Teachers’ perspectives on cultural and national values in school music education between multiculturalism and nationalism in Taiwan

Wai Chung Ho*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This empirical study attempted to examine cultural and national values in relation to the teaching of musical multiculturalism, which is defined as music from regions around the world, as well as Taiwanese nationalism (i.e., a desinicized version of national identity based on Taiwan’s localization movement) in school music education. Data were drawn from questionnaires completed by 70 in-service and 40 pre-service teachers between February and October 2018. Two major questions will be explored in this paper in response to the changing society of Taiwan: (1) how do teachers feel about music teaching related to diverse music cultures; and (2) how have they reacted to Taiwanese nationalism in school music education? The findings indicated a significantly higher preference for teaching traditional Western music versus that of other cultures among all the teachers. In addition, the participants with more experience exhibited a significantly greater preference for teaching traditional Chinese music and national education compared to their less experienced counterparts. Based on the survey data, this paper will argue that there is a cultural gap between teaching traditional Chinese music, Taiwanese local music, and other music cultures alongside the question of nationalism in contemporary music education in Taiwan.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)627-640
Number of pages14
JournalAsia Pacific Journal of Education
Volume42
Issue number4
Early online date17 Jan 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Oct 2022

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Education

User-Defined Keywords

  • Cultural and national values
  • multiculturalism
  • nationalism
  • school music education
  • Taiwan

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