From Teachers to Preachers: Xi Jinping and Changing Priorities in Chinese Ideo-Political Education

Abstract

Ideo-political education is the CCP’s school-based system for inculcating China’s next generation with the Party-state’s official ideology. What effect if any has Xi Jinping’s leadership had on this system? This paper compares key policy documents from the Hu Jintao (2002-2012) and Xi Jinping eras, identifying their key differences. Hu’s leadership promoted improved pedagogy, professionalization and textbook reforms as solutions to ongoing problems with ideological education. Xi instead emphasizes the political loyalty and ideological discipline of political subject teachers and ensuring that his “thought” permeates their classes and textbooks. The focus on “correct” politics in hiring decisions and promotion to leadership positions within universities stems from a broader obsession with political loyalty and ideology in the Xi era, suggesting that Chinese education will continue down the road of tightening ideological control and the penetration of politics into other subjects.