A Preliminary Analysis of the Social Phenomenon of ‘Youth Precariat’ in the Taiwanese Society within the Context of Globalization and Its Implications for Teachers

For teachers, understanding what young generation thinks is paramount. Youth culture is a crucial topic in Sociology of Education because it helps adults (i.e., policy decision makers, school teachers) understand the youth's ideas and values so as to adjust the direction of educational policy, curriculum and instruction accordingly. However, new generation's ideas and values temp to change along with the changing of the society. Hence, the results of the prior research seem to be unable to account for what young people think nowadays. Especially, the youth today in Taiwan, due to the influence of internet, globalization, and neoliberalism, seems to move from 'strawberry generation' to 'precariat' and has a 'precarious' life. Therefore, this two-year study, utilizing the methods of interview (first year) and survey (second year), aims to collect Taiwanese young students' ideas and values, and then figures out their youth culture. Moreover, the research will also go further to see if the youth culture nowadays in Taiwan shows the social phenomenon of 'precariat.' Based on the research findings, some suggestions for policy decision makers and school teachers will be addressed.