China

__**The Teaching of Civics in China **__ **By Amanda Rose** China, located in East Asia, has one of the oldest civilizations in the world. The nation’s history extends around 4,000 years andprior to the 19th century, China was a leading world power. Following Europe’s expansion of industrial power, China fell behind in world standing. The19th and 20th centuries in China contained societal uprisings, famines, poverty and governmental corruption. The second half of thetwentieth century brought about much change to China.
 * ** ﻿**Country Overview**

After World War II China became a socialist state under the leadership of Mao Zedong. Mao’spolicies strictly controlled all aspects of Chinese life – including education. Designed to cultivate support for the Communist party, civic education under Mao’s leadership (1949-1976) focused on the political indoctrination ofstudents. Following a period of political and societal devastation known as theCultural Revolution, Mao’s successor, Deng Xiaoping, strove to rejuvenate China’s stagnated economy by making policy changes to modernize the nation. These changes would eventually allow China to industrialize, modernize, and become (as of 2010) the second largest economy in the world.

Today, China is a Communist state with relatively no other political opposition parties. The president and vice president of the People’s Republic of China(the official name of the nation), are elected by China’s legislative Congress, the National People’s Congress. The government places controls over politicsand media platforms, but is supportive of a market economy and national economic growth. China is the most populous country in the world – with an estimated 1.3 billion people. Reforms started under Xiaoping raised thestandard of living in China, but per capita income remains low. China’s Education system has garnered much attention because students score high on international testing (See NY Times graph below).  **﻿Context** Following the Cultural Revolution and the end of Mao’s restrictive leadership, changes in education took place. With the nation looking toward economic development, the focus of civic education was no longeron political indoctrination. In 1978, the Chinese Ministry of Education (CMOE –now the SEdC, State Commission on Education) made changes to curriculum that emphasized the moral aspects of civic education. The CMOE outlined these changes in, //A Draft Teaching Plan for TenYear Full-time Primary and Secondary Schools// (Chen, 2002). Students engaged with subject matter in civics classrooms that promoted moral and spiritual well-being, as well as outlined their responsibility to their families,communities, and nation. Contemporary civic education in China still resembles this original model based on socialist morals.

Chinese Citizenship Education today serves to foster socialist citizens who are moral,spiritual, self-disciplined, and feel a responsibility to better the nation of China. Implemented in both primary and secondary schools, Chinese Citizenship Education focuses on morality and ideology in the younger grades and politics andideology in advanced grades. Citizenship Education also occurs outside ofcivics classroom and is infused in other subjects and school activities such as the popular Youth League, cooperation between school, community and families, commemoration days, and singing the national anthem. Many of these concepts were influencedby the government’s 1995 publication, //New Five-year Plan of Social and Economic Developments for the Twenty-first Century,// which stressed the importance of fostering citizenship to upgrade the nation (Chen, 2002).

**﻿Subject Content Standards ** There has been much debate over the content standards of civic education in China – namely, because of the changing values of Chinese society following the Cultural Revolution. Because of China’s past, however, there has been a consensus amongst education reformers that curriculum standards should not focus on radical political ideology. From the 1990s to the present, citizenship education in China has been driven by content standards that emphasize the cultivation of morals, rights of the community, and responsibilities of socialist citizens to the nation.Specifically in older grades, civic education focuses on four main themes – economic life, political life, cultural life, and philosophical life. Curriculum emphasizes the value of a market economy, a socialist government, Chinese history, and spiritual balance.

**Materials** Influenced by the debate surrounding the 1995 governmentalpublication, //New Five-year Plan of Social and Economic Developments for the Twenty-first Century,// a handbook for citizenship was developed entitled //A Citizen Manual (Chen 2002).// In 1996, a series of new textbooks entitled, //A Textbook of ChineseCitizenship//, influenced by the manual were approved by the SEdC and implementedin schools. Generally, Chinese citizenship education uses the textbook as the dominant classroom resource. Other resources of Citizenship Education, althoughless obvious, are community/national pride building activities.

**Nature of Curriculum** It is not clear which model of civic education Chinese citizenship education follows. Standards call for students to cultivate individual morals (liberal civic education), a sense of responsibility and involvement in their local and national communities (republic civic education), and cultural awareness and openness to other world cultures (diversity civic education). It seems that Chinese citizenship education does not presently emphasize the critical civic education model. Perhaps this model is in conflict with the communist government system. There is evidence of critical civic education in China, but has not been adopted by the state.

**﻿Main Issues and Challenges ** Introduced in 2005, a series of textbooks entitled //Textbooks for New Citizens// caused controversy amongst Chinese educators (Wei,n.d.). Adopted by some and rejected by others, these textbooks emphasize concepts of democracy. Criticism surrounding //Textbooks for New Citizens// highlights the clash between democratic and socialist principles – i.e., the difference between each ideology’s view toward individual rights and the role of the citizen. This debate shows one of the main issues and challenges surrounding citizenship education in China - there are proponents of changing education in China to include democratic thinking, but the modes of knowledge dissemination remain traditional teacher-centered techniques influenced by socialist principles.

**﻿Resources ** - Central Intelligence Agency. (2011). The World Factbook:East & Southeast Asia: CHINA. CIA. Retrieved from [|https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-[[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html|factbook/geos/ch.html]]] **﻿** - Chen, Y. & Reid, I. (2002). Citizenship Education inChinese Schools, Retrospect and Prospect.Research in Education,67, 58-69. Retrieved from [|http://[[http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/uploads/docs/670058.pdf|www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/uploads/docs/670058.pdf]]] - Fairbrother, G. & Zhenzhou, Z. (2010). Pedagogies ofCultural Integration in Chinese Citizenship Education. In Citizenship pedagogies in Asia and the Pacific (2). Retrieved from [] **﻿** - Law, W. (2004). Globalization and Citzenship in Hong Kongand Taiwan. (2004). The University of Chicago Press on behalfof the Comparative and International EducationSociety, 48 (3), 253-273. Retrieved from [|http://www.jstor.org/stable/[[http://www.jstor.org/stable/3542050|3542050]]] **﻿** - Ministry of Education People’s Republic of China. (2011).Education in China. Retrieved from [|http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_2792/[[http://www.moe.edu.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_2792/index.html|index.html]]] **﻿** - The New York Times. (2010). AnInternational Education Test. Retrieved from []**﻿** - Wei, K. (n.d.).Citizenship Education in China and the U.K.: Key Features and Challenges. Institute of Education, London University & Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University. Retrieved from [|http://www.ioe.ac.uk/about/documents/] [|About_Overview/Kan_W.pdf].