Demystifying Teaching and Learning in Chinese Citizenship Education: an empirical study of three schools in Guangzhou, China

Abstract

This paper examines teaching and learning approaches in citizenship education in China. Since the late 20th century, numerous works have examined the responses of citizenship education to social change particularly globalization. Research in citizenship education pedagogy has received little attention. To revitalize such pedagogy research, Kennedy, Lee and Grossman (2010) edited a pioneering work showing diverse and still developing citizenship education pedagogies in 13 societies in Asia and the Pacific including China. Similarly, there are few studies specifically on pedagogy of citizenship education in China such as Zhao and Fairbrother (2010) and Cantoni et al (2014). However, they share a similar view that unlike schools in such Western countries as the UK and US which emphasizes the roles of teachers as facilitators and students as rational learners in choosing what knowledge and values to accept, Chinese schools are known for indoctrinating students with political views and nationalistic ideals since primary education. However, these studies do not have strong empirical evidence to support the indoctrination argument, and this warrants attention. Using student questionnaire survey, interviews with students and teachers, and lesson observations as major methods of data collection, the paper critically examines the dynamics and complexities of teaching and learning activities in citizenship education lessons observed in three junior secondary schools in Guangzhou, China, in 2013-2014. The study reveals that despite different combinations and extents, mixed pedagogies of citizenship education coexisted in the three schools, ranging from direct instructions to values clarification. Specifically, the study has six major findings. They are: (a) the adoption of diverse teaching and learning activities in citizenship education lessons, (b) Chinese teachers’ role as facilitators in the use of, for example, different types and levels of question to help students express, communicate and clarify their views in lessons, (c) Chinese students as active and rational learners engaging in thinking and reasoning and using their own learning strategies to judge and choose what to accept, (d) the provision of an open and free classroom climate in citizenship education lessons in which students felt free and respected in communicating their views in class, (e) the importance of both school’s openness to the world and China’s curriculum reform as response to globalization to promoting the diversity of citizenship education pedagogy and providing open and free classroom culture, and (f) the pressure of public examination limiting the diversity of teachers’ pedagogy and students’ active engagement in citizenship education lessons. The paper contributes to the field of comparative and international education with particular focus on citizenship education pedagogy research in two aspects. First, it provides a useful case challenging a popular perception of Chinese citizenship education as indoctrination. Second, the paper adds to the theoretical understanding of dynamics and complexities of teaching and learning citizenship education in such societies marked by strong political control as China in a global age.