Longing for Becoming the “Other”? The Gap Between Multiculturalism and Interculturalism in Textbooks for Compulsory Education in Taiwan

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: Critical Discourse on Curriculum and Culture

Abstract

This paper tracks discursive shifts on indigenous people in textbooks in Taiwan and the discursive power of multicultural education on shaping these discourses. By critical discourse analysis, the research identifies three discursive changes from 1990 to 2013, and finds out that multicultural education could fall into the trap of enhancing ethnocentrism and essentialism. This condition can rarely do any good for understanding different culture and the dynamic interaction between different groups—as multicultural education meant to achieve. We argue for an appropriate level of attention to hybridized culture and advocate a kind of education consisting of authentic dialogues that not only reflect asymmetrical interaction between different groups, but also provoke an open interaction that may eventually change these asymmetrical relationships.

Authors

• Yun-Shiuan (Viola) Chen, National Academy for Educational Research, Taiwan

• Li-Hsin Wang, National Academy for Educational Research