Values Education in University Commencement —— A case study in T university

• In Event: Fostering global student engagement and success

Proposal

A commencement is a ritual event in colleges and universities where students obtain degrees after completing prescribed courses of study. As a life ritual, the commencement is not only a process of marking students' growth and confirming their new identities, but also a process of conveying the spirit and values of the university. For Chinese universities that are currently establishing and improving the school ritual system, strengthening the significance of ritual education, and integrating mainstream values, the study of commencement has strong practical significance. At present, the research on Chinese university commencement is not deep enough, there is a lack of case studies, and there is insufficient understanding of the cultural traditions and core concepts of Chinese university commencement. This study takes the commencement of T University as a case, reveals the value concept presented in the ceremony preparation and performance process and summarizes the value education mechanism in the commencement of T University. Through interviews, participatory observation, and text analysis, the study found that the commencement of T University showed a strong sense of order and authority. Patriotism, dedication, and collectivism were the core values of the university's commencement in recent years. Through a series of ceremonial behaviors, the school completes a kind of "empowerment" for students, that is, through official certification, it bestows individual school honors, national and era missions, and empowers students for their future development. The value experience from the perspective of students revolves more around love and interpersonal relationships. The graduation event arouses more of a feeling of "leaving home" for students, revealing a connection between subject and subject, subject and space.Further analysis of the study found that the essence of the graduation ceremony is a connection between time and space, identity, and the subject. The commencement actually completes a "country-family-people" value narrative, reflecting the unique cultural attributes of China. The value education in the current commencement needs to take efforts on the value connection between "country-family" and "family-people", paying attention to the needs of the subject, and enhance value perception. Creating a sense of atmosphere and accumulating emotional energy is the unique value education mechanism of the commencement. At the end of the study, it also pointed out that the current Chinese university ritual system is not quite sound, and the mechanism is not flexible enough, so as to provide some reference for the future construction of university rituals.

Author

• Mengzhen Qiu, Institute of Education, Tsinghua University