A Critical Review of Chinese Theoretical Research on Moral Education Since 2000

Purpose:The purpose of this article is to summarize and reflect Chinese theoretical research on moral education in the context of globalization and value pluralism since 2000 and to propose possible directions for the future research.Design/Approach/Methods:The research methods in this article are primarily literature review.Those papers which met the following criteria were selected and included in this review:(1)Papers published from 2000 to 2014 were included if they were cited by at least one other published article and(2)papers published from 2015 to 2017 were included if they were presented in a core research journal.Based on that,speculative thinking and critical thinking are also embodied in this research.Findings:Based on the features of“a man of virtue,”the article identifies the four dimensions that have influenced Chinese thinking about moral education:(1)Kantian and Enlightenment philosophy,(2)emotion and life experience,(3)social rights,and(4)the culture-value dimension.The four dimensions ofmoral education theory are related and complement,rather than contradict,eachother.The author argues that the research scopes underlying current moral education theories are fairly narrow.Amore comprehensive,interdisciplinary approach is needed to improve theoretical research and to enhance the effectiveness of moral education practice in schools and universities.Originality/Value:The article provides a latest overview and critical insights to consolidate the foundation of moral education in an era of societal transformation by comparing moral education research between China and the West and proposing realizing a deep integration between theory and practice.

Chinese Traditional Culture Education:Implementing the Child's Position and Perspective in the Elementary Schooi Textbook Morality and Law

Purpose:Failure to clarify the position of children in Chinese culture is a significant issue faced by Chinese traditional culture education(CTCE).Indeed,moral education needs to establish child's perspective and position in Chinese society and incorporate these into the curricula on the excellent Chinese traditional culture.This study explores how the elementary school textbook,Morality and Law,has approached CTCE.Design/Approach/Methods:First,this article analyzes practical dificulties in CTCE:omission child's position.Second,this article explores the child's position needed by CTCE based on Rousseau,Montessori,and Dewey's contemporary views on children.At last,this article explores the strategyof how to implement the child's position in CTCE based on Morality and Law.Findings:In respect to CTCE,Morality and Law positions children in various ways.In terms of its educational goal,the textbook is intended to improve children's cultural education and appreciation.While the textbook's editors mainly select positive content,negative content is also included.Always taking the child into consideration,the textbook incorporates systemized knowledge into children's own lives,particularly insofar as the teaching strategy uses events or experiences in which children are interested.

Compiling Life-Oriented Moral Education Textbooks for Elementary Schools in China:The Mimetic Approach in Morality and Law

Purpose:This study explores a novel approach to compiling life-oriented moral textbooks for elementary schools in China,specificallyfocusing onMorality and Law.Design/Approach/Methods:Adopting Aristotle's Poetics as its theoretical perspective,this study illustrates and analyzes the mimetic approach used in compiling the life-oriented moral education textbook,Morality and Law.Findings:The mimetic approach involves imitating children's real activities,thoughts,and feelings in textbooks.The mimetic approach to compiling life-oriented moral textbooks comprises three strategies:constructing children's life events as building blocks for textbook compilation,designing an intricate textual device exposing the wholeness of children's life actions,and designing inward learning activities leading to children's innerworlds.Originality/Value:From the perspective of Aristotle's Poetics,the approach to compilation in Morality and Law can be defined as mimetic.And the compilation activity in the life-oriented moral education textbook also can be described as a process ofmimesis.So this article presents a new approach to compile moral education textbooks and an innovative way to understand the nature of one compiling activity.

Gender justice and school education

Gender justice includes three basic dimensions:gender equality,respect for difference,and free choice.In reality,schools construct and reproduce the gender injustice of the social culture through multiple dimensions that include the visible and the invisible curriculum,and the teacher’s behaviour.In terms of gender justice,the social culture and the school culture are like two separate“circulations”,but these two circulations are of the same inner structure.However,in pursuing the value of gender justice,we need to start from both of these two“circulations”at the same time.As a self-conscious cultural institution,the school should recognize its own small circulation,and then pursue the realization of gender justice by all possible means.Moreover,the more important contribution of the school is to help drive the larger transformation of gender justice in the social culture.