The development and localization of School-wide Support System in Taiwan

• In Event: Roundtable Session 1
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Global practices in inclusive education

Proposal

This paper examines the development of school-wide support systems in Taiwan, with a focus on how Taiwan has adopted and localized the U.S. problem-solving model to fit its school consultation and special education service delivery at the school level. The policy borrowing theory (Ochs & Phillips, 2003) is utilized to analyze the implementation of Taiwan's WISER model, which is derived from the problem-solving framework initiative of the American Psychology Association. Through the literature review, this paper highlights the stages of policy borrowing, including cross-national attraction, the adoption of the tiered problem-solving model as a "quick fix," and the internalization of the school-wide service delivery system for students with special needs. The paper concludes by discussing how special education scholars in Taiwan adopted the service delivery and multidisciplinary collaboration under the school-wide tiered system to interpret inclusive education implementation.
In the U.S., the multi-tiered approach has a long developmental history. The problem-solving model has informed school-wide support systems in special education, such as Response to Intervention (RTI), Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS). These frameworks address both academic and behavioral needs through a multi-tiered approach at the school level. With the history of adopting U.S. school consultation models, Taiwan was inspired by these school-wide, tiered, problem-solving approaches, and has developed its own WISER framework, as the localization of the school consultation system. From the adoption of a problem-solving model to the development of school-wide special education support systems, Taiwan’s approach reflects the "quick fix" characteristic of policy borrowing.
The internalization of the school-wide service delivery system is developing along with the inclusive education rhetoric. As the U.S. special education school-wide supporting system initiatives—RTI, PBIS, and MTSS—were introduced to Taiwan, the attempt to integrate WISER with the school-wide special education support system encountered challenges due to the parallel development of school consultation and special education. Moreover, the national review of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) has raised concerns about the state of inclusive education in Taiwan, particularly regarding the delivery of special education services at the school level. The CRPD review has pushed for the internalization of special education school-wide supporting system and contributing to the localization of international inclusive education initiatives.
This paper concludes that policy borrowing theory can provide valuable insights into the development and practice of inclusive education in Taiwan. Further research is needed to better understand the gaps in practitioners’ collaboration and the policy-making process that forms the localization of inclusive education in Taiwan. Such exploration can contribute to the glocalization of inclusive education initiatives in the East Asian country contexts.

Author

• PeiJung Ho, University of Texas at Austin