The Confucian Continuum: Educational Modernization in Taiwan

This comprehensive volume features essays on education in modern Taiwan, each coauthored by a Chinese scholar and an American counterpart. The work furthers understanding and communication between two diverse cultures. The focus is on how another society is attempting to deal with issues in education currently being addressed in Western academic and political circles. Taiwan is a particularly good example for educators in the United States to study because the country is one of the most dynamic, fast changing and economically successful societies in the world, using the vehicle of education to assure social harmony and the self-actualization of its students and to prepare students for careers in business, science, government service and service-oriented careers. The team approach to each essay assures that no published research from either culture has been overlooked. Some of the research is field based; others use more traditional research methodology.

Other societies can be viewed as laboratories where experiments in educational excellence are taking place and where Americans can learn how to better educate students. Schooling has many common elements worldwide–much education has been shaped by Western practices. In Taiwan the ethos shows a Western pattern of organization and a highly technological orientation side by side with traditional Chinese values. This laboratory lets us see how innovations and reforms work and how to spot pitfalls. Students in a variety of Education courses will benefit from these skillfully written articles. The Confucian Continuum demonstrates the successes that education has brought to the Chinese people of Taiwan and the problems that rapid modernization presents to the traditional education system.