Journal of Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University
No.7, 2008
Survey Analysis of the Socialization of Ideological and Political Education for College Students
——Questionnaire Survey from Some Polytechnics in Guangdong Province
DAI Chunping, LUO Shili, LIU Yu, HUANG Jian et al.
(Heyuan Vocational and Technical College, Heyuan, Guangdong 517000)
Abstract: The article first clarifies the basic concept of the socialization of ideological and political education for college students. Based on this, it analyzes the relevant questionnaire survey of the socialization of ideological and political education for college students. The article argues that the statistical results of the questionnaire survey reflect the objective trend of the socialization of ideological and political education for college students, but this socialization trend is not as ideal as expected. Finally, the article puts forward relevant suggestions on the socialization of ideological and political education for college students and points out issues that need further investigation.
Keywords: college students; ideological and political education; socialization; survey
Received date: 2008-04-16
Author's introduction: DAI Chunping (1970-), male, native of Heyuan, Guangdong, lecturer at Heyuan Vocational and Technical College. Research direction: ideological and political education for college students.
The socialization of ideological and political education for college students is a hot topic in current university ideological and political education. In order to better grasp the current trends and status of the socialization of ideological and political education for college students, which will be beneficial for further research on related topics, the research team conducted a questionnaire survey on the socialization of ideological and political education for students in some polytechnics in Guangdong Province. This article combines the research team's preliminary discussions and understanding of theories related to the socialization of ideological and political education for college students and provides an initial analysis of the questionnaire survey with the aim of deriving useful conclusions.
One, A Basic Concept That Needs Clarification:
What is the Socialization of Ideological and Political Education for College Students
The research team has made special discussions and studies on the concept of the socialization of ideological and political education for college students. This article, combining previous research results and new viewpoints from recent studies, further defines and explains the concept of "the socialization of ideological and political education for college students." The purpose is to inform readers about the logical premise under which we conduct our surveys and analyses based on the acknowledged concept of the "socialization of ideological and political education for college students."
In our article "New Exploration of the Concept of the Socialization of Ideological and Political Education for College Students," we defined the socialization of ideological and political education for college students as follows: aiming at promoting the growth of college students and social progress, using the transmission of advanced social ideas and political awareness suitable for college students as content, utilizing relevant social forces actively or adapting passively to relevant social environments as means, initiated by society while being actively or passively adapted and utilized by relevant educators. It is a process and trend of ideological and political education. This mainly includes the following meanings:
Firstly, from the perspective of development dynamics, the socialization of ideological and political education adapts to social openness and represents an objective trend of education facing the world, modernization, and the future. Although human will may influence this trend to varying degrees, it does not depend on subjective human will.
Secondly, from the perspective of form, the socialization of ideological and political education is not only the mutual connection of various factors within the educational system but also the penetration of fields inside and outside the educational system. Therefore, it is not only an educational phenomenon but also a social phenomenon.
Thirdly, from the perspective of content, the socialization of ideological and political education not only focuses on ideological and political theories in textbooks but also pays attention to social realities, responding to social realities.
Fourthly, from the perspective of methods, approaches, and educational subjects, ideological and political education cannot rely solely on teachers' indoctrination. It should utilize social forces. Meanwhile, society, especially groups controlling national power, should actively play their auxiliary functions and become the subject of ideological and political education under appropriate circumstances.
Fifthly, from the perspective of purpose, the socialization of ideological and political education aims to cultivate socially-oriented individuals, serving the needs of socialization, providing support and guarantees for "social beings." The socialization of ideological and political education serves the advancement of human society, avoiding the alienation of ideological and political education into a tool of rulers' utilitarianism.
We believe that this definition includes both the connotations of society transforming college students and college students transforming society; it embodies the value of society to college students and the value of college students to society.
In our research, we increasingly recognize that due to the unclear definitions of the concepts of politics and socialization, there is confusion regarding a related term (i.e., the political socialization of college students). We do not advocate the use of the term "political socialization of college students." We believe that the term or concept of the socialization of ideological and political education for college students itself is scientific, whereas the term "political socialization of college students" is debatable. After discussion by the research team, we preliminarily identified the following issues with the term "political socialization of college students":
1. The term "political socialization" was proposed by Americans such as David Easton and Herbert Hyman in the late 1950s. By mentioning this point, we aim to raise several issues for further exploration: First, this term has been around for a short time and is immature, so it may not be correct or scientific; Second, this term is translated from foreign languages, and whether the translation is appropriate is debatable; Third, due to differences in cultural traditions and ideologies between the West (especially the United States) and China, they are less inclined to use the strongly educative term "ideological and political education," thus using "political socialization" to express the meaning of "ideological and political education"; Fourth, Westerners use this term more to emphasize the process and trend of politics moving from a few people to the majority, and the process and trend of politics adapting to society, rather than the reverse.
2. Some interpret politics as political culture, others as political education, and still others as political models, etc., giving different limitations based on different needs. Domestically, the mainstream view equates politics with ideological and political education. Searching for "political socialization" as the title of documents on CNKI, we found 394 entries, most of which essentially discuss the socialization of ideological and political education.
3. The term "political socialization of college students" does not conform to linguistic rules or logical rules. A clear manifestation is that, in the eyes of ordinary people, this term is difficult to understand literally; among so-called professionals, different interpretations of "political socialization of college students" would arise.
Due to space and theme limitations, we will further analyze the concepts of political socialization and the socialization of ideological and political education in another article. Next, we will provide some analysis of the questionnaire survey conducted by the research team.
II. Statistical Analysis of the Questionnaire Survey
To understand the trends and status of the socialization of ideological and political education in Guangdong's polytechnics, we conducted a questionnaire survey among college students of different grades and majors at three polytechnics in Guangdong (Shenzhen Polytechnic, Huizhou Economic Vocational and Technical College, Heyuan Vocational and Technical College). The questionnaire included 20 questions related to socialization, distributing 2000 copies, recovering 1897, and effectively analyzing 1863, covering most vocational liberal arts and science and engineering majors. Below, we sequentially statistically analyze some of the questions:
(I) Issues Regarding Socialization
Our designed question (1) was: "Do you read newspapers from various levels of party and government agencies, such as local daily newspapers, Southern Daily, and People's Daily?" Options were: a. Never read, b. Rarely read, c. Often read, d. (Almost) read every day.
Purpose of the question design: College students are generally considered a relatively special group with higher overall qualities who are more willing to pay attention to social and political issues. Newspapers from various levels of party and government agencies are one of the main platforms for political propaganda by the ruling party and government. The degree of attention paid by this group to party and government agency newspapers and the extent to which these newspapers penetrate college students can well reflect whether there are issues with the socialization of political thought education.
Ideal state envisioned by the research team: Approximately 2% choose a, approximately 43% choose b, approximately 45% choose c, and approximately 10% choose d.
Actual statistical results: 4.07% chose a, 65.39% chose b, 26.46% chose c, and 4.08% chose d.
Cause analysis. Through field investigations and discussions, students gave answers mainly including: no access to newspapers, lack of interest, lack of entertainment value, low credibility, no practical effect, no time to read, etc. Summarizing, there are two reasons: One is objective, i.e., the absence of available newspapers; Two is subjective, i.e., for students, party and government agency newspapers have little practical utility.
Methods and countermeasures for solving the problem: Compared to the ideal state, it is evident that polytechnic students pay too little attention to official newspapers. We believe that the ideal state envisioned by the research team aligns with the economic and political civilization of modern society. Conversely, this indicates that our actual state still has a significant gap from the desired state. Combining our field investigations and discussions, the research team proposes the following solutions and countermeasure analyses: For objective restrictions, some members suggested that schools should mandate students to subscribe to official newspapers, especially those aspiring to join the party organization; Others proposed that the government should provide free official newspapers to students. These two suggestions have their reasonable aspects but lack operational feasibility. During the survey, we found that some students or classes/dormitories were forcibly subscribed to official newspapers, but this did not effectively increase the attention rate of official newspapers, instead increasing students' resistance psychology. Thus, not only did this fail to promote the socialization trend of ideological and political education, but it hindered this trend. Providing free official newspapers to students by the government lacks both economic and political ethical foundations, as the government cannot excessively use taxpayers' money to educate college students (who are just one group in society). Combining Document No. 16 [2004] of the Central Committee and Document No. 12 [2005] of Guangdong Province, "Ensuring that the budget for ideological and political education reaches 3% of the annual government allocation, primarily used for discipline construction, team training, and social practice base construction, etc., while extracting a special fund of 20 yuan per student annually from tuition fees for teaching ideological and political theory courses," we believe that with these funds as a guarantee, providing a certain proportion of official newspapers to college students is entirely possible and necessary for transforming passive ideological and political education into active education.
Our designed question (2) was: "Do you like watching official TV news?" Options were: a. Dislike, b. Neutral, c. Like.
Purpose of designing this question is similar to question (1).
Ideal state envisioned by the research team: Approximately 5% choose a, approximately 45% choose b, and approximately 50% choose c.
Actual statistical results: 9.67% chose a, 55.73% chose b, and 34.60% chose c.
Cause analysis. Through field investigations and discussions, students gave answers mainly including: Official news is boring, has low credibility, and has no practical effect, etc. Before the widespread use of the internet, television and radio information were the primary channels for information dissemination. In today's highly developed internet technology era, the internet can provide more convenient and rapid information, and its interactivity offers more entertaining ways to obtain information. We must admit that the internet has brought adverse effects to the ideological and political education of college students and is one of the reasons why official TV news is neglected by college students in the information age.
Methods and countermeasures for solving the problem. We know that official TV news goes through strict procedures before broadcasting, meaning that its orientation is beyond reproach. However, precisely because of these strict procedures (although this article does not oppose such procedural strictness), the instrumental and utilitarian values of news stand out, weakening its relevance and authenticity to some extent, and even altering the original appearance of some news events purely for political considerations. Document No. 16 [2004] of the Central Committee clearly states that all levels of party committees and governments should create good educational environments for universities. We believe that concerning official TV news, all levels of party committees and governments should provide a genuine ideological and political education environment for college students, offering a people-centered, rather than politically centered, news information environment.
Questions (3), (4), (11), (14), and (19) complement questions (1) and (2), and the aforementioned analysis already incorporates these questions, so specific analysis here is omitted.
(II) Degree of Socialization
We also designed some questions regarding the degree of socialization of ideological and political education among college students. Question (5) was: "What is the main channel for your political and ideological education?" Options were: a. Family, b. School, c. Society." Question (6) was: "What is the main channel for your moral education?" Options were: a. Family, b. School, c. Society. According to our statistics, for question (5), 10.69% chose a, 72.52% chose b, and 16.79% chose c; for question (6), 24.17% chose a, 60.31% chose b, and 15.52% chose c. To complement questions (5) and (6), we set question (7): "What do you think has more influence on your moral quality?" Options were: a. Family, b. School, c. Society. The questionnaire survey results showed that 28.86% chose a, 34.84% chose b, and 36.30% chose c.
Combining questions (5), (6), and (7), we believe that although college students recognize that the main channel for ideological and political education is school, their ideological and political qualities are more influenced by society. This may partially indicate the inadequacies of the main channel of ideological and political education, reflecting a large trend in the socialization of ideological and political education for college students. Combining the previously mentioned questions (1) and (2), we believe that despite some levels of party committees and governments doing insufficient work in the ideological and political education of college students, the objective trend of the socialization of ideological and political education cannot be stopped. The ideological and moral and political qualities of college students are objectively and inevitably educated and influenced by society.
From the perspective of inevitable trends and objective processes, the ideological and political qualities of college students are primarily influenced by broader societal factors. Therefore, the general moral qualities and political attitudes of citizens in a society significantly impact the moral qualities and political attitudes of college students. Relying solely on school moral education to enhance the moral qualities of college students and improve their political attitudes is limited. When there are deficiencies or failures in our moral and political education, it is natural to attribute them to the shortcomings and failures of school education. However, the statistical results of questions (8), (12), (13), (15), and (16) in the questionnaire show that students highly evaluate the efforts made by schools in ideological and political education. On the contrary, the statistical results of questions (9), (10), (18), and (20) indicate that college students perceive the overall morality and political literacy of society as unsatisfactory, particularly for those influential groups in terms of power and economy.
Perhaps we criticize school education for failing to connect with society, but the essence of the "ivory tower" not only implies that schools should maintain a distance from society but also reflects the helplessness of school education towards external societal conditions. As previously stated, socialization is an objective and inevitable trend. We have no reason to confine students' moral and political cognition within the "ivory tower" due to the overall lower moral and political standards of society. However, schools lack the capacity to purify the societal environment. For schools, their education faces a dilemma: it is impossible to isolate students for education, yet the external societal environment is far from ideal. We often see many articles discussing how university moral educators should adapt to the trend of socialization, but few genuinely explore who else besides universities should bear responsibility in the socialization of college students' moral education. Socialization is mainly a process where society influences college students. We believe that whoever (or whichever social group) dominates society and exerts the greatest impact on it should bear the greatest responsibility or endure the greatest moral obligations and political exemplars in the socialization of moral and political education.
III. Conclusions, Suggestions, and Issues Requiring Further Investigation
(1) Conclusions
Based on the survey analysis, we believe that the moral cultivation and political literacy of college students are primarily influenced by society. The moral level and overall political consciousness of society significantly affect or even determine the future moral cultivation and political literacy of college students. The statistical results indicate that the transition of ideological and political education from schools to society is an objective and inevitable trend, i.e., a process of socialization. However, this process and trend currently do not advance in the direction or pace we imagine.
(2) Suggestions
The socialization of ideological and political education for college students is an objective trend. As we define it, it is both a process where educators actively utilize social resources and forces, and a process where society invisibly influences the educated. As previously stated, true moral and political education originates from society. Therefore, the socialization of ideological and political education for college students is not only a matter for university moral educators to consider but also involves assuming certain educational responsibilities during the process of socialization. However, the efforts of universities alone are far from sufficient. Society, especially party and government organizations at various levels within the larger society, individual party members, civil servants, and particularly those organizations and individuals endowed with dominant social power or public authority, should give more attention and reflection to the educational effects produced by their behaviors.
(3) Issues Requiring Further Investigation
From the perspective of college students' ideological and political education actively adapting to society and society positively influencing ideological and political education, socialization is a societal systems project. The socialization of ideological and political education for college students requires not only the efforts of schools but also the entire society. However, expecting all social organizations and members to focus on and care about the ideological and political education of college students is unrealistic. Therefore, further research is needed to solve the following problems: Which social organizations or groups and which social members have a significant impact on the formation of college students' moral qualities and political literacy? What methods and pathways can make the aforementioned organizations, groups, and members exert more positive and greater influence on the formation of college students' moral qualities and political literacy, while reducing negative and smaller impacts?
Notes:
① See "New Exploration of the Concept of the Socialization of Ideological and Political Education for College Students," published in the Journal of Wuhan Institute of Technology, Issue 1, 2008.
② See Gold Pillar Huang and Army Lu, General Introduction to the Study of Political Socialization of Contemporary College Students, China Agricultural Science and Technology Press, 2006, p. 20.
③ See Qingdao University of Technology Research Team, "Political Socialization and Ideological and Political Education in Colleges during the Transition Period," published in Hebei Academic Journal, Issue 1, 2006, p. 67.
④ Search date was March 27