提高觉悟抑或转变身份:公民教育何为?

Purpose of Civic Education:Raising Consciousness or Transforming Identity

公民是一种在公共空间中进行理性言说的实践,表现为一种公民身份的转变与获得。这意味着公民教育实践必须致力于培养学生对美好生活、正义与自由德性的向往与探寻,提供公民对话性实践,提高他们参与政治生活的公共理性能力。现代性思想和实践祛除了古典公民及其教育的魅力,却使公民成为一个个"趋利之徒"。现代公民教育的悖论在于一方面教育个人成为追逐自我利益最大化的劳动者,另一方面又辅之以种种的规训化政治道德和职业操行来提高劳动者觉悟。其现代性后果是生活中的公私不明,行为方式的犬儒主义。重审公民教育实践,离不开对现代公共空间、个人理性之异化现象的批判。公民教育必须为公民的一种异质性新生做好准备。

Being Civics is such a practice that needs civics rational speech in the public space. To be a civic man manifests that he had a change of identity and got a citizenship. It means that civic education practice must be committed to teaching students to go in for a good life, justice, freedom and virtues. Such education must provide students with civic dialogues, enhance their rational power of participation in political action. Modernistic thoughts and practices of civics have eliminated the charm of the ancient civic education. This disenchantment has brought up a utilitarian man. On one hand, modern civic education is to train the believers to seek maximum profit; on the other hand, it usually uses some discipline and behavioral norms to raise their consciousness. Such is the paradox of modern civic education. The modernistic consequences are that a civic man would not make a distinction between the private and the public, and would be a Cynicism. It is necessary to re-think civic educational practice, to criticize the alienation of the modern civic training. Civic education must be prepared for a new heterogeneous rebirth of a citizen.