Chapter 4The development of civic values: case study of Taiwan
Section snippets
Policies and intentions
The MOE decides all matters pertaining to school subjects, including goals, objectives, curriculum patterns, and instructional guidelines. The current civic education curriculum for junior high school follows the 1994 national curriculum standards, which associate two subjects — Civics and Morality, and Understanding Taiwan — with civic education.
In addition, the MOE and Ministry of Justice issued law-related education guidelines in 1997 because of the increasing problem of juvenile delinquency
Curriculum provision
Formal and informal civic learning permeates junior high school students’ life. The educational experiences seem to be structured with an intention to achieve moral autonomy by interweaving school activities with discipline and attachment to social groups. Table 3 summarizes the nature of the provision in each of the schools.
Perspectives on implementation
The principals, selected teachers, and selected students of each school were asked about the implementation of the civic education curriculum. Selected responses are presented and discussed in this section. The discussion is organized around the three case study schools.
Summary and conclusions
Table 4 summarizes the similarities and differences across the schools as well as the continuities and discontinuities between the perspectives of the participants. Because of the national curriculum policy, the aims and approaches to civic education are very specific and prescriptive. There was a strong continuity between national policy and school curriculum provisions. Formal and informal civic learning permeates junior high school students’ life. The educational experiences seem to be
Mei-hui Liu, Professor, Graduate Institute of Multicultural Education, National Hualien Teachers College, Hualien, Taiwan. She is a widely known specialist in civics and multicultural education in Taiwan. She has made numerous presentations at international conferences on her work in addition to her publications.
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Cited by (3)
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2012, Teaching and Teacher EducationCitation Excerpt :Degrees of avoiding discussions on politics and history have also been found in cases in Rwanda, Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina (Weinstein et al., 2007) and Northern Ireland (Donnelly, 2004). It is important to note that avoidance of controversial issues is also found in more stable societies such as Taiwan (Liu, 2001) and Australia (Dunkin, Welch, Merritt, Phillips, & Craven, 1998) and even across disciplines like when teaching certain topics in UK science classrooms (Oulton, Day, Dillon, & Grace, 2004). Intentionally keeping controversial issues away from classroom learning experiences is a global concern.
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Mei-hui Liu, Professor, Graduate Institute of Multicultural Education, National Hualien Teachers College, Hualien, Taiwan. She is a widely known specialist in civics and multicultural education in Taiwan. She has made numerous presentations at international conferences on her work in addition to her publications.