Core socialist values and curriculum policy in China: A study of the curriculum standard for Chinese language

Abstract

This study employs Bernstein's concept of recontextualization and Rata's theorization of the Curriculum Design Coherence [CDC] model as theoretical tools to analyse the Curriculum Standard for Chinese Language [Standard] (The Standard, the Guidance, the Plan and all the quotations from the three policies were translated by me because the official English versions of them are unavailable.) which is part of a new approach to curriculum policy development in China. The study aims to identify and explain the mechanisms through which the Chinese government has recontextualized its ascendant political ideals of the core socialist values into the country's education system via curriculum policymaking. The study reveals that the Standard contains features embedding the core socialist values. This is achieved through three distinct mechanisms of recontextualization: policy propositions, subject competencies and subject concepts and content which operate from a sociocultural knowledge orientation. This sociocultural knowledge orientation aligns with the government's strong will to cultivate the core socialist values within the young generation so they become qualified builders and successors of the country's great socialist cause.