Teaching Controversy: The Changing Stage of Three Gorges Dam Issues in the Chinese Social Studies Curriculum

• In Event: Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Democratic Citizenship in Education Paper Discussion (Roundtable) Session

Abstract

During the rapid economic reform and social transformation in China in the past three decades, educational reformers have sought to emancipate social studies education from being a medium of promulgating the official ideology, and to make it more responsive to the changing social context. Following the changes of teaching Three Gorges Dam issue in China’s social studies classrooms over time, this study examines the influence of social factors on the teaching of the issue from “close” to “open” as controversial, analyzes the limits of teaching public issues in Chinese social studies classrooms, and discusses how the changing stage of this controversy may reflect the negotiation and reconfiguration between the official knowledge framework and the possibility of democratic education.

Author

• Min Yu, Wayne State University