Abstrakt

The Changing Discourse of Curriculum Reform in Contemporary Taiwan - A Foucauldian Approach

Chin-ju Mao

This paper investigates the changing discourse of curriculum reform in Taiwan, with the minutes of the interpellations conducted by the Legislative Yuan and published in the Legislative Yuan Gazette between 1987 and 2005 as the main source of data. The changes which have occurred in the curriculum discourse since the lifting of martial law are analyzed by using such Foucauldian concepts as “discursive practice” and “discursive formation.” It was found that what was originally a complex and multifarious language of reform was simplified over time into a discourse consisting of the two themes of political localization and economic globalization. In such a discourse, curriculum reform has become a sort of mediating language reflecting both political exigencies and the pressure to maintain economic competitiveness.