Exploration of Teachers’ Agency for Teaching Difficult Knowledge in Taiwan

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 3:20 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Tensions in Transformation (Table 13)

Abstract

This study is aimed at exploring how teachers teach about difficult knowledge, including the White Terror and the conflict with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Using a case study design, this study documents six social studies teachers’ employment of agency while teaching difficult knowledge. Utilizing two concepts— difficult knowledge and teacher’s agency— the findings illuminate that teachers enact their professional agency to teach difficult knowledge by using unofficial documents, integrating alternative resources, and building dialogue with students. In addition, another finding shows that contextual and individual factors formulate teachers’ professional agency to teach difficult knowledge. Lastly, this study reflects that social/historical trauma and collective memory are part of difficult knowledge but also serve as contextual factors impacting teachers’ agency.

Author

• Yu-Han Hung, University of Houston - Downtown