Dawning of hope: Practice of and reflections on indigenous teacher education in Taiwan

Abstract

Teachers more familiar with students’ culture tend to use culturally relevant teaching methods to smooth students’ learning. Most pre-service teachers in Taiwan lack sufficient training for multicultural competence to enable them to embrace indigenous students’ culture and appropriate teaching approaches. In 2013, the Education Act for Indigenous Peoples was revised thereby requiring teachers of indigenous education to comply with the act within five years. It created huge changes and modifications to indigenous teacher education and required teachers who work in indigenous areas to complete ethnic culture and multiculture courses. All levels of government have to institute the Acts requirements within five years. Given the significance of the crucial keys to success of teaching indigenous students, it is important to understand how the government values the development of teachers’ multiculture teaching abilities. Following an outline of the tribal critical race theory (TribalCrit), the status quo of indigenous peoples’ education and teacher training in Taiwan were identified in a discussion of social justice. To make indigenous teacher education more suitable to indigenous peoples’ needs and build up a good foundation for ethnic culture development, the experiences of qualified teachers of indigenous education in the US, Canada, and Australia will be mentioned as examples. The goal for this research is to provide some useful reflections on the subsequent implementation of such efforts, and to get some inspiration for Taiwan's aboriginal teacher education in fulfillment of the Education Act for Indigenous Peoples.

Introduction

Taiwan’s indigenous peoples now officially comprise 16 tribes who account for more than 2% of Taiwan’s population. Looking back on Taiwan’s history, Taiwan’s indigenous peoples have undergone a series of cultural shifts in response to the pressures of contact with other societies, from Dutch Formosa to Qing dynasty rule and Japanese rule before 1945. Since 1945 and the Republic of China’s rule, Taiwan’s indigenous peoples’ educational policy development can be divided into three stages: enlightening the indigenous from 1945 to 1962, assimilation from 1963 to 1987, and multicultural developments after 1988 (You et al., 2012).

Indigenous cultures around the world encounter many obstacles, such as an economically and culturally disadvantaged status. The declining culture and loss of language are long-lasting and hard to resolve. Therefore, Taiwan’s authorities have promoted a multicultural policy for several years. In 1995, the Indigenous Peoples Basic Law announced that indigenous peoples’ rights to cultural education should be protected to develop indigenous culture and build up the foundation of implementing indigenous education. However, the Education Act for Indigenous Peoples was disregarded until 2013; so many laws about indigenous education could not be completely practiced. Regardless, the regulations relating to the qualifications of teachers working in indigenous schools and appropriate training courses are overlooked. When indigenous schools recruit teachers, local governments do not regulate the proportion of indigenous teachers and their learning qualifications; consequently, authorities have ignored the question of whether indigenous students’ needs match teachers’ cultural competence or not. As we know, teachers’ professional abilities relating to multicultural education allow them to provide education for indigenous students, yet an inadequate number of indigenous teachers might lead to poor learning outcomes in indigenous education.

Currently, a large number of indigenous students in Taiwan are taught by non-indigenous teachers who are facing wide cultural gaps. As a result, teachers fail to apply cultural responsiveness in teaching because they do not know aboriginal students’ learning styles and do not recognize the importance of students’ cultural references in all aspects of learning (Ladson-Billings, 1995).

Despite becoming a multicultural society, Taiwan’s multicultural bill was delayed for more than a decade. As a result, this country seems to be still dominated by the minority. On the other hand, the government plans teacher education through homogenization, despite the policy for multicultural development. Thus, not only is the distinctiveness of aboriginal teachers failing to be cultivated, but the teaching skills that minority students need are also ignored. Given this situation, the majority culture will continue to colonize indigenous people through education. Educational systems based on colonization seriously undermine educational convictions and, more importantly, aboriginal peoples’ knowledge, beliefs, and wisdom (Yellow Bird, 2005).

Unless the government changes its approach to indigenous teacher education, it will be hard to preserve Taiwan’s indigenous heritage. What seems to be the problem is that non-indigenous teachers have a weaker sense of purpose than indigenous teachers. In mainstream teacher education, teachers do not tend to teach in a multicultural way. Only as teachers get closer to their students’ cultures can they understand and appreciate cultural diversity (Chou, 2007). If teacher education students lack an understanding of the reality of classroom life for indigenous students, pre-service teachers will continue to misrepresent indigenous students and put them at a disadvantage (Partington, 2002).

CRT theory as an analytical framework

Critical race theory (CRT), which developed from critical legal studies, is an examination of the relationship between racism, race, and power. It assumes that racism is not only individual acts of discrimination, but also systemic, historical, and ideological demonstrations of power to protect, maintain, and serve white privilege (Delgado and Stefancic, 2001). Brayboy (2006) advanced tribal critical theory, which provides a theoretical view to raise issues about American Indian communities today. Although CRT was born in the United States, the development of indigenous people in Taiwan is under the constraints of the mainstream group—the Han people. Indigenous people in Taiwan and American Indians have similar problems, including the issues of natural resources management, fewer students graduating from colleges, over-representation in special education, language shift and language loss, and power struggles between central, local, and tribal governments (Brayboy, 2006). Haynes (2008) mentions that critical race theory (CRT) and tribal critical race theory (TribalCrit) offer the possibility of unmasking, exposing, and confronting continued colonization within educational contexts and societal structures. Thus Taiwan may consider tribal critical race theory as a way to discuss the dimension of study and the problems of indigenous teacher education. Brayboy (2006) outlined nine tenets of TribalCrit theory.

Colonization is endemic to society.

US policies toward indigenous people are grounded on white supremacy, imperialism, and a desire for material benefit.

Indigenous peoples occupy an important position in relation to the political and racial nature of our identities.

Indigenous people have an inclination to obtain and forge tribal sovereignty, self-determination, and self-identities.

The concepts of culture, knowledge, and power have new meanings when examined through an indigenous lens.

Government policies and educational policies toward indigenous people are closely linked to the problematic goal of assimilation.

Tribal philosophies, beliefs, customs, traditions, and visions for the future are essential for understanding the lived realities of indigenous peoples, but they also reveal the differences between and adaptability of individuals and groups.

Stories are not separate from theory; they make up theory and are, therefore, real and legitimate sources of data and ways of being.

Theory and practice are connected in deep and explicit ways, such that scholars must work toward social change.

Demography and indigenes’ educational development

In Taiwan, a total of 70,000 indigenous students attend elementary and junior high schools. Most of the indigenous students in Taiwan study in non-indigenous areas; only 42% study in “key aboriginal schools”—namely, schools located in indigenous areas or whose number of indigenous students has reached a number set by the local government. Their purpose is to conserve the aboriginal culture on campus and look forward to improving students’ learning. The majority of key aboriginal schools are in indigenous areas, although some are in non-indigenous areas. Every local government decides the standards of key aboriginal schools in terms of whether more than 100 indigenous students attend or the indigenous students account for more than one-third of all students in the school (Laws and Regulations Database of the Republic of China, 2014).

By and large, aborigines’ educational level is much lower than that of the general population. The Ministry of the Interior recently conducted a survey of indigenous people older than 15 years old. Their findings indicated that only 38% had completed secondary education and 19.5% had completed college. In recent years, the opportunities for indigenous students to pursue higher education have increased in Taiwan. In 1998, indigenous students accounted for 0.03% of all students in graduate schools. This ratio increased to 0.64% in 2013, but still did not achieve the average of the general population. Thus, although the number of aboriginal people pursuing higher education has increased in recent years, it remains limited.

Most of the cultivation of indigenous teacher education is government funded. With the trend for people to have fewer children, the demand for teachers has been shrinking. This situation has influenced the number of teachers requested by local educational authorities, which has declined from 30–40 teachers in 1995 to fewer than 10 in 2007. The number of government-funded students has also dropped substantially in the past five years (Ministry of Education, 2009; Ministry of Education, 2013a).

According to the Teacher Education Statistical Databases, in 2009, about half of indigenous teachers were working in tribes while the other half were working with the majority-Han people in non-indigenous schools, promoting indigenous education. In addition, it is hard to evaluate the outcome of ethnic education because 60% of indigenous teachers work in urban areas (Ministry of Education, 2009). Compared to the majority, the educational attainment of minorities is lower, which is further reflected in the proportion of minorities pursuing education. As a result, the government is training a small number of indigenous teachers, despite the fact that it is setting up key aboriginal schools. Thus, this system performs practically but does not function effectively.

Scant aboriginal teacher vacancies

The development of Taiwan’s aboriginal population has been restricted by the standing Han majority. Since the government announced the Education Act for Indigenous Peoples in 1998, no other specific policy for indigenous teachers’ education has been enacted. Yet the existing aboriginal education is weak.

For instance, Article 25 stipulates that schools must depend on a certain percentage of vacancies when recruiting indigenous teachers; directors or principals who have been in indigenous education settings are preferred for indigenous elementary and secondary schools, including key indigenous schools, when there are vacancies for indigenous teachers. Due to the postponement of the Act, the laws and articles cannot be executed. Thus, local governments do not follow the law, and the proportion of indigenous teachers recruited for key indigenous schools continues to be low.

According to a survey of indigenous elementary education, indigenous teachers accounted for 16.6% of all teachers, and only 6% of teachers in junior high are indigenous (CPC, 2008). Yet most Han teachers lack an understanding of indigenous education or multicultural education because they have not completed courses related to ethnic culture (Ministry of Education, 2013b). However, this is the kind of education that indigenous students need, and teachers and schools must be prepared for these students (Price and Hughes, 2009).

Looking at other countries’ experiences, the US enacted the Indian Education Act in 1972 to meet the needs of American Indian and Alaska Native students (US Department of Education, 2014). The Education Amendments Act of 1978 and further technical amendments permitted the local hiring of teachers and staff, empowered Indian school boards, funded tribally operated schools, and built up a line of authority (US Department of the Interior, Indian Affairs, 2014). Meanwhile, in Canada, indigenous teacher education is practiced through a special system in which aboriginal people deliver educational services to aboriginal people. Some Canadian local governments and tribes not only actively recruit minority teachers, but also give pre-service training to the teachers in order to strengthen their multicultural sensitivity and knowledge; in addition, the government values the education of teachers with regard to anti-racism and culture (Mallea and Young, 1997). Finally, in Australia, indigenous teacher education emphasizes the employment of indigenous teachers. In the 1980s, the federal government set a goal of employing a thousand teachers in 10 years, as identified by the National Aboriginal Education Committee, but the goal was not achieved (Partington, 2002).

As other countries’ experiences indicate, foreign countries also agree that indigenous education should be the responsibility of indigenous teachers. Like those countries offering finance to support the training of indigenous teachers, Taiwan provides sponsorship and scholarship, but the opportunities are extremely limited. Recently, because of the trend toward having fewer children, the vacancies for teacher education have been limited and the government sponsorship of indigenous teachers has reduced, despite stable growth of indigenous people. From 2007 to 2010, the vacancies have declined to fewer than 10 annually.

What indigenous peoples desire, as TribalCrit theory’s fourth tenet outlines, is the maintainance and possession of tribal sovereignty, tribal autonomy, self-determination, and self-identities (Brayboy, 2006). The shortage of indigenous teachers has resulted in the undesirable outcome of promoting indigenous education and the remaining gaps between indigenous and non-indigenous students. However, education is controlled by majority groups; as a result, indigenous students are ignored in school and left with minimal skills and qualifications. Unfortunately, this means that they are at a disadvantage in job markets (Partington, 2002).

The majority-Han teacher education cannot prevent indigenous students from failing and avoiding the fate of vulnerable generations before them. Therefore, the imperative is to increase the number of indigenous teachers and enhance ethnic education to promote ethnic sovereignty.

Mixed and assimilative styles of teacher preparation

In addition to government-funded vacancies for indigenous teachers, teacher education institutes in colleges also recruit two additional indigenous students for admission by lowering the entrance requirements.

Nowadays, indigenous students study in different colleges. In terms of need, the number of pre-service indigenous teachers is fewer than that of indigenous schools and students. No matter how indigenous teachers or students are identified, they are given a one-size-fits-all training in different colleges rather than using multicultural teaching. When it comes to teacher recruiting in Taiwan, aboriginal and non-aboriginal areas are not separated. In addition, if they are willing, all teachers can work in any school in Taiwan. Thus, non-indigenous teachers can also teach in indigenous areas, whether they have taken courses in multicultural education or not. When schools are recruiting, non-indigenous and indigenous teachers can teach in aboriginal areas and key aboriginal schools.

Given this background, when teachers with inadequate minority-culture training interact with indigenous students, cultural conflict and imbalance can be provoked. In other words, the general teacher education program is not suitable for teachers and indigenous students. As Tenet 6 points out, government policies and education for indigenous peoples are closely related to the assimilation of differences (Brayboy, 2006). Unfortunately, the one-size-fits-all training approach leads to more serious assimilations, and the values of the minority are simply assimilated by the majority.

In brief, training for indigenous teachers can be divided into three stages: training as general teacher students, encouraging them to take multicultural education courses, and assigning them to instruct and even deliver programs on tribal culture in indigenous schools. To address the identified problem, the government has offered mobile assistance, advanced study and training courses, and credit classes to strengthen teachers’ knowledge of tribal culture (Ministry of Education, 2013b). Such adjunctive training is not actually effective. Pre-service indigenous teachers who do not receive multicultural education or training in adjunctive ways probably have difficulties instructing indigenous students.

Taiwanese society expects teachers to see the world from different views, to appreciate the ideal of indigenous education, to develop the ability to negotiate with indigenous students and their parents, to realize the goal of bicultural education, to reply to particular problems about urban and rural indigenous education, to choose and apply appropriate languages for education, to understand the development of indigenous teacher education, and to comprehend the objectives of national aboriginal education policy (Hickling-Hudson and McMeniman, 1996).

Governments have prioritized the hiring of indigenous teachers. Using the National Curriculum Standards in Australia as a model, all teacher education institutes should include courses about cultural teaching or respecting the differences of languages (Partington, 2002). In the US, recruiting more Indian teachers is the goal; hence, every state legislates for cultivating Indian teachers. For example, Minnesota assigned four universities to the Minnesota Indian Teacher Training Partnership (MNITTP) in 1992, which offers scholarship and loans to Indian students seeking to complete teacher-training education (Minnesota Department of Education, 2014).

The ethnic cultural curriculum in teacher education

The problems of indigenous education are related to teacher preparation and recruitment. However, most teacher-education university programs in Taiwan only provide elective courses about designing a multicultural curriculum or tribal culture education. This does not help pre-service teachers interact with aboriginal students in the future or offer appropriate consultations and conditions. As Tenet 7 mentions, tribal philosophies, beliefs, customs, traditions, and visions for the future are central to understanding the lived realities of indigenous peoples, but they also illustrate differences and adaptability among individuals and groups (Brayboy, 2006). By possessing these abilities, indigenous teachers can deliver them to indigenous students. In Taiwan, this is what indigenous teacher education lacks.

Compared to the other countries mentioned above, Taiwan’s aboriginal teacher education is blended into the general teacher education rather than being defined as an independent unit. There is no specific education program for indigenous students, but the government offers sponsorship for indigenous students to accept general teacher education. Working in the tribes, these indigenous teachers take responsibility for reviving tribal culture. However, some colleges do not offer courses in multiculture education or educational anthropology in tribal education because these are not distinct items under school evaluation. As a result, pre-service teachers lack appropriate literacy for the minority culture.

For example, in Canada, experts have presented some suggestions for teacher education. Harper (2000) advised that teacher training for all teacher candidates in faculties of education should be comprised of the following elements.

Inclusion of more indigenous content across all education courses and more revelation about indigenous literature and issues.

Classroom management strategies to deal with high absenteeism, poor learning, deviant behavior, violence, and teaching English as second language.

Multicultural and cross-cultural teaching strategies.

A period of internship in the First Nations schools and multi-grade environment.

A spotlight on special education.

An emphasis on inquiry or problem-solving, so that challenges and surprizes are normal.

Guidelines that enhance pre-service teachers’ cross-cultural knowledge and teaching skills (Anderson et al., 2004).

Using Queen University, located in Canada, as an example, if a pre-service teacher wants to teach in aboriginal areas, he/she must take courses in indigenous education. The available courses include aboriginal perspectives, balancing aboriginal-specific and student-centered learning with knowledge of the teaching/learning process, and research on aboriginal education. Moreover, indigenous students are given priority enrollment, although the program is open to non-indigenous students.

The current core of teacher education in Taiwan’s universities not only includes no indigenous education courses, but it also includes few ethnic and multicultural courses. Those courses may not be offered because the Ministry of Education only “encourages” universities to offer such courses rather than compelling them, despite the Education Act for Indigenous Peoples in 1998—a law that remains incomplete. In 1978 in the US, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) stated that institutes of education had to include programs about ethnic culture in teacher education courses to cultivate teachers’ multicultural literacy (NCATE, 1983). In 1981, each institution was required to prove that multicultural education was incorporated into its courses. In 1990, NCATE added an assessment of whether teacher education institutes were encouraging students from financial, social, and cultural backgrounds to apply for the teacher education courses and whether teachers in teacher education institutions reflected cultural pluralism (NCATE, 1990).

In Taiwan, the Ministry of Education subsumes multicultural courses under school evaluations, making it hard to request teacher education programs that offer related courses. Therefore, the completion of the relevant legislation must include an evaluation of teacher education institutions. Indeed, it seems that resolving the problem of offering multicultural courses is connected to teachers’ ability to acquire an understanding of ethnic culture in teacher education institutions. This is an important aspect for discussion. For example, the Los Angeles Unified School District formulated teacher training by developing multicultural courses, such as knowing specific ethnic groups and teaching skills. It emphasized not only the multicultural skills of pre-service teachers, but also the instructions for students of different ethnicities with multicultural perspectives for students (McDiarmid, 1990). Thus far, Taiwan’s teacher education system has colonized indigenous teachers’ education; therefore, the entire indigenous teacher education program should be reviewed, and the government must offer more professional ethnic knowledge to give new meaning to the concepts of culture, knowledge, and power through an indigenous lens (Brayboy, 2006).

Teaching indigenous students in urban contexts

Many indigenous people have moved to urban areas to pursue more work opportunities; likewise, more indigenous students have chosen to study in the city. An estimated 60% of aboriginal students study in non-indigenous areas (Ministry of Education, 2013a). If non-indigenous teachers are going to instruct indigenous students, they must possess multicultural teaching skills. If non-indigenous teachers have a learning deficiency and cultural disadvantage, it will deeply affect the indigenous students’ learning achievements.

Finney and Orr (1995) found that non-aboriginal teacher education students have strong biases and misconceptions about the need to strengthen multicultural courses for pre-service teachers. As a result, pre-service teachers must enhance their teaching skills so that they can successfully teach aboriginal students. They have the right to develop cultural competency and compete in education systems that require appropriate knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Teachers and schools must be ready for the students (Price and Hughes, 2009).

The limited number of indigenous students distributed in urban areas leads to inadequate teaching. To deal with the problem, the government provides teachers who have served in non-indigenous schools, along with rhetoric which aims to resolve the insufficiency of multicultural education and increase teachers’ understanding of diverse ethnic groups. For non-indigenous teachers, the courses are too few to broaden their knowledge of indigenous students. In indigenous areas, the government offers mobile assistance, advanced study and training courses, and credit classes to strengthen teachers’ knowledge of tribal culture (Ministry of Education, 2003).

In Saskatchewan in Canada, the Ministry of Education established the Aboriginal Curriculum Committee in 1984 to evaluate the indigenous curriculum development (Government of Saskatchewan, 2015). Canada’s teacher education programs emphasize how to apply culture, language, history, and traditional wisdom to teaching. Regardless of the kinds of teachers, the priority is to reflect the needs of “First Nations” students. Within Canada, “First Nations” is generally used to replace the deprecated term “Indians” for the indigenous peoples of the Americas and formally refers to any of the numerous aboriginal groups, except for Inuit and Métis. It is recognized by the Canadian government under the Indian Act of 1876 (Bartlett, 1988; Wikipedia, 2015).

On the other hand, to address the needs of those K–12 students who study in cities, the Gabriel Dumont Institute of Native Studies and Applied Research (2014) offers the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program (SUNTEP) to foster indigenous culture.

Nowadays, 60% of indigenous students study in urban areas in Taiwan. Without a doubt, non-indigenous teachers need an urban indigenous teacher education program to prepare them for the education of indigenous students and the heritage of ethnic culture.

Multi-directional planning and enforcement of policy

Taiwan’s laws about education are overlapping. The Education Act for Indigenous Peoples is not only an act of education related to indigenous peoples; it also includes Education Basic Law, Compulsory Education Law, Teacher Education Law, and laws related to educational institutions. In the practical context, local governments do not follow the law of indigenous education. The law is just a reference rather than a requirement, so when the laws contravene each other, the Education Act for Indigenous Peoples is ignored.

The insufficient number of indigenous teachers and the imbalance between the courses that the government runs and those that teachers need, means that the big problem facing Taiwan’s education system is its inability to meet indigenous peoples’ needs in teacher education. Four departments are involved in indigenous teacher education. The Council of Indigenous Peoples is in charge of the shape and operation of aboriginal education. The Ministry of Education offers seats for government sponsorship. County/city governments oversee the recruitment of teachers. Finally, teacher education centers in university provide pre-service training.

The issue is unwieldy and complicated because it is affected by many aspects, including central and local governments. As a result, as soon as the Act was passed, local government in the eastern region—which is home to the highest number of indigenous schools—claimed that it had failed to recruit the legally required proportion of indigenous teachers. Although the Education Act for Indigenous Peoples forces those teachers who would work in tribes to acquire a specific university degree, the requirement is lower than that in the US, Canada, and Australia. Even if the Ministry of Education has the right to “advise” universities to set up courses about aboriginal culture, it cannot force them to do so. Neither can county/city governments. Therefore, complementary measures and penal provisions relating to aboriginal education must be seriously considered.

In Canada, the control and certification of teacher education in First Nations schools are essential for the success of the education system. There are three steps to setting up an effective system of teacher education: recognizing the work of First Nations institutions in teacher education; developing standards for First Nations education/teaching and developing a certificate for teachers; and developing an aboriginal/First Nations teacher education program to promote and develop the First Nations standards of practice and ensure the success of First Nations students (Anderson et al., 2004).

By and large, Canada’s policies can serve as a reference for others. In terms of the cooperation within the divisions in a country, it still has conflicts and collaborations. Only with scholars’ specific efforts to work for the benefit of society will changes be possible and strong connections between theory and practice be maintained (Brayboy, 2006).

Reflections (the faint glimmer of hope for indigenous education)

Indigenous people have experienced every period in Taiwan’s history, and their development is a part of the story of Taiwan. Although Tenet 8 of TribalCrit theory mentions that stories cannot be divided from theory, they in fact generate theory as legitimate sources of data (Brayboy, 2006). There is no narrative story in the tenet, but it introduces the contradictions and difficulties that exist between Taiwanese legislation and the practice of multiculturalism. If the relevant authorities can take action by adhering to the law relating to indigenous peoples’ education, the teacher education system will be changed, thereby creating more splendid stories in Taiwan’s history.

By 2013, the amendment to the Education Act for Indigenous Peoples was completed. According to Article 24, “Qualified teachers of indigenous education shall have studied indigenous peoples’ culture or multi-cultural education courses to improve their professional teaching ability.” According to Article 25,

Indigenous elementary and junior high schools, indigenous classes, and indigenous key schools shall recruit teachers who have an indigenous identity to make up a set proportion of the full-time teachers being recruited to fill the vacancies each year; within five years from when the amendments of the Act come into force, the proportion of teachers with an indigenous identity shall not be permitted to be less than one-third of the teaching staffs of any such school, or to comprise no less a proportion of the teaching staff than the proportion of the total student population of that school that its indigenous students comprise.

Such amendments forcefully regulate the identity of qualified teachers of indigenous education and multicultural cultivation. Nevertheless, even now, some county and city governments still underscore the difficulty of implementing the act. Some indigenous school principals have also expressed their concern that the goal is difficult to achieve (Taiwan Indigenous TV, 2013). Many of the supporting measures have not been finalized yet, and the completed planning has not been seen.

The justification of educational policies could be achieved through legislation and the participation of both experts and the public (Welch, 1991). Because the legislative and amended procedure is complete, in 2014 the Ministry of Education decided to increase the number of indigenous pre-service teachers every year. The threshold for government-funded pre-service teachers with an indigenous identity was established, and the standards were raised for government-funded pre-service teachers. The Ministry of Education also stipulated that government-funded indigenous students should pass an aboriginal language proficiency test and provide a demo lesson before graduation. Furthermore, they have to complete an internship in the tribes (Ministry of Education, 2015). Yet the good intentions of the legislative practice have only just been announced in a press release; they will need time to come to fruition.

The related issues for indigenous culture, indigenous students, indigenous socialization, and multicultural education must be promoted among teachers who teach in the indigenous regions. Originally, the Education Act for Indigenous Peoples stipulated that each university of education should reserve specific enrolled quotas for indigenous students in order to ensure the fulfillment of qualified teachers of indigenous education. In addition, based on local government requirements for teachers of indigenous education, publicly funded quotas should be offered to indigenous students. Teachers of indigenous education should also be required to take courses in indigenous culture and multicultural education.

The comprehensive planning of indigenous education, especially teacher education, could be formulated based on amendments to the Education Act for Indigenous Peoples. The number of indigenous teachers could grow, and the objectives of indigenous education could be finalized after revising teacher education courses.

Educating the next generation of indigenous students in an indigenous way will help Taiwan take a great step toward creating a multicultural society. It is impracticable for teachers who have only mainstream thoughts to educate minority students. The completion of the Education Act for Indigenous Peoples is a turning point, but we still have to strive toward the goal.

The law that passed in 2013 required the identification of educators. However, the problem of indigenous education relates to ethnic justice instead of the right to work. How do multicultural countries cultivate teachers for aboriginal education? What do the courses have to cover and what difficulties do they face in the implementation? The answers to these questions can serve as references for Taiwan. This paper provides some reflections on the challenges of implementation and refers to foreign experiences of multicultural countries as examples. It offers some inspirations for Taiwan’s current aboriginal teacher education after the completion of the amendment of the Education Act for Indigenous Peoples. A glimmer of hope for indigenous education can be seen.