Liou, Grace

Professor Liou will be visiting the Center fall quarter 2014-2015.

My research interests focus on understanding parenting from cultural perspectives, family-school partnerships and character education, using qualitative methods and collaborative action research. I have been teaching at National Hsinchu University of Education in Taiwan for more than 25 years. Prior to that, I was a high school teacher and a preschool teacher.

Since my youth, I have had a passion for working with all types of children and am grateful for being in a vocation that has an opportunity to make an impact on the next generation. I earned my Master’s degree in the Department of Early Childhood Education at SUNY Buffalo (1985) and a Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction at University of Wisconsin, Madison (1997). I was a visiting scholar at the Harvard School of Education (2010) during my sabbatical leave. It was during that time I came to learn about Dr. Damon’s research project on Good Work—When Excellence and Ethics Meet, as well as the Youth Purpose Project.

Dr. Damon’s research and work has always shown much concern on the practical welfare of youth, educators and parents, which is a great inspiration. During my sabbatical leave this term, I am thrilled to be a visiting scholar at the Center on Adolescence since in recent years I have been very focused on exploring youth character development and their search for purpose during that critical time of their lives.

Starting in 2012, supported by a non-profit organization, I have been in charge of a character education research project that aims to connect theory with practice. My main vision is to motivate school teachers to implement quality character education, and to undertake their roles as mentors to young children. For the past two years, we have reached about a thousand teachers who are willing to consider building bonds and model character education as a critical element in transforming schools and classroom culture. For this visit, I desire to visit and learn from scholars and educators who share similar passions and endeavors in transforming school culture through character education. My experiences here will prove invaluable for my future endeavors when I return to Taiwan.