The Practical Enlightenment of Chinese Modernization to the Modernization of Ideological and Political Education in Universities ()
1. Introduction
As early as the 1980s, modernization has become an important proposition in the study of ideological and political education. From the official establishment of the major and discipline of ideological and political education in higher education in 1984, to implementing high-quality development with the breakthrough point of “integration of ideological and political courses in university, middle, and primary schools” in the new era, the Party has always been leading the people to promote the modernization process of ideological and political education. Along with the advanced development of modernization cause and theoretical research, ideological and political education made significant progress. For example, the connotation has been continuously enhanced, the field has gradually expanded, the subject has become clearer, the methods have been increasingly new, and the ideological system has a huge and profound logic of power [1] [2] . However, due to the impact of numerous adverse factors of times, ideological and political education once faced bottlenecks and challenges, which resulted in inability to meet the needs of cultivating talents in the new era [3] . Obviously, it is urgent to accelerate the modernization process of ideological and political education.
Modernization has always been the goal of China’s development. Yet it’s worth noting that the connotation of Chinese modernization is quite different from those of western ones. In his report to the 20th National Congress of CPC, Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out that, “Chinese modernization is led by CPC, which not only has the common characteristics of modernization of all countries, but also has Chinese characteristics based on its own national conditions.” He further pointed out that, Chinese modernization is of “huge population”, “common prosperity for all”, “harmony between material and spiritual civilization”, “harmony between humanity and nature”, and “following the path of peaceful development”. The profound meaning of Chinese modernization has expanded the new realm of modernization, and opened a new journey to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with the path of Chinese modernization. At the same time, the comprehensive program for the modernization cause brought a directional dawn to help ideological and political education out the development dilemma.
This article is intended to analyze in detail what specific insights Chinese modernization has brought to the modernization of ideological and political education, so as to provide reference for universities to seize the opportunity of making a difference, and give full play to “educate people for the party and the country”.
2. Chinese Modernization Lead the Modernization of Ideological and Political Education in Universities
2.1. The Characteristic “Huge Population” Guided Universities to Put Forth Effort to Build a Large-Scale and High-Quality Ideological and Political Education System
According to relevant data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of regular undergraduate and postgraduate students in China has been increasing year by year in the past five years, seen in Figure 1. It goes without saying that the modernization of ideological and political education in universities is facing a severe and urgent test of scale. The 20th National Congress of CPC pointed out the characteristic of “huge population” of Chinese modernization, and guided universities to gradually carry out ideological and political education with huge population. Under the background of high-quality education development,
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Figure 1. List of total school population and gross enrolment rate in the past five years.
“quantity” and “quality” are inseparable [4] . Therefore, universities must adhere to the synchronous promotion of “quantity” and “quality” to build a system combined with large-scale and high-quality, so that to open a new stage of modernization construction.
First, expand and refine educational resources. On the one hand, universities are supposed to further dig excellent Chinese traditional culture, and make full use of its moral value. Besides, fully take the advantages of regional culture and university characteristics to drive the development of ideological and political education. On the other hand, universities should pay more attention to integrating teaching resources with students’ interests to form a multi-level and personalized teaching resource base. At the same time, it is should be emphasized to take advantages of the Internet in breaking limitations of time and space, so that to expand the coverage of high-quality educational resources. Second, grow the teaching team, and integrate the educational force of multi subjects. Allocate teachers according to a certain teacher-student ratio, and pay really good attention to social education subjects, finally form a strong educational synergy [5] . Third, further implement personalized teaching. Teach students in accordance with their aptitude to enable them to have a greater sense of gain.
2.2. The Characteristic “Common Prosperity for All” Guided Universities to Coordinate Ideological and Political Education of Different Universities and Regions
Standing at the height of the new form of human civilization, the characteristic “common prosperity for all” significantly revealed the scientificity and superiority of Chinese modernization over western ones, and guided universities to achieve the goal of common prosperity in ideological and political education.
First, attach great importance to ethnic university-students’ ideological and political education. Ethnic university-students are the main force in building their hometowns and also an important force in promoting modernization. Differences in culture and customs lead to their different group personalities over students of Han nationality [6] [7] . Therefore, universities should further strengthen individualized ideological and political education for Ethnic university-students. Second, coordinate the development of ideological and political education in universities of different regions [8] . Based on different development conditions, there is a certain gap in the development level of ideological and political education in various universities across the country. Normally, curriculum resources of universities in southeastern coastal cities are relatively rich and concentrated. Therefore, we should further coordinate the development process of different universities, for example, through the way of paired assistance, to lay the ideological foundation for common prosperity. Third, improve the sharing and coverage of high-quality educational resources, due to all kinds of factors, high-quality curriculum resources are relatively concentrated, resulting in insufficient student coverage, then delayed the process of realizing common prosperity in teaching resources. Relevant departments should promote the sharing of high-quality teaching resources such as typical teaching designs and excellent teaching works and so on, which universities are supposed to strongly promote learning.
2.3. The Characteristic “Harmony between Material and Spiritual Civilization” Guided Universities to Devote Much Attention to Both Material and Spiritual Civilization Education
The important assertion that “harmony between material and spiritual civilization” pointed out the “parallel” development mode of Chinese modernization, which abandoned the disadvantages of western “serial” development mode, and is the best solution to promote China’s modernization [9] . Both material civilization and spiritual civilization are indispensable parts of Chinese modernization cause, which enlightened universities to give attention to both material civilization education and spiritual civilization education.
Take a broad view, although the country placed ideological and political education in a prominent position, some universities still pay more attention to professional quality education, and underestimate the importance of ideological and political education. Some universities do attach great importance to ideological and political education, but neglect the ideological and political theories teaching in all courses, thus failing to form a joint force. Universities are supposed to further strengthen professional education and ideological and political education, closely combine ideological and political course and ideological and political theories teaching in all courses, to consolidate joint efforts to promote modernization process of ideological and political education, so as to provide thought-soar wings for the high-quality workers.
2.4. The Characteristic “Harmony between Humanity and Nature” Guided Universities to Strengthen Ecological Civilization Education
As an important characteristic of Chinese modernization, “harmony between humanity and nature” gave new meaning to “modernization” [10] . This was the original development of Marxist ecological view in contemporary China, provided Chinese wisdom and solutions for the new form of human civilization, and guided universities to strengthen ecological civilization education relying on ideological and political education.
First, as the main course for promoting Marxism, ideological and political education in universities should attach great importance to deepening the exploration of Marxist ecological views, and help students lay a solid theoretical foundation for ecological civilization. Second, take cultivating correct ecological civilization values as an important task and goal of ideological and political education. Place the education of ecological civilization values in an equally important position as the education of outlook on life and worldview, to enhance students’ ecological emotions, and cultivate successors who posse both noble life pursuits and ecological civilization literacy [11] . Third, combine social practice to expand teaching content. For example, encourage students to conduct ecological research on their hometowns, and by gaining a firsthand understanding of the ecological environment to firmly consolidate their concept of ecological civilization. Forth, set corresponding evaluation indicators and receive comprehensive feedback from students in order to improve teaching timely [12] .
2.5. The Characteristic “Following the Path of Peaceful Development” Inspired Universities to Mightily Broadcast the Seeds of Peace
Nowdays, the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. In addition, the impact of the epidemic has made the world situation even more turbulent, and competition and friction between countries are becoming increasingly fierce. It was against this background that the Party firmly endowed “Chinese modernization” with the profound connotation of “following the path of peaceful development”, which once again demonstrated China’s determination and courage to uphold peace to the world, and demonstrated the demeanor and responsibility of a major country [13] . Universities are supposed to be greatly encouraged, and take ideological and political education as a handle to mightily broadcast the seeds of peace, and cultivate more high-quality talents with overall situation consciousness and peace consciousness.
First, universities should strengthen the education of the Chinese nation’s community consciousness and the community of shared future for humanity consciousness in class, helping young people to cultivate a high level of value identification and plant the seeds of peace in heart [14] [15] . Second, take the classroom teaching as the main position, and expand various methods to carry out peace education activities. For example, take the construction of “Peace Campus” as the starting point, normalize and institutionalize peace education, so that to enable students to firmly believe in peace based on exposure and observation by themselves. Third, strengthen interdisciplinary collaborative education through disciplinary, thematic, project-based and integrated approaches, and explore the construction of peace education curriculum system, in order to form a strong and stable educational force, through which lead students to internalize peace consciousness in their hearts and externalize it in their actions.
3. Conclusion
Modernization is the trend of the times. The report of the 20th National Congress of CPC saw clearly the situation and elaborated the essence of Chinese modernization, and provided practical enlightenment for ideological and political education. Modernization is also an essential logic for ideological and political education to seize opportunities, break bottlenecks, and improve itself. Universities are supposed to take the 20th National Congress of CPC as an important opportunity, focus on the new situation and identify shortcomings accurately, carry out reform closely based on the five distinctive characteristics of Chinese modernization, and construct a large-scale and high-quality ideological and political education system that matches the modernization cause, so that to cultivate more successors who have high ideal, dare to undertake responsibilities, able to endure hardships, and willing to strive. Empowering modernization with ideological energy.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions that greatly improved the quality of this paper.