Voices of the Oppressed in Higher Education

This book is published from the author’s doctoral dissertation that unearths how Taiwanese vocational students as an oppressed group within the higher education system perceive, interpret, adapt or resist, and struggle to change the inequitable social structure. The research found that the current tracking mechanism hinders student’s development and perpetuates inequities in the Taiwanese educational and social structures. Furthermore, the school environment within the vocational education system represents an incomplete exam-oriented sorting mechanism, implements an inequitable resource-allocation system within higher education, and reproduces vocational students’ oppressed status from school to work. Most participating students indicated that they have suffered or gotten lost in the education system, which undermined their self-esteem, compromised their dreams, and were misplaced in college due to a pervasive admission emphasis on entrance exam test scores rather than their talents and desires. The research proposes a ‘humanized’ education system that arouses each student's own and Taiwanese society’s critical consciousness to fight for their liberation.