Finding a Way Forward for Education in Taiwan

More than ten years ago I wrote my first academic paper on education, analyzing the impact of government regulations on schools’ freedom to teach, and presented it at a national conference. Later, a series of studies I did on the legality of religious education under Taiwan’s regulatory framework were published in the Journal of World Religions and were used in the textbook research program of the National Institute for Compilation and Translation. Building on that comprehensive discussion and analysis of educational freedom and content, and of their limits both inside and outside Taiwan’s education system, the issue of finding a way forward for education in Taiwan became one of the main themes of my subsequent writing on education.

As educationalist Sir Michael Sadler (1861-1943) said, “The things outside the schools matter even more than the things inside the schools.” With the impact of globalization and homogenization, the nature, methods, role, and orientation of education are changing. Schools no longer emphasize the mere transmission of knowledge, but embrace all-round engagement with one’s own culture, environmental issues, and the use of technology. This is because the future challenges that students face will come from around the globe, but to cope with them they will need to be grounded in their own locality, as well as mastering skills such as finding, filtering and analyzing information.

With this in mind, our cover story this month explores “alternative education.” Looking outside the existing educational para­digm, we visit several non-typical learning venues, including the Taiwan Insect Museum, curated by beetle expert Ko Hsin-ping, as well as Tamorak and Pinanaman, two community schools that teach in the Amis language. We see how the Covestro MagicMaterial School and Learning in Science are transforming science education, and we sample the outdoor experiences offered by the Taiwan Wilderness Education Association. These organizations help students to get to know themselves in the process of learning, and to rediscover their enthusiasm and motivation.

Other topics this month include a story museum being created in Taoyuan’s Zhongzhen Village; a cycling trip through Yunlin; and reports on two outstanding local companies: Value Valves and Tatung Chinaware. We tell the touching stories of Iraqi Kurd Zanst Othman, who has settled in Taiwan; of seaweed cultivator Ke Chih Hung; and of DNA expert Alex Chen. Seen from a cultural perspective, education is an expression of how culture is produced, conveyed, or rejected within the power structures inside and outside schools. Meanwhile Taiwan Panorama, in its role of disseminating outstanding culture from Taiwan, is another manifestation of mass education.