Science education reform in confucian learning cultures: policymakers’ perspectives on policy and practice in Taiwan

This qualitative inquiry project investigates the political and policy discourses related to education reform in Taiwan. Specifically, it examines the science education reform policies and policy leaders’ vision for the reform. This work also reveals the unique challenges involved in implementing contemporary science education approaches in a Confucian learning culture. Data sources included reform policy documents and interviews with policymakers. Thematic and constant comparative methods were used to analyze these data. The Foucauldian framework on governmentality served as a lens to examine the historical and political conditions which shaped policy leaders’ rationale for educational change and the strategies that they used to implement the reform policies in local educational institutions. Policymakers identified a number of critical challenges related to the reform initiative, emphasizing that social and cultural traditions in Confucian learning cultures presented significant obstacles to the implementation of inquiry-based and learner-centered approaches in Taiwanese schools. These findings have important implications for future policy and curriculum initiatives in East Asian cultures.