Citizenship education in Chinese scholarly discourse: Challenging essentialist understandings of what it means to educate citizens for the future

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of citizenship education in Chinese scholarly discourse. Using Heater’s framework, the findings are shown within the four dimensions: geography, elements, outcomes, and essence. These dimensions are isolated from one another, and the connections between them remain unexplored. From the perspective of geography, element and outcome, China’s citizenship education places greater emphasis on fostering national citizenship, integrating the achievements of world civilization with the unique characteristics of Chinese society and promoting comprehensive development in civic knowledge, values, and skills. In the dimension of essence, which is not explicitly addressed in Heater’s framework, Chinese scholars identify citizenship education as encompassing two contradictory essences: political socialization and development of subjectivity. The reasons for this can be attributed to two main factors: the history of citizenship education is short and has been significantly influenced by authoritarian governments with a defined policy orientation. Copyright © 2025 Journal of Moral Education Ltd.