University Citizenship Education Research From The Perspective Of Institutional Enlightenment

Higher education is a critical period in citizenship education when students’gradually become mature on thoughts and stable on their opinions towards the world,life and value.Institutions play an indelible role in the field of citizenship education in universities.This research mainly studies how external institutions confine citizenship education in universities and how internal institutions develop students’ citizen concepts and behaviors through evaluation and punishment systems.The introduction part introduces origin of this research and definitions of basic concepts,analyzes relevant references at home and abroad,and introduces the research methods and contents.The first chapter discusses the educational influence of political system on citizens.The institutions of democratic countries are designed to encourage civic participation so that citizens will gradually transform the spirit of freedom,equality and rationality,which the institutions pursuit,into their own pursuits in practices.On the contrary,the institutions of autocratic countries are designed with the intention of controlling,tending to produce "obedient people" loyal to the ruling class.The second chapter discusses the educational effect of university institutions on citizens.The legal person system,administration system,functional system and student management system in universities will leave a far-reaching influence on citizenship education:the legal person system determines the limitation of freedom and direction of citizenship education in universities;the administration system influences students’ conceptions of power,duty and subject;the functional system pass universities’ values on students through university functional institutionalization;the student management system,highly similar with state political system,provides stimulation of real political life for students.The third chapter analyzes the current situation and predicament of citizenship education in some of Chinese universities from the perspective of institutional influence through empirical method.The study found that college students present a strong sense of responsibility but weak awareness of right and subjectivity and that the self-governing ability of students’ union needs urgent improvements.The fourth chapter discusses how to promote citizenship education in universities through the reform and perfection of institutions,namely,to nurture "good" citizens through "good" institutions.To be more precisely,Chinese citizenship education reform in universities ought to firstly grasp the opportunity of the development and perfection of national democratic system.Additionally,the democratization and legalization of the university institutions should be constantly strengthened to develop modern university institution with Chinese characters and to inherit and surpass state institution influence through university education.