Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract/Objectives

This course is a required course in National Tsing Hua University’s Master’s Program for In-Service Teachers in Taiwan Studies. It has three main objectives: (1) First, it is a core course in the epistemology of Taiwan Studies. From an anthropological perspective, it aims to cultivate students’ understanding of the social and cultural contexts of Taiwanese society. (2) Second, it is a core course in the methodology of Taiwan Studies. It trains students to develop research competencies using anthropological methods, including formulating questions, observing phenomena, and analyzing and interpreting findings. Rather than emphasizing the presentation of social facts as content, the course focuses on analyzing how anthropologists—across different research themes—position themselves, construct research questions, choose methods, and develop perspectives. (3) Finally, it is also a practice-oriented Taiwan Studies workshop course. This semester, it is organized in workshop formats around two themes—Hu Tai-li’s works and food-and-agriculture education—through activities such as close reading, documentary screenings, attending lectures, and field visits, followed by exchange and discussion.

Results/Contributions

As a required core course in National Tsing Hua University’s Master’s Program for In-Service Teachers in Taiwan Studies, this course advances through three levels—epistemology, methodology, and workshop-based practice—cultivating students’ anthropological understanding of Taiwan’s socio-cultural contexts while strengthening sustainable capacities for research and pedagogical translation. The first part of the course focuses on themes such as ethnic governance, cultural governance, and traditional versus popular culture, training students to identify the power relations and mechanisms of knowledge production underlying social phenomena. Participation in the Annual Meeting of the Taiwan Society for Anthropology and Ethnology further connects students with academic communities and refreshes their research horizons.


The middle section centers on workshops on Hu Tai-li’s works, integrating close reading with documentary viewing to guide students in analyzing the researcher’s positioning, the construction of research questions, and narrative strategies, thereby grounding methodological training in concrete materials. The final section turns to environmental anthropology, human–species relations, plants and food, and extends learning through food-and-agriculture education workshops, a lecture on Indigenous wild vegetables, and a field visit to “Hope Farm” in Nanshan. These activities link local knowledge with environmental ethics and practices of sustainable living. Overall, the course emphasizes transforming research training into instructional design and public communication skills, enabling teacher-participants to promote culturally sensitive and sustainability-oriented educational action in schools and communities.

Keywords

Taiwan Studies; Anthropology; Hu Tai-li; Food and Agriculture; Culture.

Contact Information

臺灣研究教師在職進修碩士學位班，蘇淑芬
gpts@my.nthu.edu.tw