Action Inquiry for Social Liberation: The Journey of Teachers’ Awakening in Taiwan

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: How Do Contexts Influence Teachers and Teaching Practices?

Abstract

This research illustrates the historical path of social liberation made by teachers who are social activists engaging in education reform movement in Taiwan. In the journey of social liberation, the researcher work with a group of teachers to explore the social dimension of educational praxis. The researcher finds that teachers' engagement in education movement changes their knowledge about self and society. Action research, adopted as social inquiry, offers teachers with opportunities to look into the alienated and painful feelings in teaching profession. In action inquiry, teachers are transformed from private persons to social actors. They learn to take civic actions together, form allies with working-class parents, and expand social imagination. Teachers create learning community in their actions toward freedom.

Authors

• Hsiao-Ting Cheng, Fu Jen Catholic University

• Nancy Lien, National Dong Hwa University