School power and democratic citizenship education in China: Experiences from three secondary schools

Abstract

Numerous critical studies on citizenship have demonstrated that schools and teachers make a significant contribution to democracy. However, due to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) tight political control and the Chinese governments' deep involvement in citizenship education, the ways in which Chinese schools and teachers affect democratic citizenship education are underresearched. With reference to school-based curriculum development (SBCD, initiated in 2001), this chapter investigates the impact of Chinese schools and teachers on citizenship education, with particular attention to their influence in the three stages of SBCD: Goal setting, content and pedagogy selection, and implementation. Data were drawn from studies in three secondary schools (Grades 7-9), 90 questionnaires completed by teachers and 23 individual interviews with government administrators, university experts, school principals and teachers from February to December, 2008. The findings indicate that Chinese school practices are congruent with critical pedagogy studies underscoring the emancipatory potential of schools and teachers: Schools can advance democratic citizenship education by de-politicising CCP-dominated citizenship education, decentralising curriculum decisions in order to take power from governments, and democratising school culture to better meet the needs of Chinese civil society. These practices do not, however, eliminate the CCP's and state's politically-motivated values, centralised control and non-democratic education management style in general. Therefore, this study suggests school power in China can best be understood by viewing the concept of school power as a semi-emancipatory relationship.