Exploring the issue of a lack of cohesion in moral education: An empirical study in Chinese primary and secondary schools

The purpose of the present study was to explore the issue of a perceived lack of cohesion in moral education in mainland China, and place it in an international academic context, by comparing three student cohorts: grade three and grade six in Primary School and the third year in Junior High School. The study employed mixed research methods; utilising the Chinese Code for Primary and Secondary-School Students as a blueprint for designing a student self-assessment survey. A total of 695 questionnaires were obtained from the three student cohorts, in addition to 25 semi-structured teacher interviews. The findings concur with and add richness to existing policy documents and academic sources. They reveal the perceived symptom of a lack of cohesion in moral education, represented by a U-curve phenomenon based on students’ self-assessment survey results, and corroborated by teacher interviews, where the middle-cohort students are lagging behind the other two cohorts. These findings are compared to other internationally recorded ‘dips’ in moral developmental trajectories. The findings indicate two possible explanations for this phenomenon, and suggestions are offered for educators and policy makers on improving cohesion in moral education.