Civic-Moral Education Research in China (1992-2022): A Scoping Review

Behav Sci (Basel). 2023 Oct 5;13(10):819. doi: 10.3390/bs13100819.

Abstract

Civic-moral education is a topic that has been widely discussed globally. In China, civic-moral education has a long history and presents different characteristics and methods from other countries due to political, economic, and cultural factors. To summarize the current status of research on civic-moral education in China, we identified 715 papers in 30 years (1992-2022) under related topics and selected a total of 72 papers for further analysis. To show the study trend more clearly, we divided the result section into three parts: the historical and cultural resources of education, the current educational approaches, and the existing challenges in civic-moral education. China is rich in historical resources for civic-moral education, which had an impact across generations. Currently, Chinese educators employ many approaches to improve civic-moral education: building a civic-moral curriculum system, transforming the social climate, and making the most use of the campus. The emphasis on intelligence over morality and the emphasis on knowledge over action, however, may undermine the effectiveness of civic-moral education. To conclude, China attaches great importance to civic-moral education and has come up with many approaches inspired by ancient cultural resources.

Keywords: civic morality; civic participation; civic-moral curriculum; civic-moral education; cultural resource; scoping review; social climate; traditional culture.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

This research is sponsored by Shanghai Pujiang Program (grant number 21PJC077) and Shanghai Jiao Tong University Startup Fund.