Framework Thinking, Subject Thinking and "Taiwan-"ness"" in Environmental Education

• Published in: Australian journal of environmental education Vol. 27; no. 1; pp. 134 - 148
• Main Authors: Yueh, Mei-Chun Michelle, Barker, Miles
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: East Lismore Australian Association for Environmental Education, Inc 01.01.2011; Cambridge University Press
• Subjects: Curriculum Development; Curriculum Implementation; Education; Educational Change; Educational Policy; Environmental Education; Foreign Countries; Guidelines; Interdisciplinary Approach; Junior High Schools; Lifelong Learning; National Curriculum; Schools; Taiwan; Taiwan
• ISSN: 0814-0626; 2049-775X
• DOI: 10.1017/s0814062600000136

In the 1998 Taiwanese national curriculum revision, environmental education was one of six new "Important Issues". To some early observers, the generic "framework" sections of this 1998 curriculum (Aims, Goals, Core Competences) resonated well with the integrative and transdisciplinary nature of environmental education. This synergy held out promise for the successful introduction of environmental education to Taiwan, despite it not being one of the seven new Learning Areas (or subjects). However, this study suggests that a pervasive nation-wide exam-driven, subject-dominated educational climate resulted in a somewhat truncated "Taiwan-"ness"" in the environmental education that emerged. In three Junior High Schools preparing for curriculum implementation, there was little early focus on, either the national curriculum's framework aspects or the intended integrative nature of environmental education. Rather, by 2004 curriculum integration had become officially non-compulsory, and environmental education was conceived as a minor priority, to be wedged where possible into spaces within the traditional subjects. (Contains 2 tables.)