An Ethnographic Case Study of Secondary School’s Moral Education in a Mainland City of the Greater Bay Area

Abstract

Chinese moral education is a much broader concept and is heavily criticized for being overly politicized and indoctrinated. The Greater Bay Area (GBA) initiative upholds the people-centered development philosophy in education. This study aims to investigate the school-level implementation in Shenzhen, one of the GBA cities, and teachers' perspectives to determine the facilitating and inhibiting factors across different layers in the student-centered ecological systems of students’ moral development. A two-year-long ethnographic case study was conducted in the case school based on Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory. The study participants consisted of 18 teachers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to examine the participants' perceptions. The study findings revealed that the facilitating factors include clear guidelines on the national level, cooperative teachers, and ambitious principals with a consciousness of visions and responsibilities for moral education. Meanwhile, Shenzhen has the potential to be the pioneer of moral education reformation. However, the rigid content in the textbooks and the stuffy school culture hinder the success of moral education at the school level. The lack of communication and mutual understanding contributes to the splintered and emotionally exhaustive experience of moral education teachers. More efficient and measurable strategies should be used to uphold a tight alliance across different layers. Future research should examine alternative moral education models, decision-making processes, Chinese school management style, and the specific appliance of the ecological systems theory in the unique Chinese educational context.