Civic Education Reform in Taiwan: Directions, Controversies, and Challenges

Civic Education Reform in Taiwan: Directions,Controversies, and Challenges

Meihui Liu, National Hualien Teachers College, Hualien, Taiwan

Shiowlan Doong, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan

Abstract

This article reviews the issues and challenges presented by civic education reform at theprimary and junior high level in Taiwan. After providing a brief historical overview of thecivic education reform in Taiwan, the paper focuses on the scope and sequence of civic educationin the new Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum. It then compares curriculum patterns, goals, andvalues promoted in the old and the new civic curriculum. Finally, it discusses controversiesand challenges confronting this reform in Taiwan.

Introduction

Since Taiwan's Martial Law was lifted in 1987, there has been increasing criticism of theeducation system for its inflexibility and for failing to address the particular needs of Taiwan'srapidly changing society. Consequently, educational reform has become a major issue, and inthe last few years, measures have been adopted to deal with problems in different sectors ofthe educational system. The development of a Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum for socialstudies is one of those major measures. This new curriculum is a replacement of the 'separatesubjects' teaching approach with an integrated subject teaching approach, targeting bothelementary and junior high levels. It not only redefines the field of civic education at theelementary and junior high levels, but also changes dramatically what the field used to be interms of scope and sequence, teacher education, school and classroom practice, and the like.

This article seeks to explore why and how the current civic education reform at the primaryand junior high level is taking place in Taiwan, along with the nature of the reform's directions,controversies, and challenges. The analysis will encompass four critical aspects. First, ithighlights what factors have led to the current reform and several important directions of thisreform. Second, it analyses the scope and sequence of civic education in the new Nine-YearIntegrated Curriculum. Third, it compares curriculum patterns, goals, and values promoted inthe old and the new civic curriculum. Finally, it discusses controversies and challengesconfronting this reform in Taiwan.

26 Pacific Asian Education, Volume 14, Number 1 2002

Meilnii Liu and Shiowlan Doong

Education Reform: The Whole Society's Concern

Education reform is now a critical and controversial aspect of public policy in Taiwan. Thosepushing for reform are not limited to students and teachers but include parents and non-official organisations as well. Since the 1987 lifting of martial law, there has been rapid andsubstantial change in Taiwan's socio-political structure; increasing public interest in the issueof education reform dates from that time. Evidence of this increasing interest can be found inthe number of non-official organisations such as the Council for Promoting Teachers' Rights,The Humanistic Education Foundation, and Taiwan Teachers'Association. These groups haveconsistently pushed the government to implement change. They claim that education in Taiwanshould be 'decentralised, flexible, diversified, autonomous, and depoliticised'.

Under increasing pressure of calls for education reform, the Executive Yuan formed theCommission on Educational Reform (CER) in late 1994, headed by Nobel laureate Lee Yuan-tseh. The commission was responsible for diagnosing the problems of the present educationsystem and suggested possible reforms. The commission's report was made public at the endof 1996 and it highlighted five important directions of education reform:

1. To design multiple avenues of entry to higher secondary and tertiary institutions.2. To decentralise control of the educational system.3. To improve the overall quality of education.4. To teach all students effectively.5. To promote life-long learning. (CER, 1996)

Based on CER's report, the Educational Reform Action Program submitted by the Ministry ofEducation (MOE) was approved by the Executive Yuan on May 1998. This five-year programwas allocated a total of NTS 157 billion starting from 1999 in order to carry out twelve projects.The projects which exert the most widespread influences on students are 'Multiple Schemesfor Entering Senior High Schools' and 'the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum'. The formerpolicy, launched in 1998, aimed to phase out the conventional senior high school entranceexamination by the school year 2001 and to offer alternative routes for graduates to enter highschools. The alternatives include recommendation and selection, application, and assignmentin accordance with scores on the Basic Competence Tests (BCT).' As the previous examinationsystem has long been criticised for its emphasis on rote learning, the new system is expectedto reduce examination-driven instruction and provide students with more authentic learning.

Another crucial policy for education reform is the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum Plan forElementary and Junior High Schools, which was implemented in the school year 2001. Thiscurriculum plan is regarded as a turning point for curriculum decentralisation because thecurriculum standards- are replaced by non-prescriptive curriculum guidelines, and the nationalcurriculum is replaced by school-based curricula. Other major changes include:

1. Designing the curriculum fi-amework from grade 1 to 9, rather than separating elementarylevel from junior high level.

2. Replacing the separate subjects approach with an interdisciplinary approach, targeting

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Civic Education Reform in Taiwan: Directions, Controversies, and Challenges

seven major subject areas (languages, math, social studies, nature and technology, artsand humanities, health and physical education, and general activities).

3. Concentrating on the ten basic learning capabilities or skills (such as critical thinking,information processing) rather than knowledge content.

4. Shortening the school year from 260 to 200 days, and from 6 to 5 days a week.

Completely opening the junior high textbook market for private publishers is one of thedecentralisation policies of the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum. Before 1996, the NationalInstitute for Compilation and Translation (NTCT) was the only institute authorised to compileand publish textbooks for elementary and junior high level. Since 1996, the MOE has givenelementary schools a free hand to select their own textbooks. Aside from the standardisedversion of elementary textbooks edited and published by NTCT, privately published texts,which are approved by the authorities, are in use as well. With the implementation of theNine-Year Integrated Curriculum, the opening of the textbook market is also extended tojunior high level. This policy means that the government will remove the control of politicalideology in the civic education curriculum.

Civic Education in the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum

The new curriculum guidelines attempt to reduce the number of school subjects by integratingsubjects of a similar nature. For example, geography, history, and civics at elementary andjunior high school level are integrated as the new subject social studies. In addition, six importantissues are identified and integrated into seven major subject areas. The seven issues includeenvironmental education, gender-fair education, human rights education, information education,home economics education, and career development education.

It is evident that the civics curriculum reform is influenced by American social studies education.There are two reasons for the adoption of Americanised civic education: the sheer extent ofAmerican writing on the subject, and the tendency of education policy makers to attendAmerican universities. In the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum, the social studies curriculumis organised around nine thematic strands which are similar to America's ten thematic strandsfor the social studies, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1 : The Comparison of Social Studies Curriculum of Taiwan and the US

US Taiwan

Cuhure

Time, Continuity, and Change People and Time

Change and Continuity

People, Places, and Environment People and Space

Individual Development and Identity


Meihui Liu and Shiowlan Doong

US Taiwan

Individuals, Groups, and Institutions Individuals, Groups, and Interpersonal Relations

Power, Authority, and Governance Power, Rule, and Human Rights

Production, Distribution, and Consumption Production, Distribution, and Consumption

Science, Technology, and Society Science, Technology, and Society

Global Connections Global connection

Civic Ideals and Practice

Meaning and Values

Source: Thematic strands are from NCSS (1994) and MOE (2000)

Three thematic strands are identical: production, distribution, and consumption; science,technology, and society; and global connection. Also, the American strands time, continuity,and change; and people, places, and environment are reorganised as people and time, peopleand space, and change and continuity. Civic ideals and practice is omitted but meaning andvalues is emphasised. It is difficult to understand why the theme of civic ideals and practice isomitted since civic education has been regarded as a primary and long-term goal of socialstudies education in many countries.

The Comparison of the Old and New Civic Curriculum

In this section, we will analyse the directions of current civic edueation reform by comparingthe new and the old civic curriculum (see Table 2).

School

Subject

Curriculum

Pattern

Old Civic Curriculum

Elementary: Social Studies

Morality and Health

Junior High: Civies and Morality,Understanding Taiwan

Social Studies:

Expanding environments

New Civic Curriculum

Social Studies

Thematic Strands

Interdisciplinary

Goals

Civics and Morality: discipline-based

Morality and Health

To perform behavior codes andetiquette, to foster good habits.

To develop loeal concern,national identity, and global views.



Old Civic Curriculum New Civic Curriculum

To develop proper ethical concepts,to cultivate basic virtues, to nourishnoble sentiment.

To respect human nature andlife, to enrich moral life.

• To promote the ability of thinkingand judgment, to be responsible forone's behaviors and attitudes.

Social Studies

• To develop proper self-concept,harmonious relationships betweenindividual and group, and to cultivategood habits in order to developwholesome personality.

• To guide students to understandenvironments, nation's history,geography, and culture in order tonourish their affection and love ofhomeland, society, and nation.

• To guide students to know thedevelopment of world, to broadentheir views and mind in order to developthe universal ideas of equality,reciprocity, and cooperation.

• To develop students' abilities of criticalthinking, value judgment, and problem-solving in order to adapt to democraticsociety.

Civics and Morality

• Developing moral concepts and behavingwell in daily life.

• Acquiring a basic knowledge of law andpolitical science, to develop the ideasof democracy and the mle of law, and

To develop democratic minds,rule of law, and responsibility.

To develop critical thinking,value judgment, andproblem-solving ability.

• To develop social participation,reasoned decision-making,and practical ability.

• To develop skills of expression,communication, andcooperation.

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Old Civic Curriculum New Civic Curriculum

to promote understanding of a citizen'srights and obligations, and the abilityto fulfill them.

• Enhancing basic knowledge ofsociology and economics, to care forthe community, and to promote theability to participate in social andeconomic activities.

• Increasing basic knowledge andappreciation of Chinese culture andinternational cultures, to develop theability to disseminate Chinese culture,and to cultivate respectful attitudestoward different cultures.

Understanding Taiwan

• Increasing understanding of thesocial environment of Taiwan

• Developing multicultural perspectivesand the sentiment of loving one'scommunity and nation.

Sources: MOE (1993), MOE (1995), MOE (2000)

Ttte Subjects and Curriculum PatternsThe former civic curriculum followed two different curriculum standards: ElementaryCurriculum Standards (issued in 1993) and Junior High School Curriculum Standards (issuedin 1995). The subjects related to civic education were Morality and Health for grade 1 to 6,Social Studies for grades 1 to 6, Understanding Taiwan for grade 7, and Civics and Moralityfor grades 8 to 9. In the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum Guidelines, all subjects of a similarnature are integrated as one learning area. Therefore, civic education is related to social studiesfor grades 1 to 9. It is obvious that the old civic education adopts discipline-based curriculum,while the new one adopts interdisciplinary curriculum.

As to the curriculum pattern, the former Social Studies, organised based on the notion ofexpanding environments', gradually expands a child's worlds from the individual, family,school, community, nation, and finally to the entire world. The social studies curriculumstandards indicated that the social studies eurriculum should be organised around 64generalisations abstracted from six disciplines: history, geography, psychology, political science,sociology, and economics (MOE, 1993). Understanding Taiwan and Civics and Morality were

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Civic Education Refonn in Taiwan: Directions, Controversies, and Challenges

both organised based on social science disciplines. For example. Civics and Morality includesmodules in school and social life, law and political life, economic hfe and cultural life. Asmentioned above, the Social Studies in the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum adopted integratedcurriculum approach. The curriculum is organised around nine thematic strands to integratethe concepts of civics, history and geography. This will provide individual schools moreflexibility to develop their own curriculum with the possibility to show greater variations indifferent schools.

Goals and FocusThe old civic curriculum emphasised knowledge transmission, while participatory citizenshipwas seldom encouraged. Teachers believed that citizenship can be developed by persuasion,socialisation, and indoctrination (Liu, 2001). Teachers and textbooks are seen as the authoritativesources of knowledge. As long as subject matter coverage is perceived as an important goal ofschool learning, knowledge is fixed, and children's responsibility is to learn what the teachersand textbooks present. Civic education has been decontextualised and has focused on abstractacademic knowledge. Such learning seems at odds with an understanding of participatorycivic education.

In the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum, ten goals were set up within the social studies relatedto civic education. Critical thinking, problem solving, democratic participation, and socialconcern are emphasised more than acquiring knowledge of the social sciences. The nature ofcivic education in the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum is similar to what Barr, Barth, andShermis (1977) described as the 'reflective inquiry tradition', which means citizenship shouldbe fostered based on reflective inquiry and decision-making in a socio-political context.Citizenship is best promoted through a process of inquiry in which knowledge is derivedwhen citizens make decisions and solve problems.

Values PromotedThe old civic curriculum is more morality oriented than the new one. The titles of the subjects'Morality and Health' and 'Civics and Morality' revealed that morality shared importantresponsibility for civic education. In addition, the Civic and Morality textbooks were organisedaround two main domains—civic virtues and civic knowledge. The twelve virtues includedhonesty, patriotism, law-abiding, benevolence, filial piety, etiquette, industry and frugality,justice, public virtue, responsibility, cooperation, and respect. The values emphasised in theold civic education were, to a large extent, directed by Confucianism's central ideals thatstress the virtues of humanity, filial piety, benevolence, and proper social relations.

In the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum, there are several performance expectations undereach thematic strand. The performance expectations focus more on competence than on moralityor virtues. For example, most of the performance expectations begin with words such as'describe', 'understand', 'explore', 'compare', 'analyse', 'measure', 'evaluate' and the like.

Comparing the goals of the old curriculum and performance expectation of the new curriculum,we can find different values embedded in each curriculum. First, social cohesion wasemphasised in the old civic education, while social diversity is emphasised more in the new

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curriculum. The old curriculum did not mention much about culture differences and itrecognised only mainstream culture to enforce homogeneity of citizens within the state.However, because of the influence of multiculturalism from Western societies, minority groupshave been empowered to raise their consciousness and to voice their needs. The new civiceducation recognises the need to infuse social diversity and muUicultural issues into thecurriculum. There are several performance expectations that emphasize the ideals ofmulticulturalism. For example: (a) to compare multiple perspectives of history, (b) to describedifferent life styles in different districts, (c) to understand different environments and to respectthe diversity, (d) to be aware of and to respect the diversity of different cultures.

In addition, national identity was stressed as a fundamental value in the old curriculum nomatter whether it was Chinese identity (social studies, civics and morality) or Taiwaneseidentity (Understanding Taiwan). However, the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum does notexplicitly mention the importance of national identity or how to achieve it through performanceexpectations. The term 'national identity' appears only once in the goals and never appears inthe performance expectation. Although the curriculum avoids representing Chinese identityor Taiwan identity, the proportion of Taiwan's culture and history is greater than Chinesehistory and culture as embedded in the performance expectations.

Controversies and Challenges

The Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum is the biggest educational reform in Taiwan's educationhistory. It not only involves dramatic changes in the way civic education is implemented atschool, but also reshapes the field of the civic education profession. This reform, although justimplemented in September 2001, has come under severe debate and criticism. During, a two-day conference designed to review progress of the ongoing education reform on December 15and 16,2001, scholars and parents criticised the reform and also accused the MOE of trying torecruit 'certain individuals' to endorse the current education reforms to present a falseimpression that a so-called consensus has been reached among the majority for the undertaking(The China Post Staff, 2001). There are a number of major controversies and challengesconfronting this reform in terms of the process of curriculum development, the appropriatenessof integrating primary and junior high school curricula, the Americanised direction of thereform, gaps between the ideal and the real, the issue of national identity and Taiwanisation.

Process of Curriculum DevelopmentIn Taiwan, a typical model of developing new curriculum is that (a) the MOE assigns severalscholars, administrators, curriculum specialists, and one or two teachers to format a committee;(b) this committee then works in isolation without involvement of concerned citizen groups,teacher groups or others for one or two years; (c) the MOE promulgates the new curriculum tothe public and has it implemented. Sometimes, there might be several sessions of public hearingsor focus groups after its promulgation. However, the purpose of those hearings is focused onintroducing the new curriculum to teachers; not on its merit. Practitioners and the public haveno way to be heard in the process of developing the new curriculum.



This model worked in the past when Taiwan was an authoritarian country. Unfortunately, thedevelopment of the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum followed this typical model in disregardof the changing reality of the society. Scholars who were involved in the development of thenew curriculum guideline were mostly from the field of general curriculum study. Scholars,teacher educators from teacher education programs, as well as practitioners in the field ofcivic education, history, and geography were not involved. It is a complete top-down curriculumdevelopment model and is, therefore, questioned strongly by teacher educators, practitionersand the public-at-large (Chang, 1999; Pan, 1999; Chang, 2001).

Appropriateness of Integrating Primary and Junior High School CurriculaOne major criticism is with respect to the appropriateness of integrating primary and juniorhigh school curricula. Critics of the reform question the rationale for the so-called Nine-YearIntegrated Curriculum. They argue that there are differences between primary and junior higheducation in terms of students' needs and school reality (Chang, 1999). The new Nine-YearIntegrated Curriculum ignores the specialty of each educational level.

Second, it is argued that one of the tasks for junior high education is to prepare students forsenior high school Ufe. The new Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum not only fails to ftilfill thistask but also creates a big gap and inconsistency between the junior and senior high schooleducation.

Third, since 1996, the MOE has been encouraging and helping local governments to establish asix-year combined high school system which includes junior and senior high school studentswith unified school government, educating students from the age of 12 to 18. There were 61combined public high schools established as of the 2000 school year and a number of juniorhigh schools are in preparation for transforming into combined high schools (MOE, 2001).Thus, critics of the reform proposed that a six-year integrated curriculum for junior and seniorhigh education is more appropriate than one that combines the elementary and junior high levels.

Americanised Direction of the ReformAs noted in the previous section, there are a lot of similarities between the NCSS thematicstandards of the United States and Taiwan's curriculum guidelines for nine-year integratedsocial studies. Both disciplinary scholars and teacher educators criticised the new curriculumas being too 'Americanised'. They argued that the curriculum guideline mimicked the NCSSthematic standards without considerations of divergent cultural, social, and educational contextsbetween Taiwan and America (Yuh-How Deng, & Long-Shen Lao, personal communication,December 23, 1999; Chang, 1999). The critics thus addressed the need to investigate what istaken to be worthwhile knowledge in Taiwan's society so as to establish more appropriatecurriculum guidelines suitable to Taiwan's social, cultural and educational context (Doong,2001 ; Forums at the International Conference on Citizenship and Teacher Education, November3-4,2001).

Gaps Between the Ideal and the RealThere are a number of gaps between the ideal and the real civic education caused by teachers'professional abilities/teacher education programs and the pressure from senior high school



entrance exams.

Teachers 'professional abilities. In implementing the Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum, teachersare expected to be able to design and develop curriculum utilising an interdisciplinary approach.However, there are gaps between the ideal and the real, particularly at the junior high schoollevel.

First, in the past, the teaching of civic education at the junior high schools was mainly coveredin one subject, 'Civics and Morality'. Both 'History' and 'Geography', which shouldertremendous responsibility in terms of civic education in the United States, had never beenconsidered a part of civic education in Taiwan. 'History', 'Geography', and 'Civics andMorality' were isolated subjects at the junior high level.

Second, there are different teacher education departments at normal universities for history,geography, and civics and morality. Social studies has never been an integrated field in Taiwan.Additionally, history and geography are more academic-oriented than citizenship-oriented inthe standard teacher education programs. Teachers of 'Civics and Morality' have never beentrained to teach history and geography. Similarly, political science, law, economics, and socialsciences are not required courses and are not offered in history and geography teacher educationprograms. Nor have teacher education programs ever offered courses as to how to integratethe knowledge of those disciplines in their curriculum and teaching. In other words, teachersof'History', 'Geography', and 'Civics and Morality' have «oí been trained for the teaching ofintegrated social studies.

Moreover, the MOE and local govemments offered very limited opportunities for workshopsfor inservice teacher training in this regard. Neither has any long-term teacher re-educationplan been proposed to date. As a result, teachers at the junior high schools feel very anxiousabout the new curriculum and their lack of professional knowledge and teaching skills fordisciplines other than their major one (Nine-Year Integrated Curriculum). Therefore, thesweeping and radical changes from the discipline-based curriculum to the integrated curriculumresult in a deep gap between the ideal and the real.

Pressure from the Basic Competence Test. The objectives of the Nine-Year IntegratedCurriculum are to simplify the leaming content, reduce students' heavy leaming load, providestudents with flexible curricular options, improve students' abilities of knowledge integrating,critical thinking and problem solving, and foster basic skills and lifelong leaming attitudenecessary for modem citizenship (MOE, 2000).

Nevertheless, preparing students for the Basic Competence Test is still the main coneem ofparents, school administrators, and teachers. As a result, teaching-to-the-test is and will becommonly practised. In addition, because of the change of textbook policy, there is no longera standardised version of textbooks for all school levels. Different privately published textbooksvary in content, scope, and sequence. As a result, students are forced to read as many versionsof textbooks as they can so as to get high scores on the Basic Competence Test (Hsu, 2001).Teaching in Taiwan's secondary schools is strongly linked to textbooks and aims largely toward

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preparation for advancement to successive levels. Unless the problem caused by the examinationsystem can be resolved, the goal of improving students' abilities of integrating knowledge,critical thinking and problem solving will not be realised.

Issue of National Identity and TaiwanisationThe new nine-year curriculum guidelines for social studies have had to refocus from Chinesenationalism to indigenous understanding. There is now less emphasis on general Chinese history,with more attention being devoted to Taiwan's culture and history as well as world topics. Forexample, 7 out of 13 performance expectations in Theme 1, People and Time, are regardingpeople, events, culture, and so on in the local community and Taiwan. Four performanceexpectations are for the understanding of historical development and civilisations concerningall human beings. Only two performance expectations involve the understanding of Chinesehistory and its interrelationship with other countries/cultures in Asia and the world (MOE, 2000).

The Taiwanised orientation in the new curriculum involves the controversy of national identity.The switch of the content from China-centred to Taiwan-centred orientation, although being astrong desire of some groups, has caused debates regarding what is worthwhile and legitimateknowledge and what is the appropriate way to present the issue of national identity and therelationship between Taiwanese and Chinese cultures.

Conclusion

Education reforms never exist in isolation from or unaffected by events and attitudes in theculture and society of which the educational institution is a part. The process of shapingcurriculum is a complex political and ethical phenomenon rather than a simple rational one.Taiwan's curriculum reforms clearly reflect the complexity of curriculum development, whichwere subject to historical traditions and tendencies, to diverse and contradicting cultural andsocial pressures, and to the characteristics of those involved in the development andimplementation of curriculum.

Curriculum reform involves not only a series of policy changes or curriculum experiments,but also a risk of common wellbeing. Therefore, it needs deep thinking and considerate decision-making. Moreover, curriculum cannot succeed without the support of the school, the academicand the larger culture of the society. Before the new civic education curriculum can beimplemented successfully, Taiwan still has a long way to go.

References

Ban-, R. D., Barth, J. L., & Shermis, S. S. (1977). Defining the social studies. Arlington, VA:National Council for the Social Studies.

CER (1996). The report on education reform. Taipei, Taiwan: CER.Chang, C. (1999, April 12). Scholars and university professors questioned the Nine-Year

Integrated Curriculum. The China Times, p. 5.



Chang, E. (2001, December 17). So-called education reform: Gaps between the ideal and thereal. United Daily News, p. 6.

The China Post Staff (2001, December 16). Two-day education conference gets off to boisterousstart. The China Post, p. Al.

Doong, S. (2001, November). Reconstructing political education in Taiwan. Paper presentedat the International Conference on Citizenship and Teacher Education, Taipei, Taiwan.

Hsu, C. (2001, December 17). Reformists know nothing about students' pain and pressure.United Daily News, p. 6.

Jang, C. (2001, December 17). Education reform without consensus. United Daily News, p. 6.Lia, Y. (1999, April 27). Three-in-one social studies would be 'neither fish nor fowl'. The

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Ministry of EducationNational Council for the Social Studies. (1994). Curriculum standards for social studies:

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Endnotes

The basic competence test is a new testing system which is designed to relieve students fromexcessive academic pressure in the future. Under the new system, the tests are held twiceannually, and students can choose to take the tests once or both times before utilizing theirpreferred test results to apply to schools. Unlike the decisive influence of the joint examinationsystem, the score of BCT is only one of the requirements for application. Recommendationletters and extra-curriculum performance are also required. The content of the tests featuresindependent thinking instead of rote learning.

The MOE controls the national curriculum for elementary and secondary schools through itsCurriculum Standards Revision Committee, which is composed of university professors, schoolteachers, and educational administrators. The MOE enforces curriculum standards in order toensure the overall quality of schooling. These standards prescribe the goals, time allocation,scope and sequence, and implementation guidelines for each subject.

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Civic Education Reform in Taiwan: Directions, Controversies, and Challenges