Learning content of ‘multiculturalism’ for children in Taiwan’s elementary schools

Abstract

By reading, reviewing, analyzing and discussing the literature related to ‘multiculturalism’, this article aims to explore the learning content of ‘multiculturalism’ for children in Taiwan’s elementary schools. I analyze the focus of teaching from the perspectives of ethnicity, language, gender, religion and class. In terms of ethnicity, teachers should help children understand, respect and appreciate the cultures of various ethnic groups. In terms of language, teachers should teach children to respect the languages of ethnic groups. In terms of gender, teachers should cultivate children’s sense of gender equality and create a ‘gender-equal’ society to avoid gender discrimination and oppression. In terms of religion, teachers should teach children to respect, appreciate and be tolerant of religious beliefs. In terms of class, teachers must help children understand that members of various social classes should coexist peacefully to prevent class oppression. Additionally, teachers have a crucial role in teaching practice; teachers should increase their awareness of beliefs, values, educational ideals, practical knowledge and external environmental challenges; and teachers should be willing to use new approaches and changes to curricula. Active participation in curriculum formation and teaching practice is essential; otherwise, making the required substantial changes to the curriculum and teaching of ‘multiculturalism’ would be difficult. Based on the aforementioned discussion, children can be taught to recognize, respect and appreciate cultures and enhance their understanding of ‘multiculturalism’.

Introduction

The article raises a critical question regarding the current development of Taiwan’s education on the basis of the changes that have been occurring because of the multicultural movement, migration of individuals from other countries, and overall influence of globalization and localization in the country. The author is concerned with the practice of multicultural education for children in Taiwan.

Since the 1960s, many studies on the equality of educational opportunities, social stratification and the inequality of social mobility in society have stimulated pluralism and incorporated radical, contemporary arguments for social critical theory. For example, Marcuse (1964) proposed that under modern capitalism, rapidly expanding national, international monopolies and large-scale state interventions have already provided individuals with control over their lives. This proposal forms the common theme of the critical theory – the domination relationship. In the domination relationship, individuals’ human development tends to be dehumanized, and individuals may not know how to love, respect and appreciate other individuals and cultures. The interaction with external things is often based on interests. The ‘tool rationality’ has been emphasized by notable scholars, such as Jürgen Habermas (Cheng, 1988). Habermas criticized the current instrumental rationality in the modern world, and prescribed that the rationality of action should be based on mutual understanding between individuals. Instrumental rationality is to confirm the usefulness of tools (means) through practical means, so as to pursue the maximum effectiveness of things and serve some utilitarian realization of people. Instrumental rationality is the rationality that achieves its purpose most effectively through the accurate calculation of utilitarian methods. It is a value with tool worship and technicalism as its survival goals (Habermas, 1984).

Regarding the actual situation, the practice of multicultural education should also be based on individuals’ mutual understanding; that is, based on Habermas’ communicative rationality to enhance mutual understanding between teachers and students, and individuals of different ethnic groups, language, gender, religion and class. Moreover, teachers have a crucial role in teaching practice; teachers should increase their awareness of beliefs, values, educational ideals, practical knowledge and external environmental challenges; and teachers should be willing to use new approaches and changes to curricula. Active participation in curriculum formation and teaching practice is essential for multicultural education.

Furthermore, multicultural education has long been promoted in Taiwan, but the difficulty of its implementation is the lack of multicultural environment in schools (Wang, 2010). In other words, schools are insufficiently sensitive to multicultural education, and schools are not considered an arena of multiple ideologies and powers. Additionally, in the current environment, classroom teachers are the only source for students to experience cultural responsive teaching and cultural communication, but they have limited time to perform this vital duty (Wang, 2010). Therefore, how to increase teachers’ understanding of the learning content of multiculturalism under limited resources to promote multicultural education is on the agenda in the current reform of Taiwan’s elementary school curriculum. To achieve this goal, Taiwan’s pre-service teachers’ program has been providing courses in multicultural education. In these classes, teachers learn the professional knowledge required to implement multicultural education in the classroom. In addition, in order to improve the effectiveness of the school’s multicultural education practice, the textbook also incorporates the concept of multicultural education, hoping to enhance children’s respect for different cultures. However, what is the multicultural connotation of children’s learning? This is the focus of this article. For this reason, the focus of this paper is elementary education; and also because childhood is a crucial period of development and the best stage to implement education. At this stage, the meaning of ethnicity, language, gender, religion and class can be taught to children.

The author read, reviewed, analyzed and discussed the literature related to ‘multiculturalism’ to explore the learning content of ‘multiculturalism’ for children in Taiwan’s elementary schools. The aim is that this discussion helps school children recognize, respect and appreciate different cultures, and increases children’s understanding of different views on ‘multiculturalism’. This curriculum also promotes children’s critical abilities.

Multiculturalism

In multiculturalism, assimilation is opposed, so an argument against assimilation has been proposed that actively emphasizes pluralism and has been defined and classified by the attributes of ethnicity, gender, language and culture (Cheng, 1988). This perspective of assimilation ignores the subjectivity and uniqueness of ethnic groups and cannot highlight individuals’ dissimilarities and provide equal opportunities. Therefore, with the emergence of postmodernism, scholars have reconciled absolute standards of rationality with those of relativism, and attempted to construct a theory of ideals that works toward justice, and eliminates the inequality of ethnicity, language, gender, religion and class. On this basis, we believe that we can build a more just society (Cheng, 1988).

To understand the theoretical basis of multicultural education, we must first understand the relevant discourse of multiculturalism. The connotation of multiculturalism has not yet been clearly defined, and its discourse itself has a rather complicated concept. The connotation of multiculturalism was divided into three categories by Peter McLaren. The three categories are: conservative, left-liberal and critical (McLaren, 1995). Conservative multiculturalism emphasizes the capital culture and free competition of the market. Its ideas and beliefs are derived from social Darwinian thought, and the survival system of the fittest is most beneficial to human needs. The multicultural view of leftist liberalism is based on concern for the treatment of minorities in society. It advocates that social resources and welfare measures should be available to these ethnic groups (Chang and Wang, 2010).

Postmodern definitions of minority or vulnerable groups are more diffuse. Community groups such as ethnic groups, religions, genders, ages, social standards, mother tongues, geographical locations, residential areas, and special physical and mental conditions, and the ecological environments of animals and plants, which cannot speak for themselves, are all topics of discussion. Critical multiculturalism believes that the cause of oppression lies in the overall structure and social inequality and injustice. Without the social structural factors being reversed, real fairness cannot be achieved. Without justice, a multicultural society cannot be realized (Chang and Wang, 2010). Justice can help to achieve a society that is equitable, peaceful and sustainable.

This article is based on critical multiculturalism. The author believes that the cause of oppression lies in the overall structure; and in social inequality and injustice in Taiwan, as experienced by new immigrants and by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people. To eliminate oppression, we can use the Habermas’ idea of communicative rationality. Habermas believes that rational communication must allow the dialogist to rationally argue in the ideal speech situation. Therefore, the ideal speech situation is one of the indispensable elements for reaching a mutual understanding consensus (Habermas, 1984). Developing the ideal speech situation among people is the beginning of eliminating oppression.

Taiwan’s elementary school curriculum and teacher education

‘Multiculturalism’ is generally perceived as a set of theoretical and political answers to cultural diversity, including the array of paradigms, efforts and reflections regarding how to ensure non-discriminatory and inclusive perspectives within diverse social practices, including educational practices (Canen, 2005). This article aims to promote the ideas of non-discriminatory and inclusive perspectives in the practice of elementary school education.

The article also aims to provide learning content for ‘multiculturalism’ for children in Taiwan’s elementary schools. The case of Taiwan is worthy of investigation because this nation is a multicultural society in ethnicity, culture and politics. In its 400-year history, Taiwan has experienced various cultural and political clashes between different ethnic groups, the monarchy, colonial government, dictatorship and democracy. The entangled history and recent waves of immigrants from South Asia make Taiwan a special case in East Asia (Liu and Lin, 2011). Thus, from the 9-year curriculum to the 12-year curriculum, ‘multiculturalism’ has always been an essential topic in curricula.

Pre-service teachers in Taiwan must receive training on the correct understanding of multicultural education to design multicultural courses and lesson plans for students. Teacher education must also include means to enhance in-service teachers’ awareness of multicultural education and multicultural courses for professional development for in-service elementary school teachers. Additionally, strategies to overcome the prejudice of pre-service teachers or in-service teachers against multicultural education are critical to increase students’ multicultural understanding.

The praxis of multicultural education in Taiwan’s elementary schools

In 1987, the government announced the lifting of political martial law, and further carried out the full democratization of Taiwanese society. Other emerging social movements were rising, including the women’s movement, the indigenous movement and the education reform movement. The ‘decentralization’ of ‘diversification’ became the vocabulary of modern and progressive democracy. In the 1980s and 1990s, Taiwan’s society changed rapidly. In the 1990s, the term ‘multicultural education’ began to appear in Taiwan (Lee, 2017).

Internet media technology has been improving rapidly. Regional exchanges are frequent and interactive. When individuals do not understand each other, misunderstandings often occur, causing various problems. Thus, strengthening the cultural identity of future citizens in elementary schools in Taiwan would avoid some of these problems. Cultural identity means that individuals can identify with their own culture.

In addition, the education of the second generation of new immigrants in Taiwan has become a priority in universal school education. Taiwanese citizens have been marrying individuals from other countries; for example, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines (Gau, 2010; Taiwan Ministry of the Interior, 2017). This migration has been an impetus to increase the awareness of and respect for multiculturalist values among teachers and students such that they develop an understanding of diversity and inclusiveness. Students of all ethnicities and cultures should receive equal treatment. Furthermore, students can become global citizens and use their broad worldview to adapt to current trends (Gau, 2010). Thus, multicultural teaching is a critical topic in Taiwan’s elementary education system. The 12-Year Compulsory Education Curriculum Outline was promulgated by Taiwan’s Ministry of Education in 2014. The curriculum outline asserts that citizens have the responsibility to respect the diversity of cultures and ethnic groups. Students can respect and appreciate multiculturalism, have an international vision and actively care about global issues or international situations, and have international mobility. Therefore, curricula of elementary schools in Taiwan must emphasize the recognition of respect and appreciation for ethnic cultures and their voices. The curriculum outline mentions 19 issues, and ‘multiculturalism’ is one of those issues (Taiwan Ministry of Education, 2014). Thus, teachers in elementary school are likely to incorporate ‘multiculturalism’ into educational practice.

Therefore, to promote the development of multicultural education, teachers must receive training in multicultural teaching, and the structure of school curricula and the teaching practices of teachers must be reformed to provide an authentic multicultural educational environment that guides modern citizens’ multicultural perspectives (Wu, 2000).

Finally, culture is an integral part of society. When society comprises various ethnic groups with different cultures, a multicultural society is formed. Integration in a multicultural society is integral to promoting appreciation and respect for the various cultures and preventing discrimination, conflict and oppression. Thus, in education in Taiwan, multicultural programs are being implemented in elementary schools to promote school children’s understanding of ethnicities, languages, sexual constructs, classes and religions in Taiwan (Shih and Ye, 2017).

In conclusion, because of the direct influence of the globalization of immigrants, countries have increasingly been transforming into multicultural societies. In Taiwan, elementary schools comprise diverse groups of students and parents of multiple ethnic groups, languages, genders, religions and classes. The function of modern school education should differ from the traditional education atmosphere. The multicultural education required at this stage should teach children to recognize the cultural differences of various social backgrounds. Teachers can use cultural differences in the actual teaching process to affirm diverse cultural values and provide the learning content and opportunities for school children of all cultural backgrounds (Wang, 2010).

Learning content of multiculturalism for children

Most teachers collaborate sincerely and diligently for the benefit of children, and in the course of every effort they can improve pedagogy (Parker, 1902). To teach any subject, teachers must clearly define what they want to teach through the text and ideological definitions. In this manner, teachers can understand what they want to teach and execute it in the best possible manner (Parker, 1896). In a multicultural society, teachers should examine the cultural values reflected in the contents of textbooks, and how ethnicity, language, gender, religion and class are addressed. Teachers should also avoid textbooks that represent a single culture, to avoid students forming a certain cultural hegemony (Su, 2013). Cultural hegemony refers to domination or rule maintained through ideological or cultural means, usually achieved through social institutions which allow individuals in power to strongly influence the values, norms, ideas, expectations, worldview and behavior of society (Cole, 2018). Through various teaching materials and network resources, the culture of each country can be introduced. ‘Multiculturalism’ should be integrated into various disciplines. To expand the multicultural outlook of children, teachers should combine ‘multiculturalism’ with the daily life of students (Su, 2013).

Furthermore, the topics of ethnicity, language, gender, religion or class can trigger conflict among communities; thus, the critical goals of multicultural education are to reduce prejudice, provide equal opportunities for development and create a culture of inclusive differences (Hsu, 2016). Based on this, what should comprise the content of Taiwan’s elementary school multiculturalism curricula? The author further elaborates on the aspects of ethnicity, language, gender, religion and class in the following sections.

Ethnicity

Regarding the historical development of education, education experienced by learners often varies by ethnic group. Therefore, ethnicity in education has become a focus of educators and has received increasing attention in major western education systems. Research on ethnicity in the United States has investigated this topic in the context of various types of institutions and interpersonal relationships as well as among white and black individuals and has provided evidence that culture is a facet of overall society (Apple, 2001; Gillborn, 2000; Klein, 1993).

Much like the United States, Taiwan has a long historical tradition of immigration that fueled its early development. From the 17th century to the 1940s, immigration and the development of Taiwan were largely shaped both directly and indirectly by the Dutch and the empires of China and Japan (Lin, 2012). Taiwan is a multi-ethnic society with individuals from, for example, indigenous peoples, Heluo, Hakka and Mainlander backgrounds. Furthermore, the differences among cultures should be overcome through friendship and cooperation and not cause conflicts between, for example, individuals or provinces. In addition, as the number of new immigrant families and their children increases in Taiwan, the nation must highlight the value of Taiwan’s multicultural society. Teachers who interact with students of diverse cultural backgrounds require literacy and awareness of multicultural education to teach children to recognize, respect and appreciate all ethnicities and cultures (FM Chen, 2011). The implementation of ethnicity into the curriculum should increase children’s understanding of the ethnic groups in Taiwan. Each group has a unique cultural context (Mercado, 2001); for example, food, clothing and type of residence. The peaceful coexistence of all groups in Taiwan would promote its prosperity and national security.

Teachers can integrate ethnicity into the curriculum by playing videos of ethnic groups in social science and then holding discussions on the content of the film to strengthen students' learning experience. In this manner, children can understand the culture of different ethnic groups and then respect and appreciate different ethnic cultures.

In addition, teachers can integrate culturally responsive teaching, a teaching practice orientation developed in multicultural education. The concept of culturally responsive teaching originated in the 1970s and aims to assist students with cultural differences to have a more equal opportunity to pursue excellence, and means that classroom teaching can refer to the characteristics of ethnic groups, consider the cultural background and learning style of the students in the curriculum and teaching, and use the mother culture of the students as a bridge for learning (Ho and Lin, 2006).

Finally, in general, reformation of programs that promote school performance and ethnic identity of minority students, based primarily on micro-level analysis of cultural diversity or exclusive focus on the minority’s point of view, will not be sufficiently effective. An often proposed argument is that minority groups will become vulnerable if they overemphasize the task of fixing up an ‘ever-changing’ identity, and minority groups will lose the competition in education, economics and politics.

Because the members of the majority group, in the meantime, are busy equipping themselves to win the proverbial competition in education, economics and politics (Chang, 2014).

Language

The purpose of the implementation of language into the curriculum is to help children understand that culture is almost equivalent to language. If a culture loses its language, the survival of the culture is precarious. Thus, the languages of ethnic groups, such as Heluo, Hakka and indigenous, should be respected. Notably, life is equal, language rights are a basic human right and all ethnic groups are equal. Therefore, the previous policy of honoring the ‘national language’ was inappropriate. The author remembers that when he was an elementary school student, the teacher punished the students for speaking Heluo and insisted they speak the national language. Taiwan is a multilingual culture; thus, its original native languages, especially indigenous languages, should be actively encouraged. Society does not have to accept the pessimism of ‘language warfare’, because a multilingual culture is an asset to society, and a society that guarantees language rights is satisfactory for its members and can promote ethnic harmony. Taiwan must be a multilingual society. All individuals should respect others’ language rights and embrace multilingual culture and all ethnic groups (Her, 2009).

All of the aforementioned should be understood by students. Teachers can integrate language issues into curriculum practice; for example, children can learn languages such as Taiwanese and Hakka and indigenous languages in local language courses. In addition, since 2018, the Ministry of Education has made Southeast Asian languages part of children’s optional language subject. This change can help children understand the relationship between language and culture.

Gender

In multicultural education, sexual orientation is a crucial topic (Liao et al., 2009). Gender is one of the most basic attributes of human beings. All human activities and human-related phenomena have gender implications (Hsieh and You, 2004).

Gender is a complex relationship (Biklen and Pollard, 2001) and should comprise harmonious relationships between women and men, the (unequal) position and treatment of women and men in society, and the consequences this may have. Notably, serious efforts should be made to ensure equal treatment for men and women.

Second, education is the most economical and effective method to guide issues related to gender awareness. This field can stimulate social change and is a tool for reconstructing society. The essence of gender-equality education should be to enable learners to examine and deconstruct their potential gender discrimination awareness and myths during the learning process, and to recognize the differences and similarities between the physiology, psychology and sociology of sexual orientations. Fostering gender-responsive development and mutual respect is also essential. This is the essence of gender-equality education (Liao et al., 2009).

Finally, teachers can integrate ‘gender’ into the social science curriculum. Teachers should convey to children that gender is a social construct and help children break down gender stereotypes and improve gender sensitivity. Teachers should also convey to students that all genders deserve respect, cultivate children’s awareness of gender equality, strive to create a gender-equal society and avoid gender discrimination and oppression. In this manner, the development of a harmonious, multi-gendered society would benefit the country’s overall development. This ideal can be achieved by allowing children to appreciate and discuss films on ‘gender’. In addition, to strengthen teachers’ self-awareness to reconstruct the idea of gender equality in the interaction of children. In other words, teachers must treat each child equally, regardless of the child's gender. Teachers’ respect for children is a prerequisite to children’s learning to respect other individuals in the process of being respected. I posit that this allows children to understand gender from diverse perspectives.

Religion

The influence of the Roman Catholic Church is significant in Italy, an increasing number of Muslim immigrants are arriving in Italy, and school-age immigrants are attending Italian schools. The significance of this phenomenon is realized in religious and cultural ignorance or intolerance (Kowalczyk and Popkewitz, 2005). For Taiwanese society, although religious traditions are not as firmly rooted as in western society, religious activities are always a non-negligible force. Religions have a substantial influence on the daily lives of the individuals that subscribe to them. From a multicultural perspective, religion and its related courses belong to microcultures and should not be absent from the school curriculum. ‘Religion’ should be integrated into the curriculum. Teachers should help students understand that religion is not required to thrive in a modern pluralistic society. Notably, many individuals are not religious. However, the influence of religion on human society was observed to be increasing (Fang, 2000). Thus, individuals should have the right to practice or not practice a religion. Notably, religion is a manifestation of culture, and different individuals may have different beliefs.

In addition, politics, economy, ethics, religion, art and education are the six basic phenomena of human existence. The relationship between these six basic phenomena is equal to each other and related to each other, but they are not subordinate to each other and they cannot be reduced to each other. Religion is one of these six basic human phenomena and occupies a very important position in human daily life. At present, there are many religions in Taiwan’s society, and people have different religious beliefs. Therefore, the multicultural education of elementary schools cannot ignore religious issues (Liang, 1999).

Teachers can integrate religion into the social science curriculum by taking children on field trips to religious buildings. During such visits, children can learn about culture, religion and the relationship between the two. In addition, religious educators have tried to construct some new teaching methods and teaching media to replace or make up for the deficiencies of traditional teaching methods. We can be more certain that the spirit of the new teaching method is more oriented to the following teaching purposes: (a) make students truly understand the meaning of religious classics, not just recitation; (b) make teaching methods and teaching materials of interest to students; (c) make sure the learner knows how to apply religious doctrine to daily life (Thomas, 1997). In this way, children can respect the cultures of different religions and respect different the religious beliefs of people.

Class

In Taiwan, education is a tool to improve income and is a critical indicator of social status. Whether educational attainment occurs in accordance with the principles of equality of educational opportunity has become a critical topic in research on educational stratification (Hwang and Yang, 2016). Notably, Hwang and Yang (2016) demonstrated that educational opportunities are not equal, and a sharp downward trend was observed in the inequality of educational opportunity.

A crucial factor over time has been that middle and upper classes use cultural hegemony to establish their mainstream ideological culture in the curriculum. These classes have more cultural capital than the lower classes, and their thinking patterns are compatible with the content of school textbooks. Naturally, the middle and upper classes can attain satisfactory academic achievement. Different social classes form different ‘inner-thinking systems’ or ‘habits’. Thus, different social classes produce different cultures. The formation and solidification of the ‘inner-thinking systems’ of different social classes are rooted in the family. In the family, parents are usually the main custodians of students, and their culture, values, attitudes and behaviors; therefore, parents have a profound influence on the ‘inner thinking systems’ of the next generation (Yan, 2010). In such circumstances, class reincarnation often occurs, and disadvantaged children are produced.

Additionally, many social science theories and policies have been actively discussed and have gradually become strong arguments against the predominance of dominant cultures, such as the theories of Pierre Bourdieu. Bourdieu asserted that schools often promote the norms of the dominating group as the appropriate norms for all students. Moreover, teachers have a crucial role in teaching practice; thus, students are likely to be exposed to middle-class values. In this manner, in the teaching process, class reproduction is easy to initiate. Thus, unsurprisingly, Bourdieu asserted that habits may accumulate through the operation of education (Bourdieu and Passerson, 1977; Harker, 2000). In Taiwan, some ethnic groups have a relatively weak culture and are often dominated by dominant cultures. For example, children whose parents are immigrants have difficulties in academic learning. The crucial reasons for this outcome are an unsatisfactory learning environment and insufficient stimulation that result in low motivation for learning (Tai and Lin, 2006). Children whose parents are immigrants are a relatively weak group and have a weakened cultural identity in Taiwan. Therefore, how to avoid cultural reproduction or even class reproduction is a critical concern that must be considered in the practice of multicultural education in Taiwan’s elementary schools with the goal of achieving a just and peaceful society.

The working class is often unable to achieve upward mobility, as described by Willis (1981) in Learning to Labor. At the beginning of the book, Willis raises a question: ‘how working class kids get working class jobs?' (1981: 1) The explanation is structurally oriented: the closed structure of the ‘bourgeois cultural values’ makes the working class ‘misunderstand’ that physical work is the best choice for them, or they think they have no choice (Jiang, 2011). To integrate class into the curriculum, teachers must help children understand that different social classes exist in society. Different social classes have different cultures. For example, the ruling class is influenced by their privilege. One generation will sustain the next generation as the future ruling class. However, teachers can help children understand that social classes should peacefully coexist, and not engage in class oppression, to realize a humane society.

Teachers can integrate class into the social science curriculum by playing videos on the lifestyles of the various social classes; then, students would more profoundly recognize the relationship between class and culture. Teachers should also strive to be aware of the class differences and power relations they create and how to improve or eliminate inequalities in political and socioeconomic status in educational practice.

Recommendations, reflections, and conclusion

Recommendations

The purpose of this article is to explore the learning content of multiculturalism for children in Taiwan’s elementary schools. The learning content is explained from the perspectives of ethnicity, language, gender, religion and class. The article also analyzes the teaching focus of each orientation to provide suggestions to improve teachers’ teaching. Regarding ethnicity and culture, teachers should develop children’s knowledge of ethnic groups in their nation, respect and appreciation for the cultures of various ethnic groups, and intercultural competencies. Coexistence is an ideal pursued by multiculturalism. Thus, regarding language and culture, children must understand that culture is almost equal to language. If a culture loses its language, the survival of the culture is precarious. Therefore, languages of ethnic groups should be preserved. Regarding gender and culture, teachers should teach children that gender is a social construct, help children eliminate their gender stereotypes, improve children’s gender sensitivity, help children understand that all genders deserve respect, cultivate children’s awareness of gender equality and create gender-equal societies to avoid the occurrence of gender discrimination and oppression. Regarding religion and culture, teachers should help children understand that religion is a manifestation of culture, individuals may have different beliefs, and mutual respect and tolerance should be practiced. Regarding class and culture, teachers should help children understand that social classes can peacefully coexist, rather than resorting to class oppression; then, in that manner, a humane society can be achieved.

US education scholar Henry Giroux (1988) suggested that any educational reform cannot ignore the wisdom, judgment and experience that teachers can contribute. The active participation of teachers is essential to the success of school educational practice. The aforementioned describes the importance of teachers in educational practice. Additionally, teachers can face up to their crucial role in teaching practice; be aware of their beliefs, values, educational ideals, practical knowledge and external environmental challenges; and be willing to break through their usual teaching status and willingness. The mode of ‘reading clubs’ is used to condense the consensus of teachers through practical awareness and discussion and sharing. This method is more effective to recognize the true nature of ‘multicultural education’. Active participation in the curriculum and teaching practice is necessary; otherwise, making substantial changes to the curriculum and teaching of multiculturalism will be difficult (HL Chen, 2003; Giroux, 1988).

Teachers can also read Neel Mukherjee’s (2014) novel The Lives of Others, which depicts characters managing a situation of extremely violent oppression, as the basis for examining theoretical assumptions on hope, agency and critical consciousness that underpin critical pedagogy. A suggestion is that educational and philosophical value may be derived from a reflection on the ethically troubling choices that individuals in extreme situations make in their fight against oppression, and that through a process of critical consciousness, they become fully free to claim their moral and political agency (Mukherjee, 2014; Suissa, 2017). After reading this novel, I posit that teachers can understand the oppressive essence of ethnicity, language, gender, religion, and class. In other words, teachers can allow children to express their opinions freely on issues such as ethnicity, language, gender, religion and class.

Reflections and conclusion

The developments of multiculturalism in Taiwan have been highly related to the transitions of the politics, economy and society of this nation. When the idea of ‘de-authority’ develops into a representative of modernized progressive democracy, the terms ‘plural’ or ‘multicultural’ rapidly become well-known vocabulary. However, ‘multicultural education’ in Taiwan has developed from the framework of ethnicity, language, gender, religion and class. For the past decade, based on the local contextualizations of multicultural education, the implication is to extend from the indigenous peoples to new immigrants, from sex and gender to LGBTQ education, and from local languages to the Southeast Asian languages of new immigrants. The imagination of modernization, internalization, democratization and globalization plays a significant part in influencing multicultural education in Taiwan. In a society in transition, changing demographics and developments in gender education offer the basis to extend multicultural education locally in Taiwan (Lee, 2017). Furthermore, the objective of rethinking multicultural education in Taiwan should be to develop citizens who strive to create a peaceful and harmonious society for all by addressing, for example, inequality among genders, social classes, ethnicities, religions and language.

The global village has arrived. Individuals worldwide have direct contact through politics, economics, technology, travel and education (Su, 2013). Thus, the practice of multicultural education is necessary in elementary schools in Taiwan. However, in reality, because of the limited time available in elementary schools, the number of students’ learning days approaching saturation, so teachers must integrate multicultural education into the basic learning area, and increasing.

the number of learning sessions beyond the basic learning area is impractical. Therefore, to avoid increasing students’ burden, a better means is to integrate multiculturalism into the curriculum practice in elementary schools in Taiwan. This approach would enable students to understand the learning objectives during their usual learning hours, and adopt a multi-perspective approach to learning. In this manner, students would gain a broader understanding. The 12-Year Compulsory Education Curriculum Outline (Taiwan Ministry of Education, 2014) has adopted an immersive curriculum design and implementation of the curriculum. This decision is correct and reasonable (Zhang and Zhang, 2015). Second, the purpose of multiculturalism is to eliminate distortions, stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination against ethnic groups, cultures, races and genders. This purpose is also consistent with the social purpose of social work to achieve fairness and justice. In the process of the social realization of fairness and justice, all forms of prejudice, discrimination and inequality must be eliminated (Liao et al., 2009). Thus, the practice of multicultural education is critical. The focus of this article is what to include in the learning content of the multiculturalism curriculum for children in Taiwan’s elementary schools. Finally, the curriculum should focus on increasing children’s understanding of the diverse viewpoints of multiculturalism and cultivating children’s critical thinking abilities. By following this suggestion, a friendly, harmonious and peaceful society could be created and maintained.