Moral education and the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan: From Sino-centrism to the ethic of multiculturalism.

Taiwan is not only inhabited by ethnic Chinese, as many who are not so familiar with this island might think; it also has a substantial number of aboriginal peoples who have lived on the island for millennia, long before the Chinese, Europeans and finally the Japanese colonisers arrived. The aboriginal peoples of Taiwan are Austronesian, with linguistic and genetic ties to ethnic groups found in the Pacific nations of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Zealand, the islands of Oceania, and also on Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. This article looks at some of the challenges faced by this indigenous population, due in large part to the ethnic or racial prejudice of the Taiwanese which was reinforced by the national government. It also examines recent curriculum reforms and the educational discourses that reject racism and affirm the ideals of ethnic and cultural freedom and equality, thereby exemplifying moral education in the truest sense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]