The Comparative Study Of Citizenship Education Between China And The United Kingdom

Modern citizenship education has been developed with democratic societies. The main educational aim of democratic countries is to foster qualified citizens. In recent years, with the development of market economy and the socialist democracy, the issue of citizenship education has been paid more and more attention in China. It is important for construction of China’s socialist democracy to set up citizen’s correct citizenship awareness. In the West, many countries have accumulated citizenship education experiences for long-time development. However, citizenship education is still in weak status in China. Absorbing experience from other countries, developing citizenship education, improving citizen’s awareness and political literacy, could not only benefit our construction of democracy and law, but also benefit the construction of a harmonious socialist society. The United Kingdom has a deep history of citizenship education. Since the middle of the last century, the government has paid attention to citizenship education because of the political apathy of young people and conflicts between cultural diversity. After that, the UK government has conducted educational reform. Citizenship education has been added to the National Curriculum and received extensive supports from the whole society. The progress of citizenship education in England has achieved great success. This thesis explains the concepts of citizens and citizenship education, compares the aim、 contents、 methods of citizenship education between the two countries, concludes the similarities and differences between them. Finally, the author put forward some advices on citizenship education in China.