Public Humiliation Type Education (PHT-Edu): Authority, Psychological Trauma, and Collective Memory in Educational Space

This study discusses the use of Public Humiliation Type Education (PHT-Edu) as a method employed by teachers to maintain authority by exerting psychological control over students. This teaching style involves public reprimands and emotional blackmail to manipulate students’ need for belonging, leading to oppression and psychological trauma. This study argues that PHT-Edu fosters a culture of domination in the classroom, reinforced by the teacher’s social and cultural capital, creating a power dynamic that causes long-term psychological harm. The mechanism of PHT-Edu works by depriving students of their sense of identity and self-worth within their peer groups, subjecting them to public humiliation that disrupts their social interaction and mental growth. This kind of trauma, often rooted in authoritarian educational practices, can have lasting effects, contributing to post-traumatic stress (PTS) and Stockholm syndrome, etc., which perpetuate a cycle of trauma. Even though Taiwan has begun addressing the rights and subjectivity of children in the past few decades, the psychological scars from PHT-Edu remain prevalent. The study further explores how PHT-Edu contributes to collective trauma within society, with repeated instances of humiliation reinforcing a social memory of these practices. The impact of this shared memory extends beyond individuals to influence broader social dynamics, leading to a cyclical reproduction of trauma where victims often become perpetrators. This study calls for further analysis on the harmful effects of PHT-Edu and suggests that recognizing the collective memory of trauma could help break this cycle in educational practice.