The Praxis Approach to Multicultural Teacher Education: A Case Study in Taiwan

The case of Taiwan is worth studying because it is genuinely a multicultural society in terms of ethnicity, culture, and politics. In its four-hundred year history, Taiwan has witnessed various cultural and political clashes between different ethnic groups and experienced monarchy, colonial government, dictatorship and finally, democracy. The entangled history and the recent waves of immigrants from South East Asia make Taiwan a special case in the world. However, multicultural education has different meanings to different people, from the dimension of celebrating diversity to promoting social justice. This paper aims to explore how a teacher educator shifted her teaching paradigm from technical, narrative to praxis approach to develop the pre-service teacher’s multicultural consciousness. The content will focus on how we develop multicultural consciousness and critical praxis through action project and discourse. There are four parts of this paper: First, describing the development of multicultural education in Taiwan from a holistic perspective. Second, constructing a praxis approach to multicultural teacher education based on the theory of social justice. Third, exploring how the in-service teachers enhancing their multicultural consciousness and the ability to practice by participating in the empirical study of action research. Finally, reflecting on the praxis approach to multicultural teacher education and seeking the possibility of practice for other teacher education programs.