Civic Education in Multicultural States:he Predicament of the Indigenous Peoples'' Civic Education in Taiwan
Date Issued
2008
Date
2008
Author(s)
Chuang, Kuo-Ming
Abstract
This paper aims to analyze civic education in multicultural states, which can be divided into three parts as below: Part 1(Chapter 1) aims to explore the role played by civic education in the formation of modern states’ political identity. In their exercise of power, the primary task of modern nation-states is to transform “people” into politically, culturally and bounded “citizens,” so that the state, instead of the “ruler,” will be regarded by the ruled as the object of loyalty, and supportive forces that uphold from below the identity of political communities will occur. In this process, official compulsory education bears the most important function of political socialization. It not only subjects “people,” now conceived as part of a “nation,” to the “state,” but integrates people’s daily life into a homogenized and standardized cultural system. While the former serves to assimilate and foster political consciousness, the latter is necessary for an industrialized society and capitalist economic system. Politics and economy are in fact two sides of the same coin, i.e. the modern nation-state: “nation” is a political feature of the modern state, and “industrial capitalist economy” is the material base of it. The political consciousness and modern knowledge expected to be acquired by modern citizens are formed or facilitated by the compulsory education. This educational project, with its profound assimilating effects, also poses a threat to the language and culture of the ethnic or national minorities. Chapter 1 therefore expounds the role played by civic education in the formation of nation-states, and contributes to the theoretical foundation of the research on multicultural education in a modern state. Part 2 (Chapter 2 and 3) analyzes the civic education of multicultural states from normal theory perspectives and it aims to explore liberalism and multiculturalism. Whilst liberalism intends to settle cultural or value differences by setting up impartial political rules, its fundamental bipolar element of private-public distinction (i.e. regarding cultural or ethical values as private affairs) incapacitates itself from handling the cultural assimilation imposed by dominating groups upon minorities through the former’s dominance in national education system. In contrast, multiculturalism perceives the inevitable connection between state and culture. It proposes realization of culture equalities by intercultural recognitions and communications and by building capacities to understand different cultures through education system. Such position demonstrates the essentialness of analyses on concrete political, economical, and social contexts as well as the irreplaceable importance of political process. With field study on three indigenous tribes in Hualien County, part 3 (Chapter 4 and 5) analyzes the predicament of indigenous peoples’ civic education in Taiwan and their own reflection on such issue. This paper analyzes in depth political and economic pressures faced by indigenous peoples in Taiwan in education system and four types of attitudes these indigenous peoples have on education. This paper indicates that, as far as education system and essence are concerned, indigenous peoples in Taiwan sense more or less the oppression from the political system dominated by Han Chinese but are hardly able to fight against the same from the second level system (capitalist economy). The second level system of modern society (economy) utilizes the first level system (politics) to formulate a set of standardized knowledge and symbols. As the language and culture of Han Chinese have been formulated as the standardized knowledge, indigenous peoples are left no choice but to familiarize themselves with such culture and language system to obtain more educational resources and to improve their life, which makes the revitalization of their cultures and languages extremely difficult. The oppression of state on indigenous culture is crystal clear; however, it is the pressure from the second level system (capitalist modern society) that traps indigenous peoples in Taiwan in a real sense.
Subjects
civic education
nation-state
indigenous people
assimilation
multiculturalism
liberalism
capitalist economy
Type
thesis
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