Abstract
Based on a review of the linkage between heritage education and citizenship education that includes cultural and inter-cultural education, this chapter provides a case study of heritage education in the Central Plains of China, which is one of the most important cradles of Chinese civilization with a splendid cultural heritage. Heritage education in this region helped youngsters to construct characters and qualities to be citizens. Even though heritage education is mainly a study of the past, Central China's past is not only “cultural” but also “inter-cultural” as it has been the traffic hub in history, and thus the growth of Chinese culture through the Central Plains is characterized by the absorption of diverse cultures passing through the hub. Its positioning is important for both teachers and students to reflect upon what we should be and how China can interact with other parts of the world in this age of globalization.
TopBackground: Heritage Education And Citizenship Education
Citizenship education1 has a multifaceted nature, with multi-disciplinary, cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary characters. In his analysis of 24 qualitative case reports submitted to the IEA Civic Education Study in 1998, Lee (2002) found that a wide range of subjects were used to teach citizenship education across the 24 participating countries, including history, geography, language and literature, social studies, religion, religion and ethics, ethics/morality, personal and social education, social and political education, civic culture, morality and civics, history and politics, history and civics, democracy, peace and social life, homeland and society, human beings and society, society and ethics, law and economics, economics and public affairs, and science/environmental education, etc. Such expressions as ethics/morality, social and political education, religion and ethics, history and politics show that different countries use different combination of subjects to teach citizenship education, and this shows the cross-disciplinary features of citizenship education – no one subject can cover the span of teaching citizenship. The Hong Kong (1996) Guidelines on Civic Education in Schools 1996 made specific stipulation on the multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary features of citizenship education:
1.3 The first issue of the Guidelines on Civic Education in Schools was published in 1985, recommending schools to adopt a cross-curricular approach in the implementation of civic education. Schools were encouraged to promote civic education through different subjects in the formal curriculum, in particular such subjects as Economic and Public Affairs, Social Studies, Government and Public Affairs and Liberal Studies at secondary level, and Social Studies at primary level. At the same time, civic education was implemented through school assemblies, class-teacher periods and extra-curricular activities. Some other schools, however, chose to adopt a specific-subject approach to teach civic education by setting aside a certain number of periods in their time-tables….
1.4 No matter by which means schools are promoting civic education it has been widely accepted that education for citizenship requires the efforts of the whole school and not just a few teachers. (p. 2)
Key Terms in this Chapter
Heritage Education: Heritage education is a pedagogical process in which students are able to learn about heritage resources, and it will be a significant part of the citizenship curriculum, bringing students to understand their own cultures from the past, and how the past heritage has developed and transformed alongside history, bringing the past to the present.
Cultural Citizenship Education: Cultural Citizenship education focuses on the cultural aspects of national education. It covers heritage education whereby students will learn about the historical relics, artefacts, remains and archives preserved by the country as “historical treasures” of the country. Some of these artefacts are preserved in museums, and many of them are in protected areas. They provide tangible remains for students to visusalize, touch and experience the cultural past (in case of open and protected areas) of the country.
Henan Province: Henan is a province located in the central part of China, and it constitutes the main component of the Central Plains Region. It is the largest province of China in terms of population and its provincial GDP is ranked fifth in China in 2018.
The Central Plains / Central China: The Central Plains Region is located at the Central China, generally referred to the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the south of the North China Plain. It encompasses the whole of Henan and its adjacent provinces including the southeast part of Shanxi, the south part of Hebei, the southwest part of Shandong and the northwest part of Anhui, thus covering 5 provinces, 30 prefecture-level cities, and 3 municipal districts and counties. This region was designated as China’s the fourth economic zone in 2010 by the National People’s Congress.
Citizenship Education: Citizenship education is a socialization process whereby an individual will learn civic knowledge, skills and values of upheld by the society, through formal, nonformal and informal curriculum, and social participation and engagements. Citizenship education in China is also called ideological and moral education in primary school and ideological and political education in secondary school.
Cultural Heritage: Cultural heritage in China contains tangible cultural heritages and intangible cultural heritages. Tangible cultural heritages refer to cultural relics with historical, artistic and scientific values, and intangible cultural heritages refer to manifestations of traditional cultural that handed down from ancestors and closely related to people’s daily life.
Inter-cultural Citizenship Education: Citizenship education covers inter-cultural education as culture formation is a dynamic process in absorbing and assimilating different ways of life throughout history when different groups of people interact with one another for various reasons, such as trade, cultural exchange, and migration among people within and across country borders.