The battle hymn of the activist teacher: Taiwanese school teachers’ resistance to curriculum changes

ABSTRACT

This article challenges the simplistic and reductive image of Taiwanese schoolteachers, and reveals their actions of resistance during the turmoil of the recent curriculum reform controversy. Despite the fact that teachers are not usually portrayed as progressive and revolutionary agents, in the face of the disputed curriculum revision in 2014, some Taiwanese teachers came forward to oppose its implementation through demonstrations, hunger strikes, and litigation. The wider public's attention to this issue and ensuing student movement can be attributed to these teachers’ pioneering activism. By means of interviewing 12 teachers, this article explores activist teachers’ political self-efficacy, the creation of their pressure groups, and their apprehension about fighting against the authorities. The recording of this teacher-initiated social movement demonstrates ‘teachers as activists’, and hopefully will inspire educators not to limit their influence solely to the classroom.

KEYWORDS:

• Curriculum controversy
• teacher activism
• political efficacy
• pressure group
• pluralistic model
• corporatist model

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [grant number MOST 2015-2410-H-002-004].