One step forward, two steps back? A critical analysis of China’s new national curriculum

• In Event: Curriculum and pedagogy

Proposal

Backgrounds

Starting Fall 2019, more than 140 million Chinese students in compulsory education (1-9 grades) will receive new, national textbooks for Chinese Language (CL), Moral Education and Rule of Law (MERL), and History developed by the Ministry of Education (MoE). This practice reverses the de-centralized curriculum reform since 2001 where multiple versions of textbooks based on the nationally developed curriculum standards were allowed for schools to choose from. (Law, 2014). The first set of national textbooks for the first and seventh grades has been distributed to students in Fall 2017 with others under development. This study aims to explore this policy move by offering a preliminary analysis of the new national textbooks.

Theoretical Framework

The primary theoretical underpinning of this study is the relationships between ideology and textbook knowledge. Critical scholars have argued that the textbook knowledge is often constructed and selected out of the ideological interests of politically and socially dominant groups that aims to predispose students to accept rather than challenging the political and institutional norms (Anyon, 1979; Apple, 2004). These embedded social norms in textbooks also reflect the expectations of the state for good citizens (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). In China, textbook has long been used as a tool to convey political ideologies to students in addition pedagogical purposes. It is also not uncommon for the government to revise its textbooks as a response to the changed sociopolitical contexts that necessitate a shift of discourses (Apple, 2004).

Methods

A critical discourse analysis was performed on the 20 published national textbooks for CL, MERL, and History by Fall 2018 and official MoE documents about the goals, principles, and development process of these textbooks. Also analyzed are the current curriculum standards for these subjects, including CL (1st to 9th grades), Moral Education and Life/Society (MEL/S, 1st to 6th grades), and Ideological and Moral Education (IME) and History and Society (HS) for 7th to 9th grades.


Findings

The new national textbooks for all three subjects place a heavy emphasis on patriotism and the cultural and revolutionary tradition of China in order to instill students “red gene.” For example, the CL textbooks increase the percentage of excerpts from classic Chinese literature to 30% for elementary and 52% junior high so that students can “stand firmly from the standpoint of Chinese culture and strengthen their cultural confidence.” The revolutionary tradition education is presented as a cutting theme across all three subjects and has its own designated units in the CL and History textbooks where students are expected to “develop a national spirit centered on patriotism and a spirit of the contemporary era centered on reform and innovation.”

Core socialist values are also highlighted in these textbooks. For example, the history textbooks emphasize on “teaching students the historical foundations and contemporary significance of the core socialist values from the perspectives of historical development through detailed and rich information.” In particular, it emphasizes infusing the “correct” values in the narratives about historical events and interpretation. One example of the value shifting is to replace the “Eight-Year War of Resistance (against Japan)” narrative with the “Fourteen-Year War of Resistance” that focuses on the Communist Party of China (CPC)’s “decisive roles” in leading the resistance and Chinese independence.

Another prominent theme found in these textbooks is the so-called “sovereignty education” that aims to show students “the grit and resilience of the Chinese people from all ethnic groups in maintaining the sovereignty of the country and protecting the territorial entirety of the mother land.” For example, the legitimacy of Tibet, Xinjiang, Taiwan and adjacent islands, and South China sea as inseparable territory of China is given much attention in all three subjects. A related theme is ethnic solidarity in relation to national unity: students are expected to learn that “China is a unified, multiethnic country since ancient time and that all ethnic groups in China collectively contribute to the national independence and ethnic liberation and the development and prosperity of the country.”

A dual emphasis on moral and legal education is found in the MERL textbooks in order to cultivate “inspired, moral, educated, and law-abiding citizens of the socialist country.” Two books in the set are designed for the Rule of Law that focuses on the Constitution while legal education is pervasive in other books. The goal of students learning the legal system is to “establish [students] a confidence on the Chinese government system and Chinese path and strengthen an identification to the country.”

A review of relevant curriculum standards reveals that the emphasis on patriotism, national unity, ethnic solidarity, and an identification to Chinese culture and the socialism with Chinese characteristics is not necessarily original to these new national textbooks. For example, the geography of China, including its location in the world, area, borders, and maritime boundaries, and its revolutionary history led by the CPC already exist in the current standards. However, a more explicit ideological message is evident in the new textbooks by explicitly attaching this knowledge to “sovereignty education” and “red gene.” Ironically, each curriculum standard recommends that the content and organization of the textbooks should be situated in the specific school context and learning needs of students in different regions, which will be impossible with the uniform national textbooks.

Significance

This study is significant as one of the first to examine these national textbooks that will have an unprecedented impact on Chinese student academic learning and political and civic socialization. All the concepts and discourses highlighted in these new textbooks are promoted by President Xi Jinping since he assumed power in 2012, a year after the existing curriculum standards were published. Therefore, the new national textbooks likely reflect a policy shift of the party-state by putting patriotism, ethnic solidarity and anti-separation, and territorial right at the center of the curriculum. The change from “one standard, multiple textbooks” to “one standard, one textbook” and the addition of ideological discourses such as “cultural confidence” and “red gene” also suggest the party-state’s perceived need to further tighten the ideological control through a highly centralized education.

Authors

• Weijia Wang, University of Washington

• Yiting Chu, University of Louisiana at Monroe