Teach to live or live to teach: A case study on the educational beliefs of displaced teachers in Taiwan

Current changes in the Taiwan’s Teacher Education Law has brought forth new and diverse outlook on Taiwan’s teacher education. The law aims at breaking the traditional conservative approach on teacher education; a provision which allow students of non-education degree (as oppose to graduates of normal colleges) to pursue teaching credentials, hence providing a more diverse choice in teacher selection. However, the over expansion of schools who provide such kind of teaching credentials, has resulted in the over saturation of the market with surplus workforce, thus leading to extreme competition of the job market and the appearance of the concept of teachers without regular jobs, vagabond teachers, or just simply displaced teachers. This phenomenon is being herald as the resulting problem of the Taiwan’s Teacher Education Law, however, few studies has been conducted on such relevant issues. Therefore, in order to further understand the issue, this case study shall focus on the so-called displaced teachers’ educational beliefs and the factors that may affect the teachers’ choice of career. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted on twelve (12) displaced teachers, to understand the impact of educational beliefs on their attitude in facing the intense career competition. Result shows that there is a direct correlation between the teachers’ current career choice and their initial educational beliefs. Findings shall serve as a point of reference for contemporary visions on future teacher education policy.