| Citizenship education has been one of the most important points of Chinese educationboth in theory and in practice. It has been an important mission for school education tocultivate qualified citizens. Participation is the responsibility of citizens, while the awarenessof participation is the key element of modern consciousness of citizenship. Therefore, it isvery important for schools to cultivate the awareness of civic participation of students inprimary and secondary school. The article tells the meaning of awareness of citizenparticipation and analyses the values and practice strategies of the cultivation of awareness ofcivic participation of students in primary and secondary school.Part1is about introduction. It gives a brief explanation of the writing reasons, literaturereview, and study methods.Part2gives the definition of citizenship, consciousness of citizenship, and awareness ofcivic participation. The definition of citizenship is that citizenship is the status of a free personrecognized by nationality that bestows on that person the rights and the duties in politics.Consciousness of citizenship means that citizens are aware of that they are entitled to rightsand obligations according to the Constitution and the law and have the self-awareness of theirstatus in national social life and political life. The meaning of the awareness of civicparticipation is that leading citizens to participate in social public life to cultivate citizens’care to public life and to improve civic spirit, civic quality and civic participation. In this way,citizens can acquire the awareness of the master of China while participating in thewell-organized management of national affairs. According to different fields, the authordivides civic participation into three types, including civic participation in social life, civicparticipation in political life and citizens’ automatic participation.Part3discusses the values of cultivating awareness of civic participation of students inprimary and secondary school from three perspectives. The cultivation is the essentialrequirement of the construction of socialist democracy, the need for education developmentand the consensus of contemporary education around the world.Part4starts with a questionnaire investigation for students in6classes of two schools inthe Zhifu District, Yantai City, Shandong. Through the investigation, the author discoversthere be some improvements in cultivating awareness of civic participation of students, however, less than ideal on the whole. There are problems on mere formality, improper ways,insufficient practice choices provided by schools and unitary evaluation methods. The causesof these problems involve the limits of examination-oriented education, lower civic literacy ofteachers, undemocratic management system of schools, etc.Part5explores schools’ practical strategies of promoting awareness of civic participationand insists that the school education should follow basic principles of humanization,comprehensiveness, diversity, pertinence, permeability and etc. They are supposed to beachieved by making full use of class teaching, building democratic schools, boosting theconstruction of students’ associations, combining the power of parents and the society,emphasizing the exemplary role of teachers and utilizing the advantage of network resources. |
