Could a Ban Change Teachers?

• In Event: Roundtable Session 67
  In Roundtable Session: When Experience Is Complex: Competing Stories on the School Landscape

Abstract

Despite the banning of corporal punishment in Taiwan's schools in 2006, corporal punishment is still being widely used. Our goal was to understand teachers’ change of their use corporal punishment or not, which is influenced by their values, beliefs, and goals of teachers. Twenty-two Taiwanese teachers were surveyed and interviewed from 2006 to 2011. In this presentation, we describe critical moments in teachers' lives that caused them to rethink their use of corporal punishment. We call these “moments of where to go,” and “epiphanies,” describing and giving examples of each. We also provide a critical evaluation regarding how a ban can achieve certain goals, and what the limits of legislation might be.

Authors

• Wen-Ting Chung, Arizona State University

• Sarah K. Brem, Arizona State University