Paulo Freire and the Southeast Asian Overseas Chinese Student Labor Pipeline in Taiwan

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Freirean Praxis on Humanizing Education

Abstract

This study investigates Taiwan’s policy of recruiting Southeast Asian overseas Chinese students into vocational education as a response to declining birthrates and labor shortages. Grounded in Paulo Freire’s humanizing pedagogy, the research adopts a critical policy analysis approach, using government documents, secondary data, and investigative reports. The study reveals how these students are positioned more as labor resources than as educational subjects, exposing tensions between state-driven economic agendas and educational equity. Findings argue that such policies risk dehumanizing students and reducing education to instrumental means. This work contributes to reimagining education futures grounded in dignity, dialogue, and social justice, particularly in the context of cross-border education and global labor flows.

Author

• Chen-Wei Chang, National Academy for Educational Research