Abstract
Beginning with two vignettes on the first day of kindergarten in rural and urban areas in Taiwan, this chapter describes and explores the conflicting images of young Taiwanese children. Whether in rural or urban areas, Taiwanese parents share the same expectations for their children’s learning and character development, that is, intelligence and diligence. Despite these shared expectations, parents have different views of young children and early childhood education. The purposes of this chapter are (a) to introduce diverse and sometimes conflicting views of the education of young Taiwanese children and (b) to elaborate which factors or background elements contribute to these differences. First, the current status of Taiwanese early childhood education is summarized to provide the context for subsequent discussion. Second, the dimensions that contribute to the conflicting images of young Taiwanese as well as the backgrounds of these dimensions are described. These dimensions consist of (a) the official kindergarten curriculum standards or guidelines disseminated by the Taiwanese government during various periods, (b) how narrative texts are used in kindergarten classrooms, and (c) discussions regarding native language and English learning. The chapter concludes with photographs that reflect Taiwanese parents’ emphasis on early childhood education and the author’s opinions regarding the conflicting images and the education of young Taiwanese children.
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Notes
- 1.
This vignette is recorded in my field notes when conducting a 3-year study on young children’s narratives.
- 2.
The scene of the first day in kindergarten in urban areas of Taiwan had been reported by several teachers in the cities of Taipei and Hsinchu.
- 3.
It was “temporary” due to the need for some minor revision.
- 4.
Preschool is the official translation for early childhood institutions for children from ages 2 to 6. This differs from how preschool is used in English-speaking countries.
- 5.
Even though the labels “daycare center” and “kindergarten” were replaced with “preschool” in 2012, this chapter will still use the term “kindergarten” sometimes because most of what has been discussed on early childhood education covers what happened before 2012.
- 6.
The current author is one of the seven guideline constructors, the major researcher and writer of the area of language.
- 7.
This vignette was observed and reported by a kindergarten teacher teaching in a public kindergarten in a city in northern Taiwan in 2012.
- 8.
The translation tried to convey the meaning of the poem but failed to express the original rhyming.
- 9.
This consideration is kindly and wisely provided by Professor Hung-chung Yen, the author of Chap. 4 in this book.
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Tsai, ML. (2015). Conflicting Images of Young Taiwanese Children. In: Hsu, S., Wu, YY. (eds) Education as Cultivation in Chinese Culture. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 26. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-224-1_5
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