How Moral Education Meets Meritocracy: An Exploratory Case Study in Mainland China

• In Event: Recalibrating Teachers’ Subjectivity in a Globalized World: Work Struggles, Neoliberalism, and Confucianism

Abstract

Objectives
Existing literature in China identifies two competing orientations in school moral education: intellectual-based and life-based approaches (Lu & Gao, 2004). Despite academic emphasis on the latter, schools predominantly follow the intellectual orientation (Zhan & Ning, 2007; Tang, 2020). This is linked to meritocracy in Chinese society, adopted since the transition to a market economy by the Chinese Communist Party. The consequential effects on the education system are particularly evident in the highly significant example of the national college entrance exam, known as 'Gaokao' (Liu, 2013). This study explores how competition-based and market-oriented principles recontextualizes in school moral education and the role of educators in this process.

Theoretical Framework
This study adopts Bernstein (2000)’s ‘pedagogic device’ to analyze how school moral education recontextualizes meritocracy. Taking a Bernsteinian approach avoids assuming a direct link between ideology and schooling. Instead, it focuses on discursive practices that borrow from and relocate other discourses within themselves, known as recontextualizing rules (Bernstein, 2000; Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). In this context, meritocracy is defined as a social order or ideology where power, authority, and social status are primarily allocated based on an individual's merit and demonstrated capabilities (Sandel, 2020; Kim & Choi, 2016). This study explores how the school administration, activities, and evaluation practices related to moral education inadvertently obscure the crisis of a competition-based value system, undermining subjectivity.

Method
This paper adopts a case study research method, focusing on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions (Yin, 2011). A nine-year consistent school, located in a southeastern city in China, renowned for its moral education and noted moral teacher workshops across the province, is chosen as an instrumental and collective case in this study (Stake, 2000).

Data
During the one-year ethnographic case study, extensive observations were made on school-level affairs and activities. Concurrently, I tracked three teachers' daily works, including irregular interviews, class observations, and spending leisure time together in their offices. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were conducted with more than five school directors and twenty teachers from diverse disciplines.

Results
This study highlights meritocracy as an intrinsic and regulative force influencing moral education in three key areas: (1) school-wide moral ceremonial activities are strategically organized to attract fundings, awards, and high-quality students in the future; (2) the prioritization of career development in teachers' daily schedules relegates moral education work to a secondary position; (3) the evaluation of moral education is linked to students’ academic performance and teachers' work performance and benefits. Despite educators’ acknowledgment of their responsibility in character development and moral cultivation, the quantification and evaluation-driven system diminishes their autonomy to fulfill it.

Scholarly Significance
This paper contributes to the fields of moral education and citizenship education by establishing a connection between meritocracy and the utilitarian aspects of school moral education. The case study prompts a rethinking of moral education as a space that sustains individuals’ reflexivity, enabling holistic individual growth and social inclusion in a temporal system that prioritizes individual excellence.

Author

• Xi Wu, Nanjing Normal University