CURRENT STATE OF PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT
The program recruits 50 students annually via an independent entrance examination. Now in its fourth year, the program currently has 171 students from various counties and cities in Taiwan, such as Nantou, Hsinchu, Hualien, Taitung, and Pingtung, with ethnic ties to the Atayal, Seediq, Bunun, Paiwan, Amis, Puyuma, Truku, Tsou, and Thao Indigenous Peoples. The majority of students are from the central region Atayal, Bunun, and Seediq Indigenous Peoples.
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The program faculty comprises 5 full-time teachers and 24 part-time teachers, respectively from such academic disciplines as Anthropology, Social Work, Media Reporting, Museums and Exhibition, Cultural Assets and Policies, Aesthetic Design, Sightseeing Development, and Aboriginal Crafts. Among them are 8 lecturers with professional expertise and 4 tribal workers.
Indigenous Education Planning Policy
COURSE SELECTION FREEDOM
Program students can freely choose any course they wish outside the program, and all program courses are electable by non-program students seeking further understanding of Taiwan’s indigenous culture. As a result of this policy, 10 program students have elected minors in other programs, and 3 students enrolled in other programs have elected courses in this program.
EMPHASIS ON THEORY AND PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
The program features five types of courses:
- Required core courses:
History of Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples
Society and Culture of Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples
Introduction to Anthropology
Indigenous Community Development and Practical Planning
These courses cultivate a basic understanding of Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples and tribal life within Indigenous communities.
Furthermore, addressing various aspects of the current state of development for Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples, the program includes such courses as:
Contemporary Issues for Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples
Project Management
These are designed to get students thinking about contemporary issues based on their immediate experience, and about how to speak up for the rights of Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples and promote matters pertaining to its Indigenous communities.
- Social Work courses:
Social work courses include all professional training required to obtain social worker certification, but particularly emphasize the portions of course content that pertain to Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples, such as social policy and social legislation, community work, and social welfare. This enhances student’s basic knowledge and professional capabilities to engage in social work pertaining to Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples and to master the soft power necessary for working within Indigenous communities in the future to serve them.
- Sightseeing and Cultural Innovation courses:
Such courses are primarily designed to foster development of tribal industries with content distinct from general sightseeing and tourism courses that enhances links with Indigenous communities and accords with the unique character of each Indigenous People’s culture. For example, the following courses allow students to learn aspects of planning and developing tourism and creative industries in Indigenous community areas based on Indigenous Peoples’ culture:
Tribal Community Building and Planning
Culture and Tourism
Tourism Planning and Interpretation
Fieldwork and Writing
Multimedia and Internet Marketing
- Indigenous culture & traditional arts and crafts courses:
The program offers many elective courses pertaining to indigenous culture:
Seediq Traditional Farming Practices and Rites
Indigenous Food Culture—Traditional Cuisine
Indigenous Material Culture—Cloth Weaving
Indigenous Ecological Knowledge
Indigenous Literature
Taiwanese and Austronesian Culture
Such courses allow students to personally experience and cultivate the skills involved in traditional arts and crafts, as well as to consider new application possibilities.
- Indigenous environmental education field courses:
NCNU’s enormous outdoor educational space reserved for the Indigenous community development curriculum allows courses in planting, farming and architecture to help students understand the agricultural practices, space utilization for construction of buildings, and dietary knowledge of traditional Indigenous culture.
INTEGRATION OF THEORY WITH PRACTICE
Combining the expertise imparted by each course instructor with issues of practical application, the program emphasizes placing students as interns at social welfare agencies, organizations promoting Indigenous culture, tribal organizations, and the like. This enhances understanding of current agencies pertaining to Indigenous Peoples and can foster familiarity with this program among such agencies in order to enhance the feasibility of future industry-academic cooperation or internships.
INTERMEDIARY BETWEEN STUDENTS AND THE SCHOOL
Even though Taiwan has invested considerable resources in the field of Indigenous Peoples’ culture, there is still much room for improving cultural understanding. With a student body of nearly 7,000 individuals, it is a challenge for NCNU to take good care of each student. Therefore, this program is positioned as an intermediary between students and the school, seeking via a constructive approach of partnering with students as they continue to mature and grow, to provide necessary life assistance, part-time work and teaching assistantships in order to meet the needs of students during the course of their physical and mental growth.