The Promotion of Culture in Citizenship Education and its Influences on
Students’ Multiple Identities in China
Du Jianyi
The classical theories of citizenship and citizenship education have been
challenged by the process of globalization, in which the old concepts such as: nation
state, citizenship and identity have been affected, and culture becomes a primary
concern. Though existing studies have tried to integrate culture as a new dimension in
the concept of citizenship and add cultural elements in citizenship education practice,
they are not sufficient enough to explain the role of culture in citizenship education,
especially in the case of China. Moreover, they are insufficient to understand the
influences of the promoted culture in citizenship education on the students’ attitudes
toward different cultural elements in the global context and on their local, national
and global identities respectively.
With particular reference to Beijing, this research explores the promotion of
culture in citizenship education in junior secondary schools. The researcher examines
what are the cultural tasks allocated by the state to school citizenship education in the
context of globalization; how school responses to that allocated cultural tasks; how
culture is promoted in citizenship education in the context of China; how promoting
culture in citizenship education influences students’ attitudes towards diverse cultural
elements; and how it influences students’ local, national and global identities.
To achieve the research aim, this study conducted a mixed method study
involving four subject junior secondary schools in Beijing. Four data collection
methods
–
document
collection
and
review,
non-participant
observations,
questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews – were used to provide a deep and
holistic understanding of the function of promoting culture in citizenship education
and its influences on students’ local, national and global identities.
By analyzing relevant official documents and school documents, observing
school lessons, sending and collecting questionnaires among students, and conducting
semi-structured interviews with students, teachers, and school leaders, this research
finds that although schools acknowledging the importance of culture’s value in
citizenship education, limited time is used to introduce culture to students in either
curriculum or extra-curriculum activities; the schools’ promotion of local, national
and global cultural elements featured significant urban-rural differences – the rural
schools emphasize more on promoting local and national culture than the urban
schools; the students’ local and national identities are affected not only by promotion
of local and national culture in school, but also by their family circumstances and
personal experiences; and, despite little access to the global cultural elements is
provided in schools, the students show a high interests in global culture and
communities and value their global identities. This study also illustrates the
constitutions of students’ multiple identities in each domain from their own
perspectives.