A Socio-Spatial Turning: New Dynamics in Philosophy of Education with Chinese Characteristics

1. The Triple Turn in Civic Space

The socio-spatial theory, which has received much attention internationally, breaks through the boundaries of physical space and also emphasizes the relationship between human beings and the external world [4]. In the 1970s of the last century, spatial research went from being invisible to being visible, gradually becoming a new driving force for the development of humanities and social sciences in the country, and was taken as a core element in the field of ideological and political education. On the one hand, the living space of human society has undergone drastic changes, and the previous explanatory paradigm cannot well answer the newly emerged problems; on the other hand, the social attributes of space and its reproduction, which in fact play a role for a long time, should not be ignored. Looking at the practice of ideological and political education, especially in colleges and universities, the attempt to move from classroom space to cyberspace, from physical space to virtual imitation space, and from campus space to social space is the most representative attempt to make a triple shift at present.

1.1. From Classroom Space to Cyberspace

Flipped classroom teaching methods, online classroom teaching quality assessment, online classroom platform and a series of related contents of online classroom have been very mature in western education powerhouses, but they have gained attention late in China [5,6,7]. China’s education sector believes that the importance of ideological work has become more and more prominent in the strategy of governing the country in the new era, and that the overall ecology of ideological and political education in colleges and universities, in particular, has opened up to accelerated change against the backdrop of the great change that has not been seen in a century. As the main position and channel of ideological and political education, the classroom teaching mode, vitality and experience have shown significant features different from those of the past, namely, the teaching centre has moved from monocentric to binary interaction, the classroom pattern has moved from group silence to immersion and interaction, the learning effect has moved from knowledge poverty to in-depth learning, and the teaching evaluation has moved from a single test to a comprehensive assessment. The driving force behind this is that information technology empowers the teaching of ideological and political classes, breaking through the physical classroom space limitations of traditional teaching and opening up a new field of online ideological and political education space, which in turn brings about a series of innovations in cognitive concepts, teaching resources, implementation strategies and assessment methods.

Classroom space is the basic carrier of ideological and political education, which cannot be absent, and classroom teaching is the basic method of ideological and political education, which cannot be abandoned. As far as the classroom teaching method is concerned, “indoctrination is a necessary means to solidify the political nature of ideological and political classes, and enlightenment is an important way to enhance the effectiveness of ideological and political classes” [8], but classroom teaching, which has long been dominated by teachers’ lectures, has problems such as students’ lack of desire before class, silence in class, and amnesia after class, which are more obvious in the Internet era. This requires ideological and political educators to pay full attention to the network field, reasonably use network resources, change the teacher’s monocentric education mode, increase the affinity, attractiveness and infectivity of the ideological and political class, and mobilise students to be able to learn, willing to learn, and take the initiative to learn.

In the official documents of the Chinese government, the importance of educationalisation has been emphasised many times, “the digitalisation of education is an important breakthrough for China to open up a new track of educational development and shape a new advantage in educational development”, and cyberspace has inevitably become one of the battlegrounds of ideological and political education. The rapid development of artificial intelligence technology has provided unprecedented convenience for the updating of teaching concepts, the innovation of teaching methods, the transformation of teaching discourse, the control of the teaching process, and the evaluation of teaching effects, as well as sufficient options for the transformation of social resources into educational resources. With the network orientation of ideological and political education and the gradual emergence of network ideological and political education research, the classroom of ideological and political education has also ushered in a practical transformation, which is mainly embodied in the use of network teaching platforms, the use of new forms of network resources, and the invocation of multi-quality resources outside the classroom.

Web-based teaching platforms include the National Education Public Service Platform and China Education Online under the State’s authority, and Super Star Pan-Asia, Rain Class and China University MOOC developed by enterprises to serve the education and research sector, as well as school-based teaching systems and curriculum centres. New-format online resources refer to dynamic information such as audio-visual, software, and games in addition to traditional electronic newspapers and pictures, such as the online exhibition hall of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China and Adobe Illustrator drawings. Multi-quality resources outside the classroom promote the practical combination of ideological and political theory courses, not limited to virtual simulation teaching equipment, online creative short video platform, red history exhibition hall, social practice teaching base, etc.. The three constitute a complete chain of ideological and political education networked closed loop, forming a new nurturing synergy, which has become the most distinctive feature and the most significant advantage of ideological and political education work in the new era.

In terms of the first classroom nurturing activities, the degree of network immersion in ideological and political education also varies, which in turn has led to the formation of three basic forms: offline courses using online resources, mixed online and offline courses, and online courses. No matter which form of classroom teaching, it proves that the expansion of teaching space from physical to network is the inevitable development trend of future education. The expansion of cyberspace effectively extends learning time and increases knowledge reproduction, makes independent learning and quality assessment more convenient, transforms the dual relationship between teachers and students into a two-dimensional teacher-student co-governance, and makes the cultivation of people in the Civic and Political Programmes move from one-way transmission to in-depth learning.

On China’s largest research search platform, 59,843 records of publications in journals can be found under the theme of “cyberspace”, the earliest of which was published in 1983. It is clear that Chinese scholars have been paying attention to this issue for a long time, but the peak of research is in 2020, with a total of 4016 records.

Indeed, there is a lag in the general shift from theoretical research to practical behaviour. That is, the shift from the physical space of the classroom to the cyberspace of education in China did not generally begin until after 2020. The most important factor in this is the impact of the New Crown epidemic, rather than the initiative of the Chinese educational community. Currently, the importance of cyberspace has been fully appreciated.

1.2. From Physical Space to Imitation Space

From the perspective of colleges and universities, not only focusing on the high-quality supply of teaching resources, ideological and political education also focuses on the learning process, of which the most representative trend is that colleges and universities have gradually established a virtual simulation teaching platform for Marxist theory.

The application of virtual simulation space can be shown to be important and necessary from four perspectives: the management body, the teaching staff, the students of the university and the curriculum creation.

From the perspective of the main body of management, the ideological and political virtual simulation space is the embodiment of the Party’s management of the ideological and political class, but also the supply side reform initiative. The construction of a strong educational country to implement the Party’s education policy, “to solve the fundamental problem of what people to train, how to train people, and for whom to train people”. Implementing the Party’s education policy means formulating education policies and carrying out education work in a complete, comprehensive and original manner in accordance with the Party’s lines and policies. The main body of management strengthens organisational leadership, conforms to the development trend of higher education, develops multimodal and intelligent interactive learning resources, designs new educational resources such as VR/AR, and organises a series of initiatives such as the research on the design of new virtual-reality fusion spaces, leading the Civics and Political Science class to continuously improve the level of soul-casting and nurturing in the midst of righteousness and innovation.

From the perspective of the teaching staff, the Civics virtual simulation space is the innovation of teaching methods and the enhancement of comprehensive teaching ability. However, as the teacher’s competence training is a prerequisite for the development of virtual simulation teaching, most of the teachers in the classroom are relatively lagging behind in their ability to proactively adapt to the needs of teaching and learning [9]. Virtual simulation technology empowered Civics class, is bound to bring about changes in teaching mode, teaching vitality, its “three-dimensional teaching means, intensive teaching content and diversified teaching methods” to promote Civics class to the depth of teaching. Virtual simulation teaching corresponding teaching design, resource use, classroom interaction, assessment and evaluation, quantum entanglement type of overall change occurred. The new form of teaching and research activities, such as collective lesson preparation in the virtual teaching and research room, sharing of the same lesson model, collaborative assessment of a lesson by multiple subjects, and exchange of operating techniques of interactive virtual simulation systems, have transformed cutting-edge teaching concepts into a new quality of educational power, and have fostered a large number of Civics and Political Science teachers with excellent skills in nurturing people.

From the perspective of college students, the Civics imitation space boosts the desire to learn through immersive experience and strengthens the learning effect through instant interaction. For a long time, the will to learn independently has not been obvious in the Civics programme, which is attributed to the fact that the “reasoning” approach and methodology cannot fully adapt to the students’ desire for a better Civics programme. Digital technology empowers the Civics and Political Science class, leading students to dialogue with Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mao Zedong and other great men across time and space, and deeply experience the historical scenes of the Red Army climbing the snowy mountains and crossing the grassy meadows, so that the students can fully feel the fun of the “experiential” and “immersive” classroom. The virtual imitation teaching fully demonstrates the students’ classroom subjectivity and initiative, and achieves the purpose of establishing morality, enlightening the heart and embellishing the intellect.

From the perspective of curriculum construction, the Civics virtual imitation space has revitalised teaching resources and led teaching reform and innovation. The virtual imitation space provides brand-new human resources, especially promotes the two-way integration of the Civics programme and curriculum Civics, and becomes a powerful lever for the supply-side reform of the Civics course. In the course construction, although the value orientation is casting soul and educating people, but the universities play the disciplinary advantages, in the method path, element configuration, course linkage and other aspects of the differentiation of competition, customized version of the catechism, personalized venues, sense of presence advantage, and a series of new features, to boost the connotative development of civic and political courses.

1.3. From Campus Space to Social Space

The national leaders’ directive to make good use of social resources has quickly become the highest guideline for curriculum development in colleges and universities.Because of the relative closed nature of colleges and universities, and the imbalance of social resources, resulting in inequality in education, the integration of social resources into higher education is conducive to mitigating this phenomenon, but in the more socially resource-rich developed cities has further widened this inequality [10]. Classroom teaching is still the main position of ideological and political education, and campus space is still the main field of student activities. But the new era of ideological and political education is not satisfied with the expansion of space within the scope of the local campus, because ideological and political education is essentially a practical activity, the road can not sit on the theory, only the combination of theoretical teaching and practical training, in order to truly shape the new man of the times who can take on the heavy responsibility of national rejuvenation.

The current curriculum of ideological and political theory courses in colleges and universities still follows the basic requirements of the “05 Programme”, which suggests that “all courses of ideological and political theory courses in colleges and universities should strengthen the practical aspects”, and the specific credit hours are arranged by colleges and universities according to their own actual situation.2018 The Ministry of Education on the issuance of the “Basic Requirements for Teaching Ideological and Political Theory Courses in Colleges and Universities in the New Era”, “2 credits are set aside from the existing credits of undergraduate ideological and political theory courses, 1 credit is set aside from the existing credits of specialist ideological and political theory courses, and practical teaching of ideological and political theory courses in the specialties is carried out”. The Ministry of Education’s notice on the issuance of the “Basic Requirements for Teaching Ideological and Political Theory Courses in Colleges and Universities in the New Era” fixes practical teaching in a top-level design.

However, the landing of the policy embodied in the talent cultivation programme and the schedule of lecture process is still not detached from classroom teaching. As an effective grip on the high-quality development of the ideological and political theory course, the practical teaching link has become the weakest link in the implementation process. Every ideological and political theory course requires students to report on the course in groups, and it has even become a cause of students’ dislike of the ideological and political theory course, which is still attributed to the multiple imbalances in teaching philosophy, design, organisation, form, evaluation, funding, etc., and a lack of true understanding of the spirit of the Ministry of Education’s documents and policies. With the increase in the frequency of social resources on campus, students are also demanding new initiatives for the practice of a better ideological and political class, and colleges and universities have begun to take the initiative to seek change, actively expanding campus activities, school-enterprise linkage, and school-pavilion interaction. This change has directly contributed to the ideological and political education breaking through the campus space, embracing the social space, and beginning to use social forces to help ideological and political work.

The first notable change is the integration of schools, universities, primary and secondary schools and children, as well as the integration of undergraduates and graduates. Fully implement the Party’s education policy, rooted in China’s land to run education, based on China’s national conditions to run education, adhere to China’s road to run education, the most important of which is to adhere to the guiding position of Marxism unshakeable. “Education is something that seeps into the blood and penetrates into the soul, and it must be started at an early age, from kindergarten”, and should be extended to lifelong education. The undergraduate stage, as an important node to carry on the next, it is both the test and extension of the ideological leadership results of basic education, and the ideological development of postgraduate education to guide and stipulate, so the educational, academic, and goal-oriented ideological and political work in the undergraduate stage has become a topic of the greatest concern to the academic community. Many useful attempts have been made on how to break the fracture and jumping of ideological and political education between academic segments and truly realise the seamless connection between thought leadership and value leadership.

The second notable change is the construction of “big ideology and politics courses”. General Secretary Xi Jinping first put forward the concept of “big ideology and politics class” in 2021, pointing out that “ideology and politics classes should not only be taught in the classroom, but also in social life”, and combined with the vivid struggles of hundreds of millions of Chinese people. The Ministry of Education subsequently issued the “Work Programme for Comprehensively Promoting the Construction of “Great Civic and Political Science Classes”“, with the concepts of “big vision”, “big time and space”, “big resources” and “big system”. More macroscopic initiatives such as “big vision”, “big time and space”, “big resources” and “big system” have become the trend of ideological and political education reform. The results of the reform are highlighted by the shift from linear teaching to three-dimensional and dynamic teaching, more diversified and structured evaluation of effects, and the overall strengthening of the progression of parenting content, the orientation of parenting goals, and the synergy of parenting departments. In particular, the proportion of experiential teaching activities in the curriculum has increased, and students’ sense of participation in and acquisition of learning has been significantly enhanced compared with the past, indicating that the attractiveness, persuasiveness and affinity of the construction of the Civic and Political Science Course have achieved practical results.

Red activities and competitions are the third significant change. Unlike the first two, the protagonists of red activities and competitions are students rather than teachers, and the instructors of the activities and competitions are not necessarily teachers of Civics and Politics, but rather students make two-way choices, take the initiative to display and self-express themselves on the basis of their interests and abilities. Red activities, such as the Open Class for Civic and Political Science Classes for College Students in Colleges and Universities sponsored by the Steering Committee of Civic and Political Science Teaching in Colleges and Universities under the Ministry of Education, and the “General Secretary Xi Jinping and College Students Together” Learning and Sharing Activity; competitions, such as the “Internet+” College Students Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition Competitions such as the “Internet+” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition for College Students, the “Youth Red Dream-Building Journey”, and the “Writing Youthful Chapters on the Motherland” network theme activities have greatly mobilised students’ enthusiasm for patriotism and sense of national pride, and enhanced their spirit of innovation and practical ability through practical participation. Practical activities led by the aspirations of young students provide students with the freedom of choice unmatched by classroom teaching, guide students to learn about China through personal participation, and shape a team of believers, active disseminators and exemplary practitioners of Marxist theory, who truly learn, believe and use the theory in a real way.

Change is the hallmark of sustainability, and sustainability can only be guaranteed by change that is in keeping with the times. This triple spatial transformation can be seen as a microcosm of the direction of education in China today. The triple spatial turn constitutes the contemporary pattern of ideological and political education, and is also the basic basis for the optimisation of the ideological and political space. The formation of the triple space of ideological and political education does not mean that the turn has been completed, and only by fully respecting history and reality can we promote the further development of ideological and political space.

2. The Historical Logic of the Spatial Turn in Civic Education

The purpose of exploring the historical logic is to explain the reasons for the spatial turn of the concept of education with Chinese characteristics in contemporary times, in which the factor that cannot be ignored or plays a decisive role is the leadership of the Communist Party of China . The education sector, wanting to maintain the sustainability of education, has adopted the approach of absolute ideological mastery. Historically, the CPC has attached great importance to ideological and political work and has made it the “lifeline of all work”. Ideological and political work is also the CPC’s winning strategy to gather people’s hearts and minds, the political overcoming of difficulties, and the true embodiment of adhering to the Party’s overall leadership of the educational cause. The triple spatial transformation of ideological and political education is the inevitable process of the continuous development of ideological and political education itself, and the historic convergence of the Party’s proposition, people’s expectations and social development in this era.

2.1. Generativity: Focus on Ideological and Political Education

Grasping education from the ideological point of view and using this tool as a distinctive symbol is the most striking difference between Chinese education and that of the rest of the world.Marxism is the guiding ideology of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which is closely related to the fate of China’s recent history. Chinese leaders believe that Marxism is not a dogma, and that it is necessary to realize the combination with the concrete reality of China and with the excellent traditional Chinese culture in order to truly give full play to the great energy of the ideology. As the theoretical root of the CPC’s “ability” and the “goodness” of socialism with Chinese special characteristics, the classic Marxist writers disclosed the nature of the ideology of class society from the viewpoint of the unity of opposites and revealed various contradictory relationships in the field of ideology through in-depth analyses of the relationship between the productive forces and the relations of production, and between the economic base and the superstructure. Through in-depth analyses of the contradictory relationships between the productive forces and the relations of production, and between the economic base and the superstructure, they have revealed that all kinds of spiritual ties and willful entanglements in the ideological sphere are essentially conflicts of economic interests.

Ideological and political work is fundamentally human work. Marxism breaks through the theoretical framework of “abstract man” of the old philosophy, takes practice as a bridge, and puts forward that “it is not people’s consciousness that determines their existence; on the contrary, it is people’s social existence that determines their consciousness! On the contrary, it is people’s social existence that determines people’s consciousness.”Marxist philosophy, the highest pinnacle of German philosophy, has not only realized the materialism of the view of history, but has also become the guiding principle for many peoples of the world in their quest for their own independence. After China experienced a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society, Marxism became the guiding ideology of national liberation, and Marxism was also regarded as the essence of the spirit of the times.This assertion has become the theoretical cornerstone of the materialist conception of history, and has also been used as the theoretical basis for ideological and political education to serve the “free and fully developed human being”.

The task of proletarian ideological and political education, from the very beginning, has been to serve the real world, to serve the people living in the real world, and in the case of China, to rally the hearts and minds of the Chinese nation for its great rejuvenation. “As soon as the Communist Party of China was born, it established as its original mission the pursuit of happiness for the Chinese people and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”, and the CPC has trained its successor builders and successors with a consistent ideological conviction. At the very beginning of the founding of the Party, Mao Zedong put forward “the question of the ideological leadership of the proletariat is a very important question” [11], innovatively opened up a new line of ideological construction of the Party, and made it “the central link in uniting the whole Party in the great political struggle”. Since the Gutian Conference, the CPC has strictly enrolled members of the Party and has been carrying out ideological education within the Party for a long time, endeavouring to make the theory grasp the masses and then transform it into material power, and to make ideological and political education penetrate into all the Party’s undertakings.

Since the 18th National Congress, the theoretical community has consciously made the cultivation of moral integrity the core task of the study of ideological and political education, and in particular, the introduction of the concept of “big ideological and political class” has accelerated the highlighting of the spatial shift in ideological and political education. Ideological and political lessons are not only taught in the classroom, but should also be integrated into daily life, because the essence of the ideological and political lessons is to reason, and the real reason must stand the test of practice, and the real reason will be transformed into a powerful material force once the masses grasp it. Reasoning that is divorced from daily life is bound to have no vitality. To reason in daily life, it is necessary to organically combine the small classroom of ideology and politics with the big classroom of society, and to make full use of social resources and social forces to promote the ideological and political education work and all kinds of courses and all kinds of activities to form the synergy of educating people.

At the National Education Conference, the requirement of “six efforts” was clearly put forward, proposing that ideological and political education work should clarify the fundamental question of “what kind of people to train”, “how to train people” and “for whom to train people”. The fundamental question is “for whom to train people”. This is not only the summary of the experience of the Communist Party of China in ideological and political education over the past 100 years, but also a fundamental guideline for the work of ideological and political education in the new era, and a powerful proof of the importance attached by the CPC Central Committee to ideological and political education.All this can show that the generative nature of education in China follows a certain track, that is, the unified planning by the central administration.

2.2. Adversarial: Proactively Guarding the Right and Innovating

Ideological and political education has had different specific goals, guidelines and policies, content and methods, curriculum systems and management systems in different historical periods. Looking back at the history of the ideological and political education work of the Communist Party of China over the past century, it is precisely the history of the theory and practice of observing the right and innovating, and the history of the initiative to open up the space for turning in response to the development of the times.

From the founding of the CPC to the establishment of New China, the main task of this period was “to be able to unite true friends to attack true enemies”, and the ideological work was highlighted by the dissemination of Marxism, and the training of revolutionary talents with firm political beliefs in the anti-imperialist and anti-feudalist struggle. In terms of training policy, through the founding of various forms of training institutions such as the Whampoa Military School, the Workers’ and Peasants’ School, and party training courses, Marxism and the theory of the Red Regime were propagated around the revolutionary struggle, and were characterised by an outstanding combativeness.

From the founding of New China to the eve of reform and opening up, ideological and political education underwent a tortuous development from the purging of old ideas and the cultivation of red and professional labourers to the “class struggle as a programme”. The content of education mainly emphasised the Marxist worldview and instilled the concept of service to the people, and then shifted to “continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat”, and the method of education changed from “solidarity-criticism-solidarity” to “big-character posters and big debates”, and finally to “big debates”, The method of education also shifted from “unity-criticism-unity” to “big-character posters and big debates”, and was eventually clarified by the “big discussion on the standard of truth”, which put it back on the right track.

From the reform and opening up to the 18th National Congress, in opposing the bourgeois liberalisation trend, cultivating “builders and successors” with strong ideals and beliefs has become the main goal. Education must serve socialist modernisation, be combined with productive labour, and train builders and successors to the socialist cause who are all-rounded in morality, intelligence and physical fitness”, and then successively put forward the tasks of building a common socialist ideal and socialist spiritual civilisation. Ideological and political education in this period restored the fine tradition of Marxist ideological education, while focusing on the democratic, guiding and encouraging nature of the educational process.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has put forward a series of new assertions on the new situation, new problems and new tasks facing ideological and political education, pointing out the logic of doing good ideological and political work in the new era. The Party and the State have elevated ideological and political education to the height of governance, put forward that “ideological and political theory courses are the key courses for the implementation of establishing morality and educating people”, and promoted the ideological and political courses and courses on ideological and political education in the same direction to do a good job of “big ideological and political courses”. Accordingly, the goal of ideological and political education has been elevated to the height of “cultivating new men of the times who will take up the great responsibility of national rejuvenation”, guiding students to strengthen the “four confidence” and “four consciousness”, and to devote themselves to the new journey of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

2.3. Nationality: Embodying Chinese Characteristics

Ideological and political education is not about mechanically inculcating Marxist theory, but about reasoning and persuading and mastering people with thorough reasoning. Ideological and political education must, above all, be subject to the general laws of higher education, such as that the political and economic system determines educational leadership and that higher education must be adapted to the level of physical and mental development of the recipients. At the same time, the development of higher education, like the general law of world historical development, “not only does it not exclude in any way the individual stages of development in the form or order of the development of the particularity, but on the contrary, it is a prerequisite for this,” in other words, each country, each nation, each period of higher education has its own unique features.The Chinese nation has always attached great importance to national sentiment, emphasised national unity, advocated the unity of heaven and man, and advocated introspection and self-discipline, which also constitutes the basis for ideological and political education in modern universities with Chinese characteristics.

In terms of the construction of universities themselves, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasised during his visit to Peking University that “to run a good Chinese university must have Chinese characteristics ...... to seriously absorb the world’s advanced experience in running and governing schools, and to run a university rooted in the Chinese soil”.

In his speech at the National University of Education, General Secretary Xi Jinping put forward, from the height of the development of the Party and the national cause, the requirement of “nine adherence” to the practice of higher education, in which “Party leadership” is at the top of the list, which fully proves the importance of the Party’s leadership of the cause of education.

State leaders have given important instructions on the construction of school ideological and political courses, stressing that the Party Central Committee has always insisted on placing the construction of school ideological and political courses in an important position in educational work, and that ideological and political education in the new era should be “based on the world-beating achievements of socialism with Chinese characteristics as the support for the content, and based on the strength of the excellent traditional Chinese culture, revolutionary culture and advanced socialist culture as the foundation. “ and tell the true Chinese story. In terms of the content of education, in addition to the basic principles of Marxism, it is also necessary to teach the theoretical results of combining Marxism with Chinese reality and with the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and even more importantly, the powerful vitality of Marxism that has burst forth in China’s vivid practice.

From the perspective of nurturing, the implicit introversion of Chinese students also determines that ideological and political education work is based on caring and guidance. Unlike capitalism, which always adopts hidden values education, “all propaganda work carried out by our party should be vivid, distinctive, sharp, and not swallowed”, and the Chinese communists have never stood for the proletariat with a clear banner. The road to modernisation of ideological and political education in the new era is to pay more attention to serving the national strategy in terms of educational goals, more attention to the Chinese style of education, and more attention to the practical transformation of the educational method, “to form practical forms of production practice, life practice, parenting practice, governance practice, virtual practice, etc., adapted to the needs of modernisation”, and to let the the majority of young people to write Chinese chapters on the Chinese soil.

Ideological education exists at all times and in all places, either implicitly or explicitly. It has also been proved that ideological education can transform the next generation’s beliefs about the world, thus further solidifying national unity [12,13,14]. It can be said that ideological and political education has had a Chinese character from the very beginning, for seeking truth from facts is the core of the ideological line of the CPC, and ideological and political education in any period is based on the historical conditions of the Party’s history, and “never on the ideas or principles invented or discovered by this or that world reformer”. Marxists take Marxism as the starting point, not the end point, of the study of the world, so ideological and political education must be Chineseised Marxism with a distinct Chinese national identity.

3. The Realistic Logic of the Spatial Turn in Civic Education

Realistic logic differs from theoretical logic in that realistic logic can show that the application of a theory has achieved practical results and is realistic evidence of the continuing vitality of the approach.Ideological and political education, like any other historical activity, changes with the development of human production, life and ways of thinking. As an activity serving “real people”, ideological and political education must be concerned with reality, following the logic of historical development and obeying the changing themes of the times. The requirements of the external situation, the demands of internal development, and the needs of the political mission all constitute the direct reality of the triple shift in ideological and political education.

3.1. Requirements of the Unprecedented Changes

The world is undergoing a major change unprecedented in a century. Emerging powers represented by China are accelerating their approach to the centre of the world stage, and the material foundation of the “centrality of Western civilization” is gradually being shaken. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, China will be the top driver of world economic growth from 2013 to 2021, contributing an average of 38.6 per cent to world economic growth, compared with the 25.7 per cent average contribution rate of the G7 countries, and will remain the largest driver of global economic growth during this period [15]. China has proved in practice its commitment to world peace, its ability to provide strong support for world development, and the truth of the idea of a “community of human destiny”.

However, the growing competition among the major powers in the context of the great changes, the rise of populist sentiments, and the acceleration of international divisions as a result of anti-globalisation have also had a profound impact on the ideological sphere [16,17]. China’s rapid rise has caused some Western capitalist countries, led by the United States, to pursue and intercept it, and the maintenance of national security in the ideological field is facing a completely new situation. From a broad historical perspective, the rise of the global power pattern in the east and the fall of the west are unstoppable, which in turn triggers the competition for the right of international discourse and the world’s rules. The old Western powers, like Germany criticised by Marx in the Introduction to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law, do not realise that they are the “open completion of the old system” and the “hidden defects of the modern state”, but instead still believe in On the contrary, it believed in “its own rationality” and took all sorts of deterrent measures to suppress the formation of the new order, in an attempt to continue to maintain the old order in which “the East is subordinate to the West”.

Against the backdrop of great changes, it is all the more important to strengthen ideological leadership, take reasonable measures to defuse all kinds of risks, and guide students to strengthen the four self-confidence. “If we do not recognise change, respond to change and seek change, we may fall into strategic passivity, miss development opportunities, and even miss an entire era”, the Chinese Communist Party carries forward the spirit of historical initiative, looks at the great changes with a dialectical perspective, looks for new opportunities in the crisis, and “takes the great changes that the world has not seen in a hundred years The Chinese Communist Party has taken the great changes that have not been seen in the world for a century as a completely new situation and an important variable in ideological risk prevention, and has promoted ideological and political work to win the initiative in the complex pattern of struggle.

The CPC Central Committee has made a series of important deployments around ideological and political education, rationally looking at the external situation and its own advantages, and enhancing the political and ideological strength of ideological and political workers and young students. Beginning with the implementation of the status of key courses in ideological and political education, the Party Central Committee has strengthened the supply of resources for educating people, promoted the construction of teachers for ideological and political education, strictly managed the whole process of teaching, and created an integrated ecology for educating people. Since the 18th National Congress, from top-level design to grass-roots implementation, remarkable results have been achieved in many areas, including institutional documents, leadership teams, discipline construction, teaching materials, teaching methods, classroom vitality, and social impact, and the environment for the development of the Civic and Political Science Programme and the overall ecology have undergone a global and fundamental transformation. This series of achievements is the result of the CPC Central Committee’s initiative to lead the vast number of ideological and political workers in their endeavours, as well as a powerful response to the external environment.

3.2. The Demand for Connotative Development of Civic and Political Education

Ideological education as a separate discipline is not an international practice, and developed countries place more emphasis on mainstream or universal values [18,19]. External factors work through internal factors, and the development of ideological and political education itself is even more decisive. It has been 40 years since the first batch of students was recruited in 1984 by way of on-campus selection for the major of ideological and political education. From 1984 to 2005, ideological and political education began to develop slowly relying on other disciplines, and achieved a series of results mainly in the cultivation of talents for bachelor’s and master’s degrees, the compilation of teaching materials and the publication of academic works, the establishment of academic societies and professional journals, and the expansion of branches of research disciplines, etc. Since 2006, ideological and political education has entered into the stage of relatively independent development, and ideological and political education, as a secondary discipline set up in the field of Marxist Ideological and political education has entered a relatively independent development stage since 2006, and as a secondary discipline of Marxism, ideological and political education has gradually become systematic in terms of its own disciplinary positioning, conceptual scope, research object, research methodology and discourse system.

The course of these 40 years, although the direction of the development of the discipline is dominated by the education sector, but as an independent discipline, it still has its own internal regularity, which can not be changed arbitrarily through human factors [20]. Looking back over the course of 40 years, ideological and political education has gone through the development from disciplining to modernisation, which follows the general laws of educational disciplines as well as its own laws of development. Especially as a discipline formed since the reform and opening up, with distinctive Chinese characteristics and political standpoint, ideological and political education “was formed in a short time by the state using the administrative system ....... The degree of specialisation and academic accumulation still needs to be developed”, and it is particularly important to speed up the construction of its own connotation in the new era. The new era is particularly important to accelerate its own connotation construction.

The connotative development of ideological and political education must be based on the issues of the times, taking the vivid practice of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics as the source of living water, and answering the questions of the world, history and the people. The report of the 20th CPC National Congress pointed out that “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will be comprehensively promoted by Chinese-style modernisation”, and ideological and political education is committed to shaping its own modernisation form, which also provides an internal basis for the triple spatial shift of ideological and political education. Ideological and political education can only maintain its own rationality if it can keep the vitality of educating people and the development paradigm continues to evolve. In recent years, “the paradigm of higher-order developmental ideological and political education has become the proper pattern, the completion of a high-quality ideological and political education system has become the core indicator, and it has become a universal consciousness to set up a great ambition, understand great virtues, become a great talent, and take on a great responsibility”. The effect of the connotative development of ideological and political education in the new era has been remarkable.

In terms of academic construction, ideological and political education has moved from the periphery of China’s social sciences to a central position, steadily increasing its contribution to Chinese-style modernisation and becoming the most important component of socialist education with Chinese characteristics [21,22]. As for the practice of educating people, the systematic thinking of collaborative education has been significantly enhanced, the combination of big classroom and small classroom has become increasingly close, the integration of large, medium and small schools, and the exploration of the integration of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees through the exploration of large, medium and small schools is an important task in the current period of time, and the digital empowerment has become a new point of academic growth. In terms of quality evaluation, unlike the concrete intuition of other disciplines, the effect of ideological and political education is abstract, long-term and complex, and a set of scientific and effective evaluation system has been formed by examining the “quality of moral education, quality of staff building and quality of school reform and development” and optimising the evaluation method.

In general, after 40 years of development, ideological and political education has completed the exploration of the primary stage, accumulated a large number of useful experiences and practices, and is marching headlong towards a better ideology and politics that people expect.

3.3. The Need to Educate People for the Party and the Country

The function of education can be interpreted in different dimensions, whether for the individual, the collective or society, but it is undeniable that education is a collective activity with a certain purpose [23,24]. Ideological and political education has a distinct Marxist stance and an outstanding value-led function, the former embodied in taking the Party’s guiding ideology as a guide to action and speaking politics clearly; the latter embodied in grasping people with thorough theories to ensure that the cause of the Party and the country will be succeeded by successors. The “two combinations” is the fundamental method of theoretical innovation in ideological and political education; telling the great achievements of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the main content of ideological and political education; and nurturing talents for the Party and people for the country is the political mission of ideological and political education. It is precisely for this reason that ideological and political education is determined to have a strong sense of the times, a sense of responsibility and a sense of honour.

At the level of theoretical innovation, “the extent to which theory is realised in a country always depends on the extent to which it meets the needs of that country”, and the existing theoretical system is not the completion of the search for truth, but rather the point of departure for the study of the existing world. Any theoretical classics that have survived the test of time and have been handed down to the present day are the two-way journey of “thought strives to become reality” and “reality strives to tend to thought”, injecting new vitality into themselves in the cycle of practice and theory. The new era needs ideas and theories, and is surely capable of generating them, and it is in this context that contemporary Chinese Marxism and 21st-century Marxism have arisen. Ideological and political education follows the same norms, and in recent years the core topics of academic research have ranged from process theory, environmental theory, carrier theory, methodology, and work theory to theme theory, discourse theory, concept theory, coherence theory, and space theory, comprehensively extending the depth and breadth of the discipline.

At the level of educational content, the rationality of the content is the basic prerequisite for the realisation of its educative effect, and rationality is manifested in the unity of truth and value. Truth is the conformity between subjectivity and objectivity, and a doctrine can only be convincing if it is verified as scientific and correct at the factual level, so that people in their daily lives realise that “this is true”. It is not enough that the constituent elements of the content are reasonable, but it is also necessary that the structure of the form is reasonable, the structure of ideological and political education is generated and evolved in a particular time and space, when with the transfer of time and space conditions and reorganisation, in order to show itself in the form of a complete self-consistency. The rationality of the constituent elements of the content and the rationality of the structure establish the prerequisite for its own value. Value is the positive significance of the object for the subject, and the subject’s needs determine the value of the object and provide a strong impetus for the development of the object. The content of ideological and political education should help the subject to meet the needs of the present and lead the subject to aspire to a better life in the future, which is what the Party and the country really need [25].

At the level of talent cultivation, the fact that China is a socialist country and adheres to the leadership of the Communist Party of China “dictates that our education must take the cultivation of socialist builders and successors as its fundamental task”, and that the direction and goals of ideological and political education must not be deviated from. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, which has entered an irreversible historical process, needs newcomers of the times with strong ideals and beliefs who are capable of assuming the great responsibilities of history, so as to ensure that there will be successors to the Party’s cause and the construction of a strong socialist modernised country. Nurturing people for the Party and the country is the strategic positioning of the Party and the country for ideological and political education, a profound grasp of the laws of the ideological and political education cause, a profound reflection on the general trend of historical development, and a guide to action for a strong education in the new era.

Achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and realising the second hundred-year goal is the task entrusted by history to the Chinese Communists, which is an arduous and glorious task, and which directly illustrates the extreme importance of ideological and political education, i.e., it is the vocation of ideological and political education to nurture talents for the Party and to educate people for the country.

4. Prediction of the Way Forward for the Civic Space

Ideological and political education has grasped the revolution in thinking and practice set off by the spatial shift, and has played an active role in cultural shaping, precise parenting, personality teaching and life narrative. The effect of the triple shift has been remarkable, as the teaching concept has changed from monocentric to dualistic interaction, the teaching mode has changed from filling to leading, the classroom atmosphere has changed from silence to activity, the teaching assessment has changed from end-of-term test to the whole process, and the teaching effect has changed from group poverty to self-confidence and self-improvement, and the spatial ecology of ideological and political education has undergone a fundamental transformation.Through the spatial transformation of ideological education with Chinese characteristics, it is possible to predict the future spatial shape of education in a certain period of time in the future, along the current direction of education.

4.1. The Body Meets Space

The education sector has started a space revolution from the perspective of environmental reengineering [26]. Through the optimisation of learning spaces, such as the construction of immersive libraries, integrated learning stations and healing sports grounds, a campus scene where learning can take place everywhere has been formed, with a view to enhancing students’ willingness to take the initiative to learn and their learning efficiency. Practice has proved that optimising spatial ecology is beneficial to mobilising students’ interest in learning, which implicitly reveals that the interaction between body and space will become an inevitable trend in the future development of education. Alternatively, before the importance of the body-subject in learning was clearly realised, the educational community had already gained a great deal of perceptual experience of body-turning.

The importance of space seems to be recognised. However, relying on spatial steering alone is not enough; how to use space to empower ideological and political education is a topic that deserves more attention. From the perspective of spatial ontology, the ideological and political curriculum is viewed as a learning opportunity, a value leader and an ensemble of resources, but there is still a lack of emotional willingness to take the initiative in the learning experience of the educated, which is fundamentally due to the subject-object duality in the teaching and learning process. Space has become a feasible choice to solve this problem, that is, to make the curriculum a space for experiencing scenes, to realise the encounter between the body and the space, so that the educated can experience life, understand the truths, firm up their beliefs, and guide their actions in this learning experience scene [27].

Scene-setting can achieve a shift from passivity to activism on the part of the educated person, but scene-setting is not arbitrary. The most effective way to achieve theoretical persuasion and to construct a special emotional experience in the subject’s life by reasoning in a scene is to provide direct experience, i.e., the body as a participant in the scene. “The body has been wandering repeatedly in the grey zone woven for it by the soul and consciousness on the way to knowledge”, reviewing the magnificent appearance of the body in various disciplines, one will moreover find the body’s previous despondency and disappointment because the body should have been the most valued factor, but the conceptual importance has not been The body should have been the most valued factor, but the conceptual importance has not been fully reflected in the actual educational activities.

The participation of the body will inevitably reshape the shape of the curriculum and reconfigure the boundaries of the learning space [28]. Firstly, there is a shift in the outlook on curriculum and teaching, with ideological and political education moving from being programmed and preformed to being embodied and generated. The goal of ideological and political education is established, but also in the impact of the waves of the times continue to reshape themselves, so the development of the curriculum should also reflect the characteristics of the times. The teaching and learning of ideological and political education respects the real individual as a social entity, stresses the physical and mental unity of the educated, and builds the ideological and political education course into a generative course from the cognitive level and real experience of the educated to help the educated achieve free and comprehensive development. The learning mode of the educated naturally shifts from disembodiment to embodiment. At the same time, breaking the programming not only means recognising the subjectivity of the educated, but also implies that the educator is a guiding role rather than a dictatorial role, and grows together in the two-way interaction of the dual subject [29].

The second is the transformation of external learning space shaping and educational tools. The transformation of classrooms, libraries, study rooms, dining halls, dormitories and other learning and living scenarios greatly enhances the convenience of knowledge dissemination and value leadership, such as the library’s virtual study room and virtual companion not only satisfy the physical space to shape the learning atmosphere, but also satisfy the learner’s desire for empathetic relationships [30]. Tool changes such as upgrading the smart classroom to a holographic classroom, vision pro and other wearable devices to match the virtual simulation project, help ideological and political education work in the era of spatial computing to keep the right and innovation.

4.2. Individuality and Commonality Collide

The development paradigm of ideological and political education is changing towards technological transformation and modelling, and technology-enabled ideological and political education has become a new focus of attention. Among them, the most dazzling research and practice trend is precision ideological and political education [31]. The research perspectives of precision ideology and politics include the supply side, threshold theory analysis, students’ portrait, demand picture, platform construction, etc. The core issue running through it is the question of how to fit the nurturing space with individual subjects, i.e., the formulation of precise programmes.

Ideological and political education should first follow the general law of educational activities and solve the common problems of ideological and political education, and then it can take into account the differences of regional ethnicity, disciplinary orientation, interests and hobbies, so as to achieve accurate ideological and political education [32]. The common problems faced by ideological and political education include political attributes, curriculum positioning, resource construction, teachers, teaching methods, and effect of educating people. These common problems define the boundaries of action and the direction for ideological and political education activities, and must be solved by all the main body of educating people.

In general, ideological and political education should play the functions of party governance, national governance and mastery of the masses, and the undertones of the educational space must be political attributes. To complete this serious political task, it is necessary to plan the mutual coupling between the various elements of the educating process with systematic thinking, and to form the educating synergy of the main body of education in the same direction and with the same counterparts, so as to help the educated to really learn and really understand and really believe and really use. One of the most central aspects of the ideological and political education, high target positioning to other elements of education put forward high requirements, the high level of resource construction, the high level of teachers, teaching methods, efficient, high-quality quality of the effect of educating people is indispensable. The barrel effect is formed between the elements, and the short board directly affects the degree of achievement of the overall goal of educating people, so the overall ecology of the educational space must ensure that there are no obvious weaknesses.

On the basis of the overall construction of the educational space, each educational subject takes appropriate measures to form a space for ideological and political education with its own characteristics, which are externally embodied in precise ideological education. The main consideration of ideological and political education in the new era is not the supply of basic resources, but to promote the high-quality development of ideological and political education on this basis, and to achieve more practical effect of educating people, so precision ideology is an inevitable trend at this level. Precision ideology focuses on the specific problems in the real life of individuals, and with the support of big data algorithms, integrates educational resources to form a personalised ideological education programme, in order to promote the individual’s freedom and comprehensiveness in the process of their own development and social integration.

Precise ideological and political education focuses on the spiritual needs of the educated, and as there are many differences in the needs of each individual, precise analysis and identification of needs become the prerequisite for all actions. Digitalisation can become the basis for scientific decision-making, the guarantee of value realisation, the foundation for means innovation, and the wire for structural change, making it possible to promote the realisation of personalised ideological and political education based on a large amount of non-precise data analysis. Starting from the existing data and resources, with the help of computer simulation and digital algorithms, we can construct an in-depth portrait of the educated with a visual, three-dimensional, and holistic vision, and then form a personalised education programme. Digital capability is the key to the feasibility demonstration of the programme, which is based on the “core content of ideological and political education, the whole chain of data storage ...... through the construction of data models, demonstration of different situations, knowledge mapping,” etc., to comprehensively assess the operation of the various links of the precise ideological and political education. Possibilities. The fine degree of programme implementation reflects the cognitive level of the educational subject, while the effectiveness assessment and dynamic adjustment of the programme reflects the execution ability of the educational subject. Presenting the prevailing trend in the internal government of universities since the end of the last century, characterized by the strengthening of executive authorities in the central countries,the trend toward greater administrative power is conducive to unified action by colleges and universities and more efficient program operations [33].

Through the combination of big models and small data, Civic Education reshapes the perceptual environment and achieves a good interaction between individual needs and common development. The distinctive programmes formed by different nurturing subjects have in turn provided strong support for the country to further promote the rapid development of accurate Civic and Political Education.

4.3. Integration of Unity and Diversity

As a member of a collective, any activity carried out by an individual is accomplished in the midst of multiple tensions and under the coercion of social waves. Ideological and political education has broken through the limitations of purely theoretical guidance in the classroom, realised the rapid expansion of space boundaries, and developed rapidly in the direction of the integration of large, medium and small, the integration of the university and master’s and doctoral programmes, and the direction of the “Great Ideological and Political Class”. This transformation is required by the times, the new era of ideological and political education must enhance the practical interpretation power, in order to solve the previous ideological and political education and social life continuity is not close enough and other problems. In particular, against the background of experiencing major socio-political transformations, such as the realities of Hong Kong society, the education sector is called upon to respond immediately and quickly to explain the reasons for the rapid changes at the present time, and to educate students to be able to look at such phenomena in a correct manner [34]. However, no matter how it is transformed, colleges and universities are still the base of ideological and political education, because Chinese colleges and universities are socialist colleges and universities that are rooted in the land of China to cultivate human beings.

On the basis of the university, the goal is to enhance integration with multiple subjects, with a view to improving the practicality, embodiment and empathy of ideological and political education. Colleges and universities are one body, and the multiple bodies are primary and secondary schools, enterprises and public welfare organisations, etc., so as to play a role in educating people through social participation [35]. But the use of social forces to consider the integration of the way and rational boundaries of the problem, “does not mean that the ‘holographic’, ‘dead-end’ to incorporate all the social elements to ignore the unnecessary risks that may be brought. In order to form a good parenting effectiveness, it is necessary for colleges and universities to fully consider the objectives, principles, and paths of integration of one and multiple.

From the viewpoint of the goal of educating people, all integrated and diversified interactions should be guided by the core purpose of ideological and political education. In the new historical convergence period, the Chinese nation is moving from self-consciousness to great rejuvenation, and the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is becoming a reality in the renewal of young people in the generation, the party and the country need to listen to the party, follow the party, and be able to take on the heavy responsibility of national rejuvenation, and be able to complete the two centuries of greatness of the young people of the times. The co-operation of multiple subjects is essentially to provide ideological and political education resources to support the Party and the country, and to contribute with the ideological and political education materials in its possession.

From the viewpoint of construction principles, the strong leadership of the Party is the first and basic principle, while also insisting on openness, differentiation and future-oriented. Party leadership is the fundamental lifeblood of ideological and political work, which ensures that the work is stable and far-reaching, keeps the right and innovative, and goes right and does not deviate. Openness means opening the door to do ideology and politics, expanding the social coverage of the ideology and politics classroom, and optimising the educating team, educating carriers, teaching resources, and teaching evaluation with a holistic mindset. Differentiation is the ability of colleges and universities to base on their own actual needs and use social resources, and to carry out diverse cooperation with different degrees, timing and rhythm, so as to avoid the duplication of homogeneous resource construction. Future-oriented, that is, developmental, integration should not only focus on the current needs, but also take into account the fact that the young students being trained now are the backbone of achieving the second centennial goal, and the results of the cooperation should be able to play an effective role over a long period of time.

From the perspective of the participation path, the multiple subjects can be divided into content-producing, mechanism-building and technology-enabling types. As the name suggests, the content-producing type has rich resources or materials containing a large number of elements of ideological education, assisting colleges and universities to promote supply-side reforms, and jointly forming high-quality nurturing resources, such as the National Unity and Progress Pavilion and the former site of the Revolutionary Conference. Mechanism construction type is to accumulate certain experience in this field and form a systematic institutional mechanism, to assist colleges and universities to establish their own long-term working mechanism, this kind of main body can be the first to achieve the results of the construction of colleges and universities or management consulting organisations and so on. The technology-enabling type is to use modern information technology to promote the digitalisation of education, assist colleges and universities in transforming social resources into high-quality parenting resources, enhance the attractiveness, affinity, precision and interactivity of parenting work, and create a digital education ecosystem, such as the National Intelligent Education Public Service Platform and the Educational Pendant Big Model.Educational service enterprises have developed very mature, can provide a more detailed classification of business, and in the research and development and application of new technologies are often earlier than the universities, which is very favorable for colleges and universities to improve the quality of teaching [36].

No matter what type of subjects and in what form they participate in ideological and political work, it is all to adapt to the development needs of the new situation, all for the overall goal of establishing morality and educating people, and all for the purpose of realising the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The spatial shift of ideological and political education will inevitably promote a new round of changes in the ideological and political work, such as the nurturing scene, narrative mode, interactive platform, and the creation of an atmosphere, so as to co-ordinate all kinds of elements of change by systematic thinking and bring into full play the powerful force of the space of ideological and political education.

5. Conclusions

The following conclusion can be drawn from the above analysis: the Chinese educational community attaches full importance to worldview education, partly because of the special status of Marxism and partly because of the political system. Contemporary Chinese ideological education is more and more emphasizing its independence, and the spatial turn is the most realistic sign, and it can be predicted that Chinese higher education will attach great importance to the spatial issue for quite some time in the future, and it will gradually increase the proportion of students’ participation in teaching and learning activities.