over-competitive school culture.

Social value toward education and its derivative problems

Although education reforms have been implemented for over 20 years, the social value of academic performance and the family’s expectation still play crucial roles when we try to understand education in Taiwan. In 2018, a novel-based TV series On Children which inspired by the poem of Kahlil Gibran uses sci-fi ironic scenario to refer the absurd phenomenon of education and the mindset of Taiwanese parenting- a “good” child should always obey the expectation of his/her parents without “letting them down”. This six-episode series successfully provoked intense public discussion about modern education problems such as students wellbeing and reflect on “diplomaism”. Indeed, with the influence of Confucianism — the ideology that celebrated by the KMT government — and the eager of improving family life, academic performance was (or is) highly emphasized in Taiwanese society. These two factors may explain why the teacher is a highly respected profession (although once decreased due to the first education reform) in Taiwan. Rich families regard education as a tool to strengthen their social status and often interfere with students’ development regardless of their talents; whereas underprivileged families struggle to provide their children’s opportunities for learning yet lacking spared time to accompany children’s development. However, one thing in common is, they both consider education a utilitarianism tool for social mobility yet have narrow imagination of the path of students’ development, and seldom see education as a process of holistic development.

Curriculum: a battlefield of ideologies

Teaching and learning framework in Taiwan is centralized as national curriculum. The curriculum is decided and revised by scholars, teachers, and parents representatives in the Ministry of Education basically every decade. However, due to different perspectives of history, ideologies,and national identities , national curriculum is always a highly debated area of education. For instance, in Chinese (the official language) and History, to what percentage of Mainland China’s knowledge and Taiwan’s local knowledge such as literature and historical events should be represented in textbooks. What can be included and what should be excluded were highly depended on the political atmosphere of the period and curriculum could usually end up with political problems. Nevertheless, students’ opinions and voices were seldom discussed/ considered in the process of creating/ revising the curriculum. In 2015, in order to protest that Ministry of Education’s trying to “slightly revise” the national curriculum -especially in the subjects of Chinese and History- with more knowledge and interpretation which were based on Mainland China (before 1949) experiences, and also a lack of students representative in the curriculum committee, a demonstration held by high school students burst out. In the end, the curriculum was reorganized by the new government in 2016. And the implementation of the new curriculum was forced to postpone a year which was officially on board in September 2019.

02 What strategies have been implemented so far?

With the context of Taiwanese history and education phenomenon, in this chapter, we will further understand what strategies have been taken to improve education and society in both mainstream and alternative paradigms. Moreover, with the challenge the low birth rate, the paradigms started to dialogue. Hence, the interplay between alternative education and mainstream/ public education can be found in recent education policies and school practices.

“Escaping school” — The Development of experimental education in Taiwan

Alternative education, also known as “experimental education” in Taiwan, plays a critical role in the process of education movements and reforms. “If the public school system work like an elephant and couldn’t satisfy our needs, then we build our schools.“ In 1990, the first alternative school based on the holistic philosophy of education was established in Taiwan. However, at that time, alternative schools are not recognized by the government and had been seen as illegal. However, with the dynamic education movement in the 1990s, alternative methods gained more attention by the society and since then has been regarded as an “escaping option” by those parents eager to have their children free from the “harm” of the mainstream school system, which was dominated by exams and grades. During the decade, a variety of alternative pedagogies were introduced and developed in Taiwan, such as Steiner Waldorf schools, Montessori schools, and democratic schools. Meanwhile, homeschooling has been more visible.

In the 2000’s, due to the challenge of low birth rate, public schools are (to some extent) forced to transform to attract students, especially in remote areas. This challenge offered an opportunity for some public schools to embrace the philosophy and practice of alternative/ experimental pedagogies. The year of 2014 is a significant milestone for experimental education in Taiwan. The Three Types of Experimental Education Act were passed in the Legislative Yuan (the parliament) and these bills ensure rights for students and families to choose their ideals suitable education with public resources. Meaning the public/ mainstream system embraces alternative approaches and welcomes more interaction and collaboration. Experimental education has no longer been “extra-governmental education” and is recognized by the government. By 2017, over 57 experimental schools are thriving throughout Taiwan.

New Competence-based Curriculum

In the public education system, in response to the call of more individualized learning, student-oriented learning, authentic learning and the challenge of low birth rate and experimental education, curriculum reforms had been discussed and implemented. The newest curriculum is called “Empower Each Child Curriculum” or “108 curriculum”. The curriculum refers to UNESCO, OECD, EU education hardcore and global education trends including Finnish experience, was designed with the framework of 12 years of basic education.

The “Empower each child” curriculum endeavours to nurture individual potential and facilitating lifelong learning. Emphasizing on learning in authentic life context, the new curriculum expects future citizens equipped with abilities and knowledge to solve real-life problems, hence also known as “competency-based learning curriculum”. The hardcore of the curriculum includes 3 dimensions and 9 core competencies as below and diagram 1.

1. Self-directed Action: Physical/ mental wellness. Self-Advancement. Logical thinking and Problem-Solving skills. Planning, implementation, and creative responses.

2. Communication and Interaction: Semiotics and Expression. Information & Technology Literacy and Media Literacy. Artistic Appreciation and Aesthetic Literacy.

3. Social Participation: Moral Practice and Citizenship. Interpersonal Relationship and Teamwork/ Collaboration. Cultural and Global Understanding.

Diagram 1. The framework of Competence-based Curriculum (National Academy for Educational Research, 2017)