Aging Education in Elementary School Textbooks in Taiwan

Abstract

With the advent of an aging society, the older population is gradually increasing and people are living longer than ever before. However, older people are often portrayed in school textbooks as insignificant, unhealthy, sad, passive, and dependent. That is, ageism emerges in school textbooks in subtle ways. Under this circumstance, children may continue to learn from the school textbooks that growing old is a pathetic thing. Then, as adults, they are more likely to avoid older people, practice age discrimination, deny their own aging, and develop lower self-perceptions in their later lives. Therefore, this study aimed to systematically assess the elementary school textbooks in Taiwan for aging-related content. In addition to the review of the school textbooks in Taiwan, this study also compared its results with other related studies conducted in western countries. Finally, comparisons among the different studies in the field were made to illustrate the current status of aging education in school textbooks in Taiwan.