The recent revival of Confucianism in the PRC raises questions regarding the legitimacy of cultivating Confucian virtues such as ren, li and xiao in an educational context. This article is based on the assumptions that education is an ideologically laden practice and that moral virtues have the potential of functioning to sustain hegemony and other forms of social control. By focusing on the Xiao Jing, a lesser known Confucian classic, it offers the Confucian account of filial piety a charitable reading (...) which then proceeds to examine the ideological dimension of filial piety. By employing concepts such as naturalisation and the public–private distinction in my analysis, I argue that filial piety should be understood through a critical lens. While the question ‘Is filial piety a virtue?’ cannot be answered in a simple, straightforward manner, the discussion on filial piety presented in this article has the potential to shed light on the relationship between politics and moral education. (shrink)

Against a backdrop of an international trend to shift from a teacher-centred to a learner-centred education, this article explores a Confucian conception of education. Focusing on an ancient Chinese text Xueji, the essay examines its educational ideals and practices based on the principles of ‘choice’, ‘doing’ and ‘power relationship’. It is argued that the educational model in the Xueji does not fit the description of a learner-centred education as commonly understood in the Western literature. Rather, the Xueji advocates a ‘teacher-directed (...) and learner-engaged’ approach by giving the teacher control over the curriculum and authority over the learners while encouraging the learners to participate actively in the learning process. In proposing a conception that is not exactly learner-centred, the Xueji challenges the assumption that ‘good’ education must necessarily be learner-centred. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis article highlights the salient educational insights concerning the roles and identities of women from four Confucian classics known as the Four Books for Women. Written by w...