Mon, Mar 04, 2019 page3

• Transitional justice cuisine idea touted

  LESSON LEARNT: A Transitional Justice Commission member said that curriculum guidelines should push local history, as existing courses mostly use foreign events

  • By Chen Yu-fu / Staff reporter
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  To encourage students to gain a better understanding of the White Terror era, teachers should consider using exotic cuisine to introduce the concept of transitional justice, a Transitional Justice Commission member said yesterday.

  The White Terror era refers to the suppression of political dissidents following the 228 Incident, an uprising that began on Feb. 27, 1947, which was brutally suppressed by the then-Chinese Nationalist Pary (KMT) regime. The government subsequently imposed martial law, which was lifted on July 15, 1987.

  Commission member Peng Jen-yu (彭仁郁) said that its Rebuilding Social Trust division is tasked with two goals: to provide victims of political trauma with psychological comfort and to promote education about transitional justice, with the latter divided into school and public education.

  

  Postcards depicting important events in Taiwanese history are displayed at a Transitional Justice Commission news conference in Taipei on Thursday last week.

  Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times

  Due to limited staff, the commission is not likely to promote transitional justice education on campuses, so the Ministry of Education and teachers should do so, she said.

  The ministry’s new curriculum guidelines for elementary, junior-high and senior-high schools are to take effect in September, so social science classes are expected to cover more about democracy, human rights and the rule of law, Peng said.

  The commission would monitor whether school curricula include transitional justice, if classes and teachers are arranged coherently and if schools need additional resources when teaching the courses, she said.

  The key is to integrate Taiwanese events into school curricula, as existing material mostly relies on references to foreign history, such as victims of the Nazi regime including The Diary of Anne Frank, Peng said.

  It is challenging for teachers to expand on concepts given limited class time, she said, adding that civic education is only a one-hour class at elementary schools and students face more academic pressure in junior-high school.

  “Nonetheless, it is not only history teachers who are motivated to introduce transitional justice and the history of the White Terror era in class,” she said. “The commission has interviewed teachers and found that some who teach languages, art and housecraft are also interested in doing so.”

  Peng, who used to be an ethnologist at Academia Sinica, said that teachers at Fongshan Community University in Kaohsiung once held an event as part of a one-day workshop on the White Terror era.

  The teachers invited professional cooks to make South African dishes, through which they introduced the progress that nation made to abolish apartheid and promote transitional justice, she said.

  South African and Taiwanese dishes actually have something in common, as both reflect the integration of local and immigrant cooking, Peng said, adding that visitors would look for more information after the class if their interest had been piqued.

  The commission has worked with local communities to hold workshops and offered consultations about teaching materials, and it plans to set up a platform for teachers interested in promoting transitional justice, she said.

  The National Human Rights Museum would also be collaborating more with schools, Peng added.
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