A Harmony-Based Approach to Multiculturalism in Taiwan's Schools

• In Event: Reimaging Community-Based Inquiries and Decolonizing Knowledge Production in Transnational Contexts

Abstract

Purpose
With globalization processes driving increasing immigration flows, educators worldwide have turned to multicultural education as a strategy to address student diversity. As a field, multicultural education pursues “social justice, diversity, equity and human rights through educational practices and policies that appreciate cultural differences among both individuals and groups” (Cha, et al. 2017, p. 1). However, scholars problematize the import of multiculturalism to East Asia (Ho 2017; Nguyen, et al 2009). The U.S.-based assumptions of individuality and uniqueness upon which the multicultural model rest contrast to the cultural importance of harmony, interdependence, and relationships in Confucian Heritage societies: China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan.
This study is premised on the belief that U.S.-based multicultural education is a pedagogical approach that may inappropriately address diversity in Taiwan, where teachers are responding to the unprecedented population of mixed-race youth from transnational marriage migrations (henceforth, “new Taiwanese children” or NTC). This study investigates the transformative outcomes of NTC youth who are empowered through schooling processes to embrace their mixed-race identities. These identity shifts emerge from school belonging practices that are culturally relevant to the local Taiwanese context.
Theoretical Framework
I apply cultural-history theory in developing the harmony-oriented multicultural model (Gutierrez & Rogoff, 2003). As members of Taiwanese society, the teachers of my study are plausibly influenced by Confucian values, such as harmony. I apply a dynamic definition of “culture” that focuses on teaching practices as cultural units of analysis.
My inquiry is guided by the questions: 1) How do teachers respond to student diversity in the classroom? How are teachers’ teaching practices shaped by the local contexts? 2) How do students respond to these multicultural education practices? 3) How do teachers’ teaching practices reflect acts of decolonization, if at all?
Methods and Data
This study draws on interview, classroom observational and participant-observational data from a 2017 ethnographic project and 2018-19 action research project in a Taiwanese secondary school.
Applying a constructivist grounded theory approach (Charmaz 2014), I coded data on harmony, collectivity, and difference to discover patterns in culturally-based school responses to NTC youth, as well as student impact on belonging.
Findings
Preliminary findings show transformative outcomes of NTC youth, who previously rejected their mixed-race identities, in response to schooling processes that strengthened relationships between NTC and non-NTC youth. The NTC students embraced their mixed-race identity, while deepening relationships with their South East Asian mothers; such an interdependent sense of identity “is not predicated on any notion of individual uniqueness but on one’s ability to maintain harmonious relationships with others (Markus & Kitayama, 1991).
Significance
This study explores the possibilities of schooling transforming "difference" into a cultural asset in Confucian heritage contexts, which historically value cultural unity above diversity. Importantly, this study is part of a broader project to decolonize multicultural pedagogy in East Asian contexts. It aims to illuminate how Taiwanese teachers achieve multicultural education goals through culturally appropriate practices that legitimate non-Western ways of knowing. In doing so, this study contributes to understanding how teachers' teaching practices are acts of deimperialization.

Author

• Lisa Yiu, Stanford University