A Critical Neutrality: A Narrative Inquiry of Taiwanese Teachers’ Beliefs on Political Neutrality in Education

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  In Roundtable Session: Abolition and Antiracism in Communities and Schools (Table 4)

Abstract

Past studies about Taiwanese teachers and political implications in education indicated that teachers have the tendency to maintain a sense of political neutrality in classrooms, but no study has been done that explores the extent of teachers’ belief that education is politically neutral. Thus, this study, centering Paulo Freire’s (1985) the Politics of Education and Henry Giroux’s (1988) Teachers as Intellectuals, analyzed interviews with nine Taiwanese public school teachers and utilized a narrative inquiry framework to uncover key themes among the data. The findings provide insights into how teachers view politically neutral and impartial practices in classrooms as a form of critical education and how the public perception of their profession mediates their own political agency.

Author

• Wen-Lin Chow, Teachers College, Columbia University