• Discussant: Laura Ruth Johnson, Ph.D.
• Position: Associate Professor
• Time: 
• Venue: 

Topic
Parents’ perspectives on Taiwan’s 12-year curriculum: Notions of citizenship and community 

Abstract
This presentation will report initial findings from the qualitative portion of a study on Taiwan’s 12-year curriculum. The presentation will use data from interviews conducted with parents and teachers from K-12 schools in Miaoli and Kaohsiung counties to explore how various notions of Taiwanese citizenship inform parent’s views of the purposes of education and their child’s instruction. Of particular interest is how the new curricular focus on self-directed learned and engagement with one’s community intersect with parents’ goals for their children’s learning and development and issues meaningful to their families and communities.

Education and work experience

• University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL  August 2005-May 2006
• Rockefeller Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Latino and Latin American Studies
• University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
• Ph.D. Education, Language and Literacy, Society, and Culture  May 2005
• M.A. Education, Advanced Reading and Language Leadership Program, Language, Literacy, and Culture May 2000

Research Specialty
Dr. Laura Ruth Johnson is a Professor in the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment at Northern Illinois University, where she teaches courses in qualitative research methods, including ethnographic research, interview methods, and community-based/participatory action research. Her research focuses on community literacy practices, civic/community identity and engagement among Latinx and African American youth, with an emphasis on mentorship and advocacy by and for pregnant and parenting youth. Another area of interest is community-based qualitative research methods and the development of collaborative university-community partnerships. She is the author of Community-based qualitative research: Approaches for education and the social sciences (2017, SAGE Publications).