Abstract/Details

THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL OF TAIWAN: A STUDY OF ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSE AND RESPONSIBILITY TO A CONFUCIAN PHILOSOPHICAL STRUCTURE (REPUBLIC OF CHINA)

UERKVITZ, ESTHER HANNA.   The Claremont Graduate University ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,  1986. 8619091.

Abstract (summary)

The junior high school of Taiwan, the Republic of China, consists of the last three years of a free, compulsory educational system and is a particularly interesting educational institution because of the decisive role it plays in the life of the student. Two factors make the junior high school years extremely stressful for both student and family: (1) The absolute value placed upon scholarship by a Confucian-orientated society, with "scholarship" defined as successful performance on a rigorous senior high school entrance examination. (2) A governmental formula which permits only the top 40% of the students to qualify for high school via a one-time entrance examination.

This study examines the role of the junior high school principal in a society that ultimately evaluates the school, principal, faculty, support staff, and student within the narrow context of student performance on the high school entrance examination. The complexity of the society in which the study was conducted necessitated the employment of both ethnographic and quantitative methods of data collection to enable an in-depth understanding of the junior high school and its principalship. The methods included: (1) A nine-month participant observation study; (2) A two-year limited content study of the newspapers; (3) An extensive study of the literature of both Chinese and western scholars concerning Chinese values and educational endeavors. (4) Formal and informal interviews; (5) A junior high school principal task importance/frequency analysis based on an inventory developed by the National Association of Secondary School Principals in the United States (1982). The inventory, to which 68% responded, was sent to 303 junior high school principals in Taiwan.

Conclusions reached are: (1) The junior school and its principalship is tightly coupled (Meyer, et al., 1983) to the society in which it functions. (2) A dichotomy exists between societal commitment to traditional Chinese values in which Confucian philosophy serves as the "essence" of education in Taiwan, and the pronounced determination to become a technologically superior nation. (3) School vandalism will become increasingly problematic as the majority of students are unable to compete successfully in academia, and as employment options become more limited in a developing, technologically intensive labor force.

Indexing (details)


Subject
School administration;
Educational administration
Classification
0514: Educational administration
Identifier / keyword
Education
Title
THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL OF TAIWAN: A STUDY OF ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSE AND RESPONSIBILITY TO A CONFUCIAN PHILOSOPHICAL STRUCTURE (REPUBLIC OF CHINA)
Author
UERKVITZ, ESTHER HANNA
Number of pages
371
Degree date
1986
School code
0047
Source
DAI-A 47/05, Dissertation Abstracts International
Place of publication
Ann Arbor
Country of publication
United States
ISBN
979-8-206-30706-1
University/institution
The Claremont Graduate University
University location
United States -- California
Degree
Ph.D.
Source type
Dissertation or Thesis
Language
English
Document type
Dissertation/Thesis
Dissertation/thesis number
8619091
ProQuest document ID
303473021
Copyright
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/docview/303473021