Family, community, and school as arenas for citizenship education in China

ABSTRACT

This article examines the involvement of family, community, and school in citizenship education in China, particularly in terms of the tension between traditional cultural values and today’s modernisation. The analysis was based on written materials acquired through a systematic search of English and Chinese scholarly literature on the subject and relevant Chinese policy documents and laws. Following a hermeneutic approach, the image formed in the literature of Chinese citizenship education was interpreted and explained in a broader historical-cultural-social context. The results show that the traditional values of Chinese civilisation continue to play a strong role in all three arenas of citizenship education, although the conflict between traditional values emphasising conformism and modern values emphasising individual self-determination is also recognisable in them.

KEYWORDS:

• Citizenship education
• cultural values
• modernisation
• social order
• China

Introduction

Citizenship education is a complex area of research that requires a multidisciplinary perspective using historical, philosophical, pedagogical, political science, sociological, and psychological approaches (Arthur, Davies, and Hahn 2008; Peterson, Stahl, and Soong 2020; Delgado-Algarra and Cuenca-López 2020). The concept itself can be interpreted from different perspectives, and in its use, some degree of incoherence can be identified (Levinson 2014; Crittenden and Levine 2018). There is a wealth of scholarly literature dealing with the concepts, theories, and practices of citizenship education.

In the field of political psychology, it has been stated that, in addition to psychological explanations, the political behaviour of citizens must be viewed from the perspective of the political culture and social norms (2013). In general, political socialisation is a complex process – both in society and in the development of the individual – in which citizenship education is defined as a conscious effort to influence the political perceptions of citizens. Political perceptions of what a desirable society and a good citizen are essentially shaped by the value and belief systems of civilisation as they are cultural formations.

Political values and perceptions vary not only within civilisations but also between them, reflecting different cultural traditions and creating diversity in the goals and practices of citizenship education in the global context (Banks 2004; Torres 2017; Sant et al. 2018; Veugelers and de Groot 2019). There are certain notions in every civilisation about the kind of desired human coexistence, including views of the desired social order and the citizenship it requires. Accordingly, citizenship education is an effort to develop appropriate citizenship in line with these views, that is, the development of the qualities of a good citizen through education. Citizenship is widely implemented in different arenas of education in society, including the key areas of informal, non-formal and formal education.

The aim of this article is to provide a general view on the nature of Chinese citizenship education as described in the literature. Attention is paid to the contribution of traditional cultural values, and the roles of family, communities, and school. Just as educational anthropology is a constant balancing act under the pressure of traditional and new values (Kneller 1965), this article seeks to analyse Chinese citizenship precisely in terms of cultural change, keeping in mind that education both preserves and renews cultural values and beliefs and related social and citizenship practices. The aim is to understand and illuminate Chinese citizenship education from the perspective of this tension.

In the Chinese context, the tension between old and new values with respect to citizenship education concerns particularly the role of Confucian social and political thought, which has most markedly shaped the structures and practices of coexistence in China. It relates to the characteristics of a good citizen as part of the ‘basic spirit of Chinese culture’ and even the ‘national spirit’ as its ‘moral principles and political culture are characterized by the search for good governance’ (Li 2014, 4–5).

Recent citizenship education literature particularly emphasises the aspects of educating for democracy and global awareness (e.g., Crick, Lockyer, and Annette 2016; Findlow 2019). The importance of the cultural traditions of civilisations is recognised, but their effects on the traditions and practices of citizenship education have been relatively little studied. The formation of theory for citizenship education is also largely unhistorical, based on an educational interpretation of the promotion of certain political ideas and principles rather than on the historical localisation of citizenship education in relation to the cultural values and patterns of civilisation.

In the international scholarly debate, citizenship education is seen as located within the broader discourse of lifelong learning (e.g., Biesta 2011) but the concept of civic competence in lifelong learning has also seen as merely a slogan without a defining aim (Hildebrandt-Wypych 2013). Critical views of citizenship in the Chinese context emerge, especially as some Western elements of citizenship are problematic in relation to traditional China-based on Confucian social philosophy (Tse and Lee 2003, 106–107). However, undertaking a closer examination of the theoretical debate around citizenship education in the international scientific community is beyond the scope of this article although the international scholarly debate provides a conceptual basis for examining the Chinese model of citizenship education.

The variation of citizenship education between individual societies is linked to national political systems and their history as well as to the nation-specific social, economic, and cultural conditions. For example, in Communist China since 1949, the ideological basis of citizenship education was essentially linked with the political intentions of the Chinese Communist Party (Law 2017). In today’s China, practices of citizenship are shaped by tensions between state control and citizen-centred ideas (Woodman and Guo 2017). The civic dimension is even seen as a Western product that includes the concept of citizenship, which does not really exist in China (Yu 2020). The tension and reconciliation of traditional and modern values also concern the relationship between communist ideology and traditional intellectual social theories. Thus, citizenship education itself exists while the concept of citizenship education does not.

As citizenship education is essentially moral education, its aim is to promote civic morality and social life practices according to the desired form of society (Levinson 2014). Simultaneously, it is about political education based on certain political values and an effort to strengthen the social order according to these values (Thomas 2005). In relation to the traditional values and perceptions of civilisation, the mission of citizen education may more or less focus on preserving traditional views or promoting new values, purposefully reforming the social order and practices of social life. At the same time, it is a complex coordination of traditional and modern values in terms of balancing cultural preservation and renewal. According to Jackson (2019), such tensions must be faced in civic education because values like respect for difference, national stability, harmony, and security are in conflict.

Methodology

Our methodology is a hermeneutic literature-based inductive analysis. Two searches were performed based on English and Chinese languages. In addition to the academic literature, we also utilised relevant policy documents, laws and media documents on the history of Chinese citizenship education.

The literature-based analysis aimed to provide relevant materials for reflection on the research topic, that is, the position of traditional values, perceptions and morality in family, community and school citizenship education in China. Data acquisition, selection and analysis were performed as a coherent and consistent process.

Data selection

For English articles, keyword searches were performed using Google Scholar, EBSCOhost and ProQuest so that the following three criteria were met:

• ‘citizenship education’

• ‘China’

• ‘philosophy’ OR ‘Confucius’

From the search results, the papers matching the following additional criteria were selected:

• Year of publication 2015–2021

• High citation rate

• High download rate

As a result, we obtained 205 papers written in English, as follows: Google Scholar = 20, EBSCOhost = 32, ProQuest = 153.

For Chinese articles, searches were performed with the three largest Chinese journal databases that are continuously updated: CNKI, Wan Fang Data and VIP data. CNKI has a professional research platform called e-Study. It has three functions linked to the database convenient to use for learning, note-taking and labelling. Table 1 shows the keywords and search results. Eventually, we decided to analyse only 56 papers based on title, abstract and conclusion.

Table 1. Papers in the databases based on CNKI.

Keywords	Journals	Dissertations and others	Chinese	English	Total
Citizenship education	10,700	4192	9839	5053	1,4892
Chinese traditional culture	45,300	14,974	59,926	348	60,274
Citizenship education & Chinese traditional culture	42	14	56		56
Idea of Citizenship education	774	741	1515		1515
Confucius, Daoism, Buddhism	860	327	1040	47	1187
Marxism with Chinese characters	28,600	4370	32,970		32,970
Education in family, traditional culture	616	2249	2865		2865
School education, traditional culture	980	2714	3694		3694
Community education, traditional culture	263	260	523		523
Citizenship education, comparison	198	880	1078		1078
Citizenship education, criticism	1984	5005	6989		6989

To ensure manageability and relevance we focused our search on the latest publications. The relevance of each individual publication was determined by the adequacy of the information it contained in relation to the purpose of our study. Selected policy documents published by the Government and the State Council were retrieved from a Chinese online database. They are the highest institutions and guide the development of education in China.

Data analysis

The materials were analysed from two perspectives:

1. Philosophical: The influence of traditional philosophies of Chinese civilisation on citizenship education in the family, community and school.

2. Inductive: The characteristics of Chinese citizenship education in relation to traditional and modern values.

There is a wealth of literature illuminating the history of Chinese educational thought, which made it possible to incorporate a historical perspective into the analysis of the material aiming to understand the nature of Chinese citizenship education through cultural features of Chinese civilisation. The analysis relied on some key works in the history of education (e.g., Wang et al. 2008) as well as scholarly literature on the historical background of the features of Chinese social order, lifestyle and moral conventions.

The interpretation of Chinese citizenship education in a historical-cultural-social context was linked to Confucian social and moral theory, which has essentially shaped the Chinese social order, ways of life, and educational thinking. The explanatory power of Confucian philosophy for a historical-contextual understanding of the features of the Chinese educational tradition is obvious and significant. In addition, the political-ideological angle of analysis was the Chinese version of Marxism and the theoretical basis for reflection on today’s social change was a value conflict theory, which concerns the tension between the traditional and modern ways of life.

Interpretive understanding

Methodologically, our analysis was based on a hermeneutic approach in which the education for citizenship in China was interpreted in a broader historical context. It went beyond mere description through interpretive historical-cultural-social contextualisation as ‘sensitivity to history is part of hermeneutic consciousness’ (McGaffrey, Raffin-Boughal, and Moules 2012, 215) and ‘historicality of understanding’ is the main thread of hermeneutic philosophy (Bleicher 2019, 108). The process of analysis progressed throughout as an interpretive understanding.

The analytical process of this study relied entirely on the hermeneutic circle, from a descriptive identification of features of citizenship education to a contextual understanding of the nature of Chinese citizenship education in the family, communities, and school. A contextual understanding of Chinese citizenship education requires a reflection from the cultural, social, and political factors that determine Chinese social orders and ways of life. Such hermeneutic reflection is not limited to a single theory but requires a reflective theoretical surface that enables a holistic view of Chinese society and lifestyle.

Following the hermeneutic circle, our goal was to create an objective picture of Chinese citizenship education. The analysis was performed by moving back and forth, from the parts to the whole and from the whole to the parts, which can easily be misunderstood as constituting a ‘circular interpretation that only confirms one’s subjective expectations and prejudices’ (Zhang 2018, 125–126). To avoid subjective distortion, we followed a so-called cautious reflection in drawing conclusions. As our view was constructed and refined step by step by reflecting the identified features of citizenship education in the light of social order and way of life, the analysis went beyond mere description through interpretive historical-cultural-social contextualisation.

The influence of traditional family education on Chinese citizenship education

Traditionally, family duties play a central role in the Chinese way of life and social order. The importance of parenting and raising children in the family has been emphasised in traditional citizenship education as family virtues have been understood to be closely linked to civic virtues.

China has a long tradition of emphasising family education

Education is an eternal topic for all humankind. China has valued family education since ancient times and family education has occupied a very important position in the cultivation of talents and guiding the life path of talented people in the country (Zhang and Chen 2016; Wang 2017).

The evolution of Chinese family concepts has undergone three major changes during the 20th century (Meng 2008). The first change originated from the strong criticism of feudal patriarchy by enlightenment thinkers, which laid the foundation for the modernisation of the family. The second drastic change occurred from 1949 to the end of the Cultural Revolution, which constituted the influence of political movements on the family. The political system weakened the role of the family and changed social life, making it very political. The large-scale political reform worsened the economy and ruthlessly destroyed many families. The third change started at the end of the Cultural Revolution and is best evidenced by the economic reform that is opening society and markets in terms of economic rationality, which is again posing a great threat to the core values of the family.

On one hand, the importance of family education is related to the characteristics of the traditional Chinese economy; and on the other hand, it is inseparable from the traditional Chinese political model in which family and country belong to the same structure (Rappa and Tan 2003). This unity of family and country determines the family, not only as the basic social and economic unit, but also as the basic organisation of social education. Therefore, the status of the family in ancient times was directly related to the current situation in China and the prosperity and decline of the society, which lasted for thousands of years.

In general, Chinese parents see moral education, intellectual development, acquisition of knowledge, and the formation of living habits as the most important tasks in contemporary family education. It has been shown that Confucian values and beliefs dominate parents’ decision-making processes as a philosophical framework to teach children at home (Sheng 2020). Shi (2006) found that parents see moral education as the primary task of the family, but this varies slightly with age. Feng (2002, see Qin 2002), in turn, stated that parents firmly believe that children have bright futures; see children as an artwork which deserves to be carefully carved; set a good example for children; do everything to ensure the development of the child in every aspect (moral, intelligence, physics, art, labour); and use wisdom and courage to overcome difficulties.

A review of values and beliefs in traditional Chinese culture enduring through modern times showed that, despite the repeated clashes with open cultural values and the dramatic transformation in the social and economic structure, the essence of Chinese culture remains largely intact (quoted in Yang 2002, 51). However, modernisation means the strengthening of pluralist values and the diversification of lifestyles, which in turn brings diversity to educational thinking and makes it impossible to describe the nature of modern citizenship education unambiguously as a harmonious whole.

Goals of education in family

In traditional Confucianism, there is a close relationship between the family and the country, and therefore the concept of ‘family’ can be seen as both political and ideological (Jianguo 2014; Leung 2014). As the purpose of traditional domestic education is to ‘put your family in order’, ancient Chinese society regarded this as a way to ‘run the local government and bring peace to the entire country’, but ‘put your family in order’ was also the goal pursued by the family, especially in the following aspects.

The first goal of education in the family is to teach the family and children to be good people to maintain family harmony; to educate children to cultivate themselves and behave correctly according to the mainstream of ancient family education. Many examples of the diligent studies of the ancients are listed in the masterpieces of family precepts such as ‘Guidelines for Family Management’ and ‘The Family Precepts of Yan Family’. Most of these include the elders teaching the young how to cultivate, how to stand in the world and how to deal with others. It not only protects the interests of the family but also protects oneself wisely and promotes the harmony of family relations. Being a good person is the mainstream of Chinese traditional family education, its basic goal and value.

The second goal of education in the family is to encourage children to study and become an official (a person having an official position in the government) in order to honour the family. After the imperial examination (Chinese ancient officer selection system) became popular, the most convenient way for people to honour the family was to pass this examination. Since then, the focus of family education has gradually shifted towards encouraging children to take the imperial examination, and the common mentality of the family is to hope that their children will have a bright future (Wang 2001). As in ancient times, studying and becoming officials were closely related – the best chance for scholars and ordinary people to upgrade their social status was through study.

Compared with ancient times when there was only one way to achieve success, contemporary education in the family offers more choices. Empirical evidence supports the importance of the family in Chinese society (Meng 2008; Yang 2011; Zhang and Xu 2003; Zhao 2013). As society changes, the beliefs and values of contemporary families may also change. The younger generation (the so-called ‘post-80s’) and their beliefs and values are very diverse. However, the value ‘study first’ is a very important phenomenon in Chinese family education. A survey by Liu (1996) showed that 85% of parents require their children to study hard and try to get into a good school, and 75% think the first criterion for evaluating students is their academic performance, while work ability (10%), moral (5%) and physical attributes (0%) were only rarely valued.

Chinese parents prefer that their children get into a good school while some key aspects of education, such as physical education and moral education, may be neglected (Miao 1999). This preference has caused parents to have a strong influence on and high expectations for their children’s academic performance while their awareness of the overall development of their children may be deficient. Labour education and patriotism education may not be in the parents’ vision at all (Yi, Zhuang Huining, and Chen 1996). In general, it seems that parents do not view home education as citizenship education.

Parents’ expectations and children’s choices indicate that traditional values are still common, even among the younger generation of contemporary China (Yang 2011; Zhao 2013). School-age children’s parents tend to prefer ‘professional and technical expert’ (Zou 2008) and ‘scientist’ (Tong 2001) as desirable careers. Although the surveys did not include information on how much parents included the idea of a wishful citizen in their desired professions, they showed that a significant proportion of Chinese parents glorify the professions that are based on an academic education. This can probably be explained, at least in part, by the fact that society has entered the era of the knowledge economy, characterised by respect for knowledge and cognitive talents as a foundation for creating wealth.

‘Intelligence first’ is prevalent today but is expected to exist for a long time in the future. According to Zheng and Li (2002), ‘family is a place where tradition and modernity fight’. The traditional Chinese family concept is not only limited to the core family but also passed on from generation to generation. One reason is the common mentality of ‘official position’. It means that people use their social status (official position and power) to judge others and measure everything (Li and Wu 2006; Zhu 2005; Zheng 2003). The modern interpretation of ‘study to be an official’ means taking the following steps: (1) study for the entrance examination, (2) enter a famous institute, (3) choose a popular major subject and (4) choose a good career. This is considered the best way of life with respect to the idea of a good citizen too. It originates from traditional Chinese culture and its collective values that still lie at the core of education. Modern, individualistic values emphasise more self-development rather than the traditional values, which raises a tension.

As the pace of social development accelerates, society’s demand for talent is increasing. A measure of success is whether or not a child can get admitted to a top university (Wang and Li 2020). To enable children to have bargaining chips and ‘tickets’ in this social competition (Li and Zhu 2020; Zhao 2020; Yue and Yang 2012), many parents choose to invest everything in their child’s study. Parents believe that it is possible to qualify for the competition only by entering university, and therefore they invest heavily in developing children’s intellectual abilities and academic performances.

Citizenship with respect to the traditional concept of family

Under the influence of Confucianism, China’s traditional social order is very family-centred which is ‘a rational justification or theoretical expression of this social system’, defining precisely the relationships, rights and responsibilities of family members (Fung 2015, 40). Such a ‘well-organized and religiously conceived family system’ has been characterised as a ‘tremendous force’ and the ‘race consciousness’ of Chinese people (Lin 2006, 27–28). In principle, this way of thinking is an integral cultural part of Chinese citizenship education.

Consequently, it is worth knowing how different currents of thought and spiritual trends see the roles of family and government in relation to each other concerning childcare and education. This issue pertains particularly to the field of social and political philosophy as different intellectual schools and spiritual forces deal with social and political considerations to different degrees. However, they may significantly influence policy on citizenship education regarding how the rights and duties of family and public authorities are understood and regulated.

The research literature generally points out that Chinese culture, including the culture of family education, emphasises collectivist rather than individualistic values, and that the educational orientation of Chinese parents is strongly collectivist, in line with traditional cultural values (Peterson et al. 2008; Yang and Congzhou 2018). However, this categorisation is not unambiguous, and a strong tendency towards utilitarian individualism in social relations has been identified in Chinese cultural values as a result of modernisation (Lu 2010). Today, there is obvious tension between the individualistic and collectivist cultural patterns in Chinese education overall as well as in family upbringing.

In the light of the analysis, a child’s personal success and career are emphasised by today’s Chinese parents rather than the idea of a good citizen. On other hand, parents may see that by succeeding in education and a career, a child fulfils their civic duty as an adult and best serves their society. Based on the research literature, it is not clear how education in family and citizenship education are connected in detail today. In traditional Chinese educational thinking, they are inextricably linked: family virtues and civic virtues have been seen as moral duties that belong to the same entity. The tension between individualist and collectivist cultural patterns also complicates – or even destroys – this traditional way of thinking.

The influence of traditional culture on community-based citizenship education

Community, solidarity, and mutual assistance have been considered to be an essential part of traditional Chinese coexistence and social order. The virtues of family life extend to the broader community organisation and action as community virtues. Moral education is an important part of the community’s non-formal educational mission.

The Chinese concept of community education

In 2004, The Fourth Plenary Session of the Sixteenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China summarised ‘democracy and rule of law, fairness and justice, honesty and friendship, full of vitality, stability and order, and harmony between man and nature’ as characteristics of a harmonious socialist society (Zhu and Feng 2006). From the perspective of citizenship education in the community, Zheng (2018) argues that the essential goal is to train qualified citizens including (1) promoting people’s socialisation; (2) promoting people’s personality education; (3) cultivating awareness as a modern citizen; and (4) improving awareness and the ability to participate in society.

In general, community education refers to community-based educational activity that arises from the needs of community development for a better quality of life for all its members (Jin 1995; Ye 2016; Hou 2017). The educational function of the community is embodied in the process of cultivating the residents, carrying out multi-form, multi-level, and multi-type educational activities according to the specific human, geographical and social characteristics of the community (Liu 2010; Wang 2015b). The ‘Citizen moral education implementation outline’ provided by Ge (2005) proposes that moral education comes not only from knowledge and acceptance of the truth but also from daily life experience. People are better educated by their own life experience. A living environment full of ethical care has the effect of a positive moral education.

In order to strengthen cohesion, important aspects of community education for residents are a common culture, a common code of conduct in the community and a sense of community membership (Liu 2010). One example of this is Chaoyang aunt in Beijing (Xie 2018; Li 2014), who guards the safety of the community and bravely does what she thinks is right. Another example is Chengdu’s sharing grandma (Qian 2021), who acts as a temporary parent. Square dance is a well-known and long-lasting habit in the communities, where everyone exercises together in public areas.

Community is the grassroots organisation for social governance in China which realises the interaction and cooperation between the state and society. Community identity is closely linked to national identity, and at the same time, it is an important part of citizenship education in the community.

Festival to create a warm community

The Chinese traditional festival means getting away from the ordinary and trivial daily life and entering an extraordinary moment (Jing 2013, 85). During these holidays, community workers organise festival activities to encourage people to get out to meet and get to know each other to increase mutual trust.

Spring festival, also known as Chinese New Year, is the most important holiday for all Chinese everywhere in the world (Sun 2011). It declares responsibility and gratitude, celebrates the accomplishments and the vitality of people (Wang and Li 2012). While festivals in Western countries are more about relaxation and family reunion, a Chinese festival also includes an educational aspect to create community identity in connection to national citizenship identity.

Human relations to mediate community conflicts

As people have different social backgrounds, customs and cultures, Chinese society also lacks trust among governmental entities in the community (Liao 2005); and due to different interests and demands in the process of social interaction, conflicts will inevitably occur (Jin and Chao 2013). In traditional Chinese communities, especially in rural society, civil conflicts are generally resolved through the mediation of rural autonomous organisations, and the intervention of state power is strongly rejected (Huang 1998, 13–14). Community neighbourhood committees are grassroots social organisations with the dual agent status of both state and society. They serve both the interests of the residents and maintain the authority of the state.

Based on an empirical study, Wang (2015a) divides community conflicts into nine categories, of which the two most common are neighbourhood conflicts (27%) (such as noise disturbance, occupation of public corridors and harming pets) and marriage and family conflicts (21%) (such as husband and wife discord, children’s education and mother-in-law relations). Most of these two types of conflicts (75%) can be resolved within the community and will not require a legal process or evolve into criminal cases. This indicates that the community has an important role in maintaining harmony in society.

Mediation is a popular method of conflict-resolution in countries influenced by Confucian culture. Confucianism pursues an ideal political utopia without litigation. Confucianism encourages people to abandon their personal goals to maintain interpersonal harmony. The three fundaments are order between the elderly and the younger, human relationship in society, and face. When conflict happens, the first thing that comes to people’s mind is not to tell others about family ugliness. Tolerance is regarded as the primary solution and is praised as a virtue. Wang (2011) argues that while community neighbourhood committees lack legal authority, they rely on traditional ethics and local knowledge by adopting a flexible (‘sensible and reasonable’) approach to mediate conflicts.

The three common mediation methods in conflicts are:

• Mianzi,

• Borrowing face, and

• Public pressure

Mianzi refers to direct mediation based on human relations to give face (give favour) to others. It is a social and psychological construction rooted in the culture based on contextual and flexible interpersonal communication concerning a person’s self-esteem and dignity, similar to the ego (Zhao 2012). A community mediator talks directly with the disputing parties to reach a consensus among them. It is a kind of speaking of peace strategy drawn from the sentiments of the community. It is effective because the residents respect the community mediator, who not only represents the local authority but also has personal qualifications: ‘It is not too embarrassing to deal with disputes by old ladies’ (Qu and Sun 2015).

Indirect mediation happens by borrowing face from your close relative. Fei Xiaotong reveals the order pattern of Chinese behaviour that centres on family relationships and extrapolates from closeness to sparseness (Zheng 2002). When conflicts cannot be resolved by local authorities, mediation will be assisted by others, such as children or relatives of both parties. Close relationships between these communities and families have become an auxiliary force for community meditators. Both parties in the dispute trust community meditators, as they all value family and neighbour relations. Therefore, relying on the power of the community and its social capital, it becomes a mediation resource that often has unexpected effects (Qu and Sun 2015).

The method of public pressure relies on the pressure of public opinion which is considered a mediation tool where community mediators will leak the situation to other community residents. Residents will evaluate conflicts based on social ethics and their own preferences, thereby forming a certain degree of public opinion (Qu 2011). Although community mediation does not ensure its implementation, it may serve a function similar to the state’s compulsory force and promote the settlement of disputes.

Communicator visits are also a common method of building a harmonious community (Wang 2020). These aim to understand what residents need to communicate all opinions, cultivate opinion leaders, create a harmonious atmosphere of mutual respect and build a livable environment. The main idea of Chinese citizenship education is to build a harmonious society.

The influence of traditional culture on citizenship education in the context of school

The central task of the school in modern society is to develop in children the skills required for working life and citizenship. It is not just sharing information about society but moral education about being a citizen.

From cultural roots to the present day

School education is an important way to educate about a society’s common values because of its authority. The modern education system originated from the nationalist government of China issuing the so-called 633 law on the school system for primary and secondary education in 1922 (Government Gazette 1922). In 1933, ‘Temporary standards for primary and secondary school curriculum’ was published, which required elementary schools to offer citizen training courses.

After the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, the goal of education became to train communist successors. Before and after this period, the government continuously published policies to ensure that schools would run in the direction set by the government, while during this period (1949–1978), such activities did not exist.

In 1985, the central committee of the communist party set the goal and basic content of political courses in middle school, which included: morals, democracy, legality, discipline in education, laws of social life and social development, and the common sense of socialist construction. The goal of citizenship education is the cultivation of the concept ‘four citizens (四有公民)’, which includes: noble ideals, moral integrity, better education, and a good sense of discipline. This was the first citizenship education (CE) course offered after the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Modern school policy

In 1988, the ‘Junior middle school (citizens) reform experimental teaching syllabus’ was issued. It emphasised the education of civic rights, responsibilities, and moral education, which highlighted the concept of citizenship. In 1995, the state education commission published the ‘Outline of middle school moral education’, which formulated the tasks of moral education in middle schools. The basic task is to ‘to make it possible to grow to a communist’. In 1993, the central committee and the state council issued the ‘Chinese education reform and development outline’, which pointed out, ‘we must attach importance to educating our students about Chinese culture and traditions’.

In ‘Several opinions of the central committee of the communist party on further strengthening and improving school moral education’, issued in 1994, emphasised: ‘Inherit and carry forward the excellent cultural traditions of the Chinese nation … We must start from the baby and run through the whole process of elementary school to middle school to university’.

In January 2006, the ‘Implementation outline for the education of promoting and cultivating national spirit in primary and secondary schools’ clarified the outstanding traditional virtues of the Chinese nation: ‘ … the way of self-cultivation including gentleness, friendliness, courtesy, thrift, etc.; the heroic spirit of dedication and sacrificing one’s own life for justice; the sense of social responsibility; the social custom of not imposing on others what you yourself do not desire’.

In 2011, the sixth plenary session of the seventeenth central committee passed the ‘Decision on deepening the reform of the cultural system and promoting the development and prosperity of socialist culture’. It once again mentioned the cultivation of the ‘four citizens (四有公民)’ concept. In the national school policy, the role of traditional Chinese culture has been continuously strengthened in the 2010s and is being implemented in practice in several stages of education.

Citizenship education emphasises three factors. First, it is led by the state rather than by society, with the main purpose of consolidating and sustaining its leadership. Second, the education is exclusive so that it adopts those beliefs and ideology that support the agenda of the leaders while discouraging those views that threaten political or social stability. Third, traditional Chinese culture has always been an essential part of citizenship education (except in the Mao era) (Law 2013). The leadership in citizenship education is divided in a complex manner between the school principal and the school party secretary (Xu and Law 2015). The school principal is driven by practical needs and academic development while party secretaries implement the state’s policies and ideological values.

These practical research results are hard to connect to the role of traditional ideas in Chinese formal citizenship education in schools. The civic education implemented by the school largely recognises the same moral ideals and principles as in traditional philosophies. The tension concerns mainly the contradiction between moral ideals and real life. There is a tension between traditional and modern values, where school education represents a traditional rather than a modern way of thinking in terms of perceptions of civic morality and the qualities of a good citizen.

Citizenship education class with a Chinese character

At the turn of the 20th century, the Ministry of Education started the ‘New century higher education teaching reform’ project, which created several textbooks, including ‘Introduction to traditional Chinese culture’, ‘General introduction of Chinese traditional Culture’, and ‘Spirit of Chinese traditional culture’. These books served as teaching material about traditional culture in universities (Shen 2008). Despite the importance of the moral aspect of ideological and political education, there is no special civic moral education course in reality. Instead, their content is integrated separately into the ‘Moral and law’ class in compulsory education, ‘Ideological and political education’ in high school and ‘Moral cultivation and legal foundation’ in higher education (Gao 2018).

In 2014, the Ministry of Education issued a notice on ‘Improving China’s excellent traditional cultural education guidelines’, which mentioned the integration of traditional cultural education into elementary, junior high, high school and university. In 2016, the general office of the Ministry of Education published the ‘Notice on matters related to teaching books for primary and secondary schools’, which combined the two separate courses of ‘Ethics and life’ and ‘Moral’ into one ‘Ethics and the rule of law’. It was a compulsory class at all levels. Its purpose was to implement the core values of socialism for students from elementary and junior high schools.

In September 2017, schools officially started to use the textbooks published by the Ministry of Education on ethics and the rule of law, the Chinese language and history. Wang (2006, 105) analysed the content of the new edition of the textbook on citizenship awareness involving patriotism, democracy, rights, responsibilities, and participation. They estimated that this content increased by 12% compared to the previous edition.

Yan and Qiu (2018) suggested that the ‘Law’ section of one of the textbooks should adopt beneficial elements from Western legal and rational citizenship education. The difference is that Western education is based on rights while Chinese education is based on obligations. The ‘Ethics’ section was used as the main content for cultivating ethical citizenship education, highlighting the Chinese background of relationships, ethics, emotions and topics such as Chinese excellent traditional culture, revolutionary traditions, national sovereignty and national unity. The relationship between oneself and others, the collective, the country and society was dealt with on five levels: family, school, community, country, and world, where each level expands upon the previous level (Yan and Qiu 2018). Each level is relatively independent but an indispensable part of the whole.

The content of citizenship education in the school context

The content of citizenship education is still hidden in the primary and secondary moral education in China. Although the concepts of qualified citizens and civic awareness education have been mentioned many times in moral education courses in elementary and middle schools, their target is unclear, the content complex and very repetitive. The curriculum does not highlight the development of citizens’ self-awareness, identity, rights, obligations, and the cultivation of citizenship (Wang 2006, 105).

The education also lacks clear instructions on how to educate civic knowledge, skills, and abilities (Zhang 2018). Four mainstream textbooks from 1^st and 2^nd year university studies are ‘Outline of modern Chinese history’, ‘Ideological and moral cultivation and legal foundation’, ‘Introduction to Mao Zedong’s thought, Deng Xiaoping’s theory and the important thought of Three Represents’ and ‘Introduction to the basic principles of Marxism’. The seven most frequent keywords are: national system, laws and regulations, political education, family virtues, social ethics, professional ethics, and patriotism (Ao 2013, 150) (Table 2).

Table 2. Statistical analysis of the appearance of the keywords in the textbooks (Ao 2013).

	Political education	Patriotism	Laws and regulations	Social morality	Professional ethics	Family virtue	National system
Frequency	64	40	8	4	3	2	1
Proportion	52.46%	32.79%	6.56%	3.28%	2.46%	1.64%	0.82%

Table 2 shows that political ideology and patriotism education still make up most of citizenship education for university students, accounting for more than 80%. There is relatively little content about the national system, family virtues, social ethics, and professional ethics.

In general, citizenship education concerns citizenship awareness of the law and national identity (Cheng 2012). Because of the lack of in-depth discussion about the connotation of citizenship education in social courses, students’ understanding of citizenship education remains vague. The social science curriculum itself is quite general with overall concepts (Gao and Zhao 2003). Three dimensions can be identified: civic, diplomatic, and authoritarian (Pan 2017). Moral and political purposes are intertwined with the school subject.

To conclude, schools aim to strike a balance between traditional and modern cultures; they play a moderating role as China changes from a collectivist to an individualist culture.

Discussion

The analysis showed that in Chinese citizenship education, the tension between traditional and modern values is recognisable in all areas of education: family, community, and school. As part of modernisation, the idea of citizenship as moral coexistence has increasingly been replaced by educational activities based on an individualistic utilitarian orientation. This affects not only school education but also parenting and community activities.

The results clearly suggest that the educational values and practices in Chinese citizenship education are shifting from traditional culture to emphasising more economic, knowledge and Western consumerist values (Etherington 2019). Despite this, social life is still strongly family-centred, while political rhetoric, and formal citizenship education emphasise harmonious collective coexistence in the community and society at large. In China, citizenship education is not a formal subject in schools but its patriotic essence can be found.

In China, education is strongly connected to family. The purpose of education is to honour the ancestors and family continuation in contrast to the West where education is for self-development. An essential difference is that Chinese education is based on obligations while Western education is based on rights.

Based on the analysis, there is tension between the intellectual currents that shape civilisation and the modern worldview and Confucian social and political thought. According to Li (2014, 185), ‘traditional culture … will help us recognize and analyse the historical development and general characteristics of the national from a macro perspective’. National features in citizenship education can only be identified in terms of cultural values in the tension between traditional and modern values with respect to social, political, economic, and cultural transformation.

The analysis of academic literature and policy documents provided insight into what educators and legislators consider important, in contrast to empirical research, which only aims to express how things are, or how they are meant to be, but not provide information on the philosophical premises of citizenship education in nation-specific cultural and political context. In this respect, the analysis showed that Chinese society considers family education important and that communities are primarily seen as implementers of citizenship education based on tradition. This creates a tension between the traditional and modern values.

The analysis was not comparative, but it showed that the citizenship education policy in China differs from the Western way of thinking: in the West, citizenship education emphasises the rights and influence of individuals, while in China emphasises the observance of morality. However, the results suggest that Chinese educational values have shifted from the traditional cultural values to emphasising economic, knowledge and consumerist values.

The guiding principle of Chinese citizenship education is still the promotion of harmonious human coexistence and the moral virtues associated with it, which is emphasised in the intellectual heritage of Chinese civilisation. Education in the family, community and school are each seen to fulfil this ideal. However, the tension between traditional and modern values challenges both this ideal and the education associated with it in all three fora.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).