The Aesthetic Dimension of the Civic and Citizenship Education (Journal of Educational Studies; Vol. 12, No. 1)

Civic emotion is an important part of citizenship. However, the contemporarily research and practice of the civic and citizenship education pay less attention to emotional issues. This defect in the civic quality and the civic and citizenship education weakens the enthusiasm of civic participation and the common feelings among citizens. Emphasis on emotional education highlights the aesthetic factors of the civic and citizenship education. Citizen’ emotions are first represented as the emotional identification to public affairs or public things, such as national identity; the way to cultivate citizen’s emotional identity not only can be through the aesthetic experience of national culture but also the emotional connection among citizens in the practice participation. Citizen’s emotions are also manifested as an emotional critique of public affairs or public things. The way to cultivate the citizen’s emotional criticism is mainly to cultivate citizen’s ability of aesthetic criticism based on aesthetic justice.