Indigenous language curriculum revival: an emancipatory education analysis of Taiwanese Indigenous language policy and textbooks

ABSTRACT

Objective

Taiwan recently published new language education policy documents and Indigenous language textbooks to support the emerging Indigenous language revitalization initiative. Thus, this study investigates how these current Indigenous policy documents and textbooks portray Indigenous agency and also examine how their contents construct Indigenous emancipatory viewpoints.

Research Design

To examine the Indigenous emancipatory goal in the textual data, this study incorporated themes of critical consciousness about Indigenous experiences, voices, and actions from Paulo Freire’s emancipatory theory for textual analysis.

Methods/Procedures

The textual analysis was informed by Freirean theory to examine two language policy documents and 48 Indigenous language textbooks. Indigenous critical consciousness of voices, experiences, and actions in the data were examined to reveal Indigenous emancipatory themes.

Results

Results demonstrate discrepancies within both the policy and textbooks concerning Indigenous emancipatory themes. While Indigenous language policies and textbooks advocate Indigenous sovereignty, there is a simultaneous insertion of mainstream and values juxtaposed with an Indigenous viewpoint.

Conclusion

The policies and textbooks embed conflicting Indigenous and mainstream viewpoints. They also construct an inconsistent critical consciousness of Indigenous experiences, voices, and actions. From the policy and textbook analysis, implications for future policy and textbook revisions concerning Indigenous language education are explored.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous policy
• language textbooks
• emancipatory education
• Taiwan

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Yann-Ru Ho

Yann-Ru Ho is an assistant professor at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. She received a Fulbright grant to study for a Ph.D. in Education at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has conducted research on postcolonial and critical theory, Indigenous education, English language education, and global citizenship education.