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Framework Thinking, Subject Thinking and “Taiwan-ness” in Environmental Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2012

Mei-Chun Michelle Yueh  and
Miles Barker
Mei-Chun Michelle Yueh*
Affiliation:
University of Waikato
Miles Barker
Affiliation:
University of Waikato
*
†Address for correspondence: Mei-Chun Michelle Yueh, Sz-Yu Junior High School, Taichung, Taiwan. Email: yuehmichelle@gmail.com
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Abstract

In the 1998 Taiwanese national curriculum revision, environmental education was one of six new “Important Issues”. To some early observers, the generic “framework” sections of this 1998 curriculum (Aims, Goals, Core Competences) resonated well with the integrative and transdisciplinary nature of environmental education. This synergy held out promise for the successful introduction of environmental education to Taiwan, despite it not being one of the seven new Learning Areas (or subjects). However, this study suggests that a pervasive nation-wide exam-driven, subject-dominated educational climate resulted in a somewhat truncated “Taiwan-ness” in the environmental education that emerged. In three Junior High Schools preparing for curriculum implementation, there was little early focus on, either the national curriculum's framework aspects or the intended integrative nature of environmental education. Rather, by 2004 curriculum integration had become offcially non-compulsory, and environmental education was conceived as a minor priority, to be wedged where possible into spaces within the traditional subjects.

Keywords

curriculumsubjectlearning areasubject thinkingframework thinking
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 27 , Issue 1: Special Issue: The “ness” of Environmental Education , 2011 , pp. 134 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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