Learning through Participation: Paradigms of Civic Learning among Chinese University Students in the Age of Social Media

Abstract

Social media play increasingly important roles in changing young people's learning styles. The most significant implication for moral and citizenship education would be that young people nowadays are employing social media for cybercivic participation and learning, constructing to both online and offline communities. This paper, based on a virtual ethnographic study, examines how Chinese university students participate in civic discussions and activities by the use of online forums and social network sites. It further explores youth capabilities of learning to be responsible, reciprocal, and reflective citizens. The paper presents three potential learning paradigms, namely dutiful, actualising, and reflective cybercivic learning, and argues that each paradigm has its advantages and limitations in developing moral and civic knowledge, values, and skills. To integrate three learning paradigms into the institutional education system would be an innovation of moral and citizenship education in the age of social media.