There were three purposes of this study. First, elementary and junior high school teachers' and administrators' opinions about the implementation of issue curricula were investigated. Second, the methods of implementing emerging and important issue curricula in schools were studied. And finally, the desired actions needed to support the implementation of issue curricula were collected. From December, 2010 to August, 2011, this researcher used interviews as her main data collection methods. The researcher also observed and conducted discussions with key persons during her involvement with emerging issues' teacher training or instructional material development works. The documentation of her observations and discussions also provided information to achieve research purposes. The research findings were as follows.
1. The difficulties encountered when implementing emerging and important issue curricula in elementary and junior high schools could be divided into three categories, i.e., teaching practice, teaching pedagogy and teachers' attitude.
2. School teachers and administrators usually used eleven methods to implement important issue curricula in schools, such as fusing curricula of issue and learning areas.
3. The timing of implementing emerging issue curricula included formal curriculum, informal curriculum and hidden curriculum which contained nine implementation methods, such as fusing curricula of issue and learning areas.
4. To implement issue curricula in schools, teachers and administrators preferred a mixed model of "integrating issue and learning areas according to their competence indicators" and "week of a certain issue".
5. Ministry of Education, Bureaus of Education, textbook publishing companies and teacher education institutions should provide support to assist the implementation of issue curricula.
The following recommendations were made based on the findings.
1. The state level curriculum decision should be correct. Let the field of education decide with great care which issues can enter grade 1-9 curriculum and their contents.
2. There should be centers or guidance groups for issues to promote issue curricula.
3. Besides the current issue curricula implementation methods, a mixed model of "integrating issue and learning areas according to their competence indicators"
and "week of a certain issue" could also be considered.
4. Textbook publishing companies should empower their authors on the content and the pedagogy of issues curricula.
5. Elementary and junior high school teachers' understanding of and ability to teach issue curricula should be improved.
