美国公民教育的理论困境与实践局限

The Theoretical Dilemmas and Practical Limitations of American Citizenship Education

美国公民教育充满张力,既有积极的方面,也有其自身无法克服的弊端。通过对美国公民教育的系统研究,从历史与现实维度概括出美国公民教育的理论困境与实践局限。在理论层面的困境,包括基于事实与传导价值两分而难以统一,公民教育与道德教育、政治教育存在藩篱而无法突破,重权利教育轻义务教育而无法取得平衡;在实践层面的局限,包括政治参与中对变革社会的乏力,社群参与中隐藏对现实政治的遮蔽,少数异议中造成对社会治理的挑战。这些揭示出美国公民教育并不是统一的整体,而是表现为内部一系列多元思潮的对立与异质力量的冲突,其理论困境与实践局限是历史与逻辑的必然。

American citizenship education is full of tension and has both positive aspects and insurmountable drawbacks. On the basis of a systematic study of American citizenship education, this article generalizes its theoretical dilemmas and practical limitations from the historical and realistic dimensions. The dilemmas of theoretical aspect includes the dichotomy of fact based and value conduction uneasy to unify, the barriers between civic education, moral education and political education hard to break, and the education of rights and obligations loses center of gravity because they cannot get a balance. Meanwhile, in the practical limitations, there are no ways to transform society in political participation, shields of the political reality in community participation, challenges of social governance in minority dissent. This article reveals that American citizenship education is not a unified whole, but there are internal contradictions in a series of pluralistic thoughts and heterogeneous forces. Therefore, the theoretical dilemmas and practical limitations in American citizenship education have inevitable paradox from historical and logic view.