Development of teacher education policies in Taiwan during the Dutch and Spanish occupation, the Zheng and Qing period and the Japanese colonial period

This chapter consists of a brief review on the history of teacher education in Taiwan to understand the transition of teacher education policies and the evolution of teacher education institutions. The development of teacher education is then interpreted in relevant and non-relevant contexts. During the Japanese colonial period, the early retrocession period and prior to the lifting of Martial Law, the government solely controlled the teacher education system in Taiwan. Therefore teacher education institutions during those periods were responsible for not only training high-quality teachers, but also promoting the hegemonic ideology of the rulers of those periods. The teacher education institutions at that time were completely controlled by the government. The chapter investigates the influences of government and market mechanisms on teacher education institutions as the government reluctantly gives away its control to elucidate the problems and difficulties experienced by these institutions. Thus, market mechanisms never substantially influenced the teacher education system in Taiwan.