Hi! With the July wrapping up, I'm happy to share more about how my first research summer has been progressing. After my time ended on Barnard's campus, I flew to Taipei, Taiwan to continue my research and spend time with family and friends. As a Taiwanese American with a dual citizenship, I was born and raised in the U.S. so I'm so happy to be back and researching a topic that is deeply connected to my personal and career interests. 

As a Laidlaw Scholar, I'm evaluating the effectiveness of Taiwanese education policies in the context of Indigenous language learning programs. Originally, I thought that my perspective of Indigenous language learning programs would specifically target the class time that goes into learning one's native language with some degree of understanding from one's parents or community. I soon came to the realization that the issue with the Indigenous education system wasn't just rooted in the language learning programs, but in the entire system that supported Indigenous students. There are so many other issues that are related to Indigenous education communities from teacher training and recruitment, racism, outdated history textbooks, and a lack of economic utility that contributed to the issues within education. Additionally, I've realized that the Indigenous communities are spread all over Taiwan in major cities and rural towns, unlike some other Indigenous communities in other countries where they are concentrated in reservations. These two issues in of themselves make addressing education inequities for the Indigenous community even more complicated and convoluted. 

I'm excited to continue building my research project in the next month and presenting everything I've found in a final research paper and poster!