4.7 HRE in Taiwan
4.7.3 MOE and HRE
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citizenship education in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. It had covered both theoretical and practical perspectives. There were university scholars presenting the theoretical framework and teachers from elementary school with their classroom experiences and results of their action research conducted in HRE.
4.7.3 MOE and HRE
The MOE came up with a blueprint or a plan in the form of a report on HRE promotion and cultivation. This document is divided into seven parts, of which four are discussed below. The first part discusses the need to promote HRE. In this, President Chen’s commitment to establishment of HR in Taiwan has been reiterated. There was also an urgency to improve HR status in Taiwan and change the perception of the world regarding HR violations at home. It was discussed how education can play a vital role in promotion of HR and lay the foundation for HR culture.
The second part defines HRE and delineates five principles on which it is founded.
The five underlying principles of HRE are:
1. Ability to espouse one’s own rights: the individual clearly knows what one’s rights are in a variety of social settings, and having sufficient social skills and abilities, stands up for his rights.
2. Willingness to espouse one’s own rights: aside from knowing one’s own rights and standing up for them, one must have sufficient motivation to push oneself to fight for those rights.
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an ongoing task. For instance, workshop for HR educators is not a one-time affair. It
3. Ability to respect others’ rights: the individual clearly knows the rights of others in a variety of social settings and accepts others’ rights to espouse their rights.
4. Willingness to respect that others advocate their rights: the individual has the sufficient motivation to accept other people’s advocacy of their rights.
5. Concern for a society’s political, economic and cultural development that gradually tends towards social justice: the individual knows, is capable, and willing to care about all aspects of a society’s political, economic and cultural development, so that it may gradually move in the direction of social justice (MOE, 2003, p. 9).
Knowledge, ability, willingness and responsibility are the four domains crucial for the success of HRE. They all work collectively. It is apparent that absence of any of these would result in either partial or non attainment of desired or expected results from
Part three provided guidelines for the MOE, i.e. what can the ministry do. In the answer to this question, the MOU outlined the following targets for itself: establish a HRE promotional working group, conduct workshops for HR educators, establish a HRE guidance group and a HRE resource center, and prepare guidelines for conducting evaluation of HRE. Many of them have been implemented by the MOU but it ought to be
47 The incorporation of the four domains was the main consideration when the nine year integrated curriculum was being developed. These are related to all seven learning areas and ten basic skills mentioned in the curriculum.
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needs to be organized on a regular basis. It is a never-ending process just as the role the MOU has to play.
Part four is on what can be expected from the schools. There are many suggestions for schools to follow, such as creation of a HRE school environment including both hardware and software facilities, introducing HRE into the school curriculum and evaluation of the schools’ own HR status.
In 1998, the cumulative effect of all these initiatives was Ministry of Education’s decision to introduce HR into Grade I-IX Integrated Curriculum for Elementary and Junior High School Education. The integrated curriculum had two components: seven main learning areas and ten basic skills:
Main learning area:
Languages: Mandarin, Hokkien, Hakka, aboriginal languages and English; Health and physical education including sex education; Social studies including history, geography, civics, economics, law, and human rights; Arts: music, visual arts, and performing arts; Mathematics; Science: biology, physics, chemistry, earth science, environmental science, and life and information sciences; General activities: computers, club activities, scouting, outdoor activities, and home economics (Huang, 2006; Li cited in Chou and Ho, 2007).
Basic skills:
Understand self, and develop one’s potential; Appreciation, expression, and creation; Life and career planning; Lifelong learning; Expression, communication, and sharing; Respect, compassion, and group cooperation; Cultural learning, international understanding; Planning, organization, and
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implementation; Use of science, technology, and information;
Self-directed exploration and research; Independent thought and problem solving (Huang, 2006, pp. 73-83; Li cited in Chou and Ho, 2007, pp. 344-377).
These seventeen learning areas and basic skills together form the integrated curriculum for nine years. In other words, from grade I all the above-mentioned learning areas and skills are to be taught and developed and every successive stage takes it further.
All nine stages are interconnected and cannot be skipped. It is expected that the nine year integrated curriculum would broaden the spectrum of learning. Incorporation of HR as part of social studies learning area is an evidence that the scope of the curriculum got widened.
The promotion of HR was not only ensured through incorporation of it into the social studies learning area but also making it part of extracurricular activities. The Ministry of Education (MOE) has urged schools to make HR an integral part of their campuses. For MOE HR and HRE concepts are:
[HR] are inherent rights and freedoms, regardless of ethnicity, gender, or social class. They are not subject to deprivation or violation on the part of any society or government; the opportunity for individual expression must even be positively provided in order to respect individual dignity and seek the perfect life. Therefore, in actuality [HRE] is concerned with education as to the dignity of humanity, which helps us understand the basic physiological, psychological and spiritual conditions that we must enjoy…“that which makes us human” (MOE, 2003, pp. 15-16).
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The MOE’s interpretation of the concept of HR and HRE is in accordance with UDHR. The thrust of HRE is on human dignity that cannot be degraded by any authority.
In other words, the purpose of HRE is to sensitize and familiarize students about issues of HR and encourage them to actively participate in restoration of HR if they are violated in any form.