Globalization, National Identity, and Citizenship Education: China's search for modernization and a modern Chinese citizenry

Abstract

Since the early-20th century, a vast body of scholarship has proposed different theories and models describing, interpreting, and suggesting the paths of development that countries have taken or should take. Not one of them alone, however, can fully explain China's search for paths to modernize the nation and foster a modern Chinese citizenry through education since the late-19th century. The purpose of the study is to trace and examine China's struggles in such a search. It adopts a reflective and critical analysis as the major methodology, and its major data sources include such public texts as official policy documents, curriculum standards, and commentaries on them. The analysis reveals three major findings. First, the different views and approaches to development and making a modern Chinese citizenry of China's various leaderships have responded to changing domestic and global contexts at different times. Second, the state of China is a principal setter of China's development course, the principal definer of its national identity and citizenry, and the principal selector of its curricula for nation building. Third, the more China's state wants national rejuvenation in an increasingly competitive, globalized world, the more China needs to make its citizenship education politically and ideologically open and accommodative, and help students develop multiple identities - global, national, and local - and function as active and responsible citizens in a multileveled and multicultural world. This study contributes to the panel by adding to academic understanding of how China's education is responding to economic, political, and social demands and shaping students' national identity.