Volume 60 No.3 - 2014-09-30

Revisiting the Multicultural Myths

再論多元文化教育的困境

Author:
Chang, Jason Chien-chen / 張建成
Keyword:
cultural diversity 、aboriginal people 、educational attainment and achievement 、ethnic relation / 文化差異 、原住民 、教育成就 、族群關係
  • Summary
  • Chinese Summary
  • Reference
  • Scholarly references
In 2007, I released a research note in which metaphors such as “monolith” and “umbrella” were used to depict the discursive predicaments of multiculturalism in education. As a sequel to it, I am going to reconsider the praxis-related predicaments of multicultural education this time. Generally speaking, the revamping programs for promoting school performance and ethnic/cultural identity of minority students, if based primarily on a micro-level analysis of cultural diversity or focused exclusively on the minority’s point of view, will not do much help. It is quite often argued that the minorities will become vulnerable if they pay too much attention to the task of chasing or fixing up an “ever-changing” identity, because the members of the majority group, in the meantime, are busy equipping themselves for winning the competition educationally, economically, and politically. The macro-level analysis of cultural diversity, such as theories of “cultural ecology”.
本文繼2007年〈獨石與巨傘〉一文後,將檢討的焦點從多元文化主義(教育)可能走偏之概念邏輯,轉為可能有失的實務運作。理論上,多元文化教育的主要任務,在於促進族群關係與提昇教育成就。可是,臺灣多元文化教育的實施,在促進族群關係方面,多半都在提振弱勢民族(如原住民)本身的族群文化認同,彷彿多元文化教育只是弱勢民族個別的事,與主流族群無關;在提升教育成就方面,臺灣的多元文化教育多半流為表面文章,非徒弱勢民族(如原住民)學業失利及中輟停學的情形,一如過往,整體教育成就的競爭力也依舊落於主流社會之後。伴隨這兩方面的分析,本文也根據相關的事實及論證,提醒不宜過度放大「文化差異」的說詞與效能,以免治絲益棼,造成紛擾。