In 2018, the Ministry of Education published “Social Studies Curriculum Guidelines of 12-Year Basic Education,” declaring the importance of teaching transitional justice in the national curriculum guideline for the first time. How do textbooks implement the idea of transitional justice? How do we narrate the persecution under the authoritarian regime? How do we remember and understand traumatic historical events, and lead conflicts to reconciliation? These concerns are the focuses of the attempts to respond to social reform, implement transitional justice, and improve the curriculum. Many countries which underwent democratization have already dealt with the injustice and inhumanity under their previous authoritarian governments, such as Germany and South Africa. This study explores the textbooks of these countries. Their cases may offer reference to textbook edition and creation for Taiwan to learn from. In the first year, this study aims to propose a textbook analysis framework to implement ideas of transitional justice, benefiting the promotion of transitional justice. In the second year, this framework will be adopted to analyze and examine the content and design of high school history textbooks in Taiwan. Cases of textbooks in Germany and South Africa will also be analyzed to explore how they address the issues of transitional justice. The case study not only produces feedback for revising the analytic framework, but also offers references that can help improve textbooks in Taiwan.
