A Study On The Thought Of Western Republican Citizenship Education And Its Enlightenments

Republicanism is a very influential contemporary political theory rooted in long western political tradition.The historical string of republicanism could be traced back to Aristotle in Ancient Greece and Cicero in Ancient Rome.The tradition also includes modern political thinkers such as Machiavelli in Italy,Milton and Harrington in Britain,Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in America,as well as Rousseau in French Enlightenment.Contemporary republicanism is generally titled as'neo-republican ism'.Within this paradigm,some scholars emphasize the intrinsic value of participation to citizens who share the self-government.Others attach the importance of participation to realizing citizen's freedom as non-domination.These republican thinkers have explored the same subject,namely,how to cultivate good citizens for the ideal blueprint of republic.The 'common good'(s),which is the core idea of republicanism,is set as a common concern or a purpose in collective pursuit by citizens,who play active roles in a political action.This implies that republicanism has a mode of 'active citizenship',regarding the citizens of a republic as not only the equal members who have legal rights,but also the participators in the common political enterprise.This requires the citizens who participate go beyond the narrow individual and partisan interests,and focus on the common good(s).Therefore,the mode of republican citizenship has the implication of'civic virtue'.So it is the very aim of republican citizenship education to cultivate the virtuous citizens for the common good.For republicans,a good citizen means to take a responsibility for an active engagement in the common good Such responsibility is the whole or general expression of civic virtue;so to speak,it is the first and foremost aspect of republican citizenship education.For citizens to be willing to take such responsibility,it is necessary to cultivate an intact awareness of citizenship,include the right and duty,interdependence between citizens and temporality,in order for them to recognize themselves as socially and historically encumbered,rather than isolated right-bearers.The education for civic responsibility also needs to create an identity of citizenship along with a strong patriotic emotion.It also suggests that the educational approach to civic responsibility is to guide students to explore the history and constitutions of the republic,as well as to participate in the public life.In order to address the challenges of human corruptive tendency and help the citizens commit themselves to the civic responsibility,it is a task for republican citizenship education to cultivate character type of moral autonomy and related character traits.Those republican thinkers in history have detailed characters such as Courage,Moderation,Fraternity,Compassion,Justice and Prudence.By contrast,neo-republicanism has put more emphasis on basic moralities related to civic participation and in accordance with rule of law and social norms of the republic,as well as the appreciation of the ethics of a group as a resource.As for the educational approaches to civic characters,the students could be guided to participate in moral debate in class,as well as service learning in local community.Moreover,republican citizenship education is also required to prepare the students the competences for democratic deliberation.Especially in contemporary context of western society,with the decline of public spirit and increasing heterogeneity,such competences have become more and more significant civic virtues,since the deliberative democracy has been regarded as an indispensible channel to achieve a sound consensus.In regard,citizens need to be educated to have a basic understanding of the republican values of deliberative democracy,to have civic knowledge,a commitment to democratic deliberation and its results,the abilities to communicate in the process of political deliberation,such as civic speaking and listening,empathy and reflection,as well as to be enable to form a sound consensus.The approach to such education is to guild the students to participate in the practices of deliberative democracy,within the civics classroom,school governnance and social life as an informal educational context.Republicanism has provided for civic education a useful mode of 'active citizenship' and systematic contents around the idea of 'civic virtue'.Meanwhile,it makes a further recognition of experiences and reflections,participations and practices,as significant approaches to citizenship education.Above all,it emphasize that the participative approach must include a deliberative dimension.However,for Marxist points of view,the thought of western republican citizenship education also has a drawback of attaching so much importance to the political meaning of active citizenship as to ignore the aspect of shaping students' perspectives and virtues in social economic life;Besides,there are religious and metaphysical factors in its theory of human nature.Based on the critical analysis,our moral and political education can draw valuable enlightenments from it to get better achievements.