Gaining Insights from Multicultural Curriculum Theories of J.Banks and C.McCarthy for Taiwan's Curriculum Reforms
| Autor: | Chih-hwa Ou, 歐志華 |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2009 |
| Druh dokumentu: | 學位論文 ; thesis |
| Popis: | 97 The present study aimed to explore the multicultural curriculum theories of Banks and McCarthy. It was the hope that through the insights gained from theoretical analysis that new curriculum approaches and practical goals could be established for the multicultural curriculum development of Taiwan’s domestic civil education and adult education. This study thus adopted philosophical hermeneutics and comparative method and proceeds with the following topics. First, by exploring the embedded political and social trends of domestic multicultural curriculum development process, factors that influence the justification, subordination and utilization of multicultural curriculum were thoroughly analyzed. Second, standpoints of Banks and McCarthy in their multicultural curriculum theories concerning ethnicity, identification, knowledge, courses and other aspects were interpreted, and their theories were compared and analyzed. Lastly, theoretical viewpoints of Banks and McCarthy were discussed together with domestic multicultural curriculum problems to explore the insights of the theories and accordingly raised concrete suggestions on curriculum implementation. By exploring the various aspects of the above-mentioned comparisons and contrasts, this study had reached the following conclusions. Taiwan’s multicultural curriculum before and after Taiwan Restoration was still deeply linked to its colonial history. After the 1980s, local powers started to emerge and multicultural curriculum reforms began. From the beginning of 2000, multicultural curriculum policies adopted previous reform notions and entered into a maturation stage of steady development. Although issues related to a multicultural curriculum have drawn increasing attention in Taiwan, the curriculum development, content and implementation still possess various problems. Given that Banks’ theory was based on construction and deconstruction of multicultural knowledge, it had revealed the myth of neutral multicultural knowledge values. Moreover, McCarthy’s multicultural curriculum theory also started from the perspective of post-colonial and global societal conditions and criticized the division over the West vs. non-West as well as the narrow ways of viewing ethnic and cultural concepts. At the same time, McCarthy expressed his dissatisfaction over dominant groups’ control over minor ones with curricula. This study thus cited and interpreted the theories of Banks and McCarthy, hoping that with their extensive viewpoints, Taiwan’s multicultural curriculum reform will be set on a new path. Through reflections on the representation of minority ethnicities through school curriculum and popular culture, and by calling for cultural heterogeneity to be fully expressed in the curriculum to open new dialogues, the theories of McCarthy and Banks indeed brought the following insights to Taiwan’s multicultural curriculum. Regarding curriculum policies, curriculum resource distribution should be based on equality to avoid resource competition which may cause animosity among ethnicities; minority ethnicities should be invited to take part in framing policies. On curriculum content, ideologies of mainstream culture should be done away with, and through the curriculum students would identify with group and national culture, establish positive self-concept, and further re-establishing students’ subject knowledge and fostering their reflective ability. On the development of curriculum implementation, multiculture should combine various subjects and fields for devising practical implementation strategies, and at the same time, the interactive effects among groups, classes and genders should be taken into account. Regarding curriculum theories, other than reflecting again upon the role of recreating ethnic equality, a critical multicultural curriculum reform should also avoid being trapped by the reins of ethnocentrism. Given the above-mentioned insights, this study recommends the following. First, education administrative units should clarify the subjective relationship between multicultural education and other curricula to ensure the mid and long-term development trends of a multicultural curriculum; in addition, courses should adequately combine with various academic disciplines and teaching materials should be separated into different levels. Second, education institutes and school units may include cultural diversity in the regulations of education institutes and informal curricula, as well as promote programs that foster positive interactions and understandings among teachers and students. Third, teachers’ multicultural curriculum design can be based on a descriptive and analytic comparative tendency, which combining scenario changes, should adopt multicultural teaching models and strategies to guide students into gaining an understanding of the significance of ethnic and cultural identification. Future research can trend toward testing and improving upon the theories of McCarthy and Banks, or further building toward the promotion of Taiwan’s multicultural curriculum. |
| Databáze: | Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations |
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