The invitation to immigrant women to visit schools and speak about their native culture has become an important part of the cultural diversity of Taiwanese schools in recent years. Indeed, this kind of course has been in use for many years in countries with large immigrant populations.
In Japan, the purpose of cultivating international awareness in school after World War II was to educate Japanese to be active on the global stage. Hence, there was not much interest in foreigners living in Japan. For formality’s sake, foreigners were invited to schools to talk about their native cultures and they were considered an important source of teachers for the promotion of international understanding in education, but the content of the classes could have been much better.
First, most classes are not held in the spirit of “social revolution.” They are not too concerned with the discrimination foreigners may face, or with human-rights issues. For example, foreigners rarely address how they are sometimes turned down when looking for a room to rent.
Some academics are critical of the classes, saying that inviting foreigners to schools to take part in the international awareness classes is nothing more than providing “assimilation classes” offering an understanding of and introduction to foreign cultures.
Second, most invited foreigners introduce a national culture. It is questionable if the culture of a person from a multicultural country can represent all the cultures in that country. Most classes consist of superficial talks on the “three F’s” — food, fashion and festivals. This is likely to have only a very limited influence on children’s real understanding of foreign cultures. At most it offers an opportunity for some contact with a foreign culture.
What is the point of inviting foreign residents to schools? If they are not to be mere representatives talking about their culture, then what other role can they play?
A better idea is participatory joint classes, in which foreigners are the teachers, but also the objects of student research. The foreigner and the teachers and students could deal with common issues and then find solutions by brainstorming and using the point of view of a foreign culture. This can provide a sound way of building connections between schools, communities and foreign residents. An example is a class on designing an imaginary community garden together with a foreign resident.
In Taiwanese schools, cultural diversity week has just begun and recent female immigrants, especially those with children at a school, should be encouraged to participate. But municipal and county education departments, schools and women themselves should develop a broader and more critical outlook on this type of class if it is to develop into something more than just a cultural performance at a school party.
Chiou Shwu-wen is an associate professor at Nanhua University’s Graduate Institute for Asian-Pacific Studies.
Translated by Anna Stiggelbout
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