Study |Patriotic education undermines ‘active democratic citizenship’

A study conducted by a Macau scholar has found that the ideas raised under the “patriotic education” plan are most likely to be incompatible with the concept of “active democratic citizenship.”
Those assessments are included in a study undertaken in the context of “moral and civic education policy” by Teresa Vong, an associate professor of the University of Macau’s Faculty of Education. It was published in the academic journal Emerald Insight on the issue dedicated to Asian Education and Development Studies.
Under the title “Harmonizing a melody?!: A critical study of moral and civic education policy on the non-tertiary education system in Macau,” the author critically analyses the policy of moral and civic education in the territory’s non-tertiary education, in order to assess the consequences of such a curriculum.
Ms Vong says Macau’s moral and civic education policy is made possible by strategies like the governmentalization of all public affairs, and the “creation of social harmony as a new form of civic virtue.”
The scholar’s study stresses that strategies like these lead to attempts to “normalize the school system,” and “disciplining the scapegoats.” These are attitudes that, in Vong’s opinion, create clear tension between the discourses of “active democratic citizenship” and “patriotic education.”
“The government should have a broader sense of citizenship. Their notions of it are too narrow,” Ms Vong added, recalling that we are living in a global world and that schools should be preparing citizens for that world.
The scholar suggests that the government “enrich the meaning of moral and civic education and inculcate real measures to promote the active participation of the citizens.”
In another example, Ms Vong examines a recent list of associations and organizations visited by government officials that “prove how rigid the government mindset [is] regarding what kind of citizen associations are important for them.”
The author concludes that the “self-
initiated study aims to contribute to the local discussion of a possible rewrite of the meanings of citizenship.”