The Logic and Mechanism of Integrating Revolutionary Cultural Relics into the Construction of the “Grand Ideological and Political Course”

During the 2021 National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference sessions, when visiting members of the medical, health, and education sectors attending the Fourth Session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that “the ‘grand ideological and political course’ [‘大思政课’] must be used well and must be combined with reality,” emphasizing the basic principles and direction for constructing the “grand ideological and political course.” Revolutionary cultural relics are important material carriers of the heroic struggle process and revolutionary spirit of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and are rare high-quality resources for constructing the “grand ideological and political course.” At the levels of top-level design and practice, the integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” has achieved initial results. Strengthening theoretical research on the integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course,” exploring the logic and mechanism of this integration, and meeting the practical needs of this integration are important issues that urgently need to be addressed at present.

I. The Foundation for Integrating Revolutionary Cultural Relics into the Construction of the “Grand Ideological and Political Course”

“Revolutionary cultural relics carry the glorious history of the heroic struggle of the Party and the people, record the great course and touching deeds of the Chinese revolution, are precious assets of the Party and the state, and are vivid teaching materials for promoting revolutionary traditions and revolutionary culture, strengthening the construction of socialist cultural-ethical progress, stimulating patriotic enthusiasm, and inspiring the national spirit.” They possess unique and profound educational value, and integrating revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” is an effective path to realize this educational value.

First, revolutionary cultural relics carry revolutionary history and manifest the revolutionary spirit, enriching the content of ideological and political education. Revolutionary cultural relics are concrete representations of revolutionary history, vividly and truthfully recording the magnificent history of the heroic struggle of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. The integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” provides ideological and political education with vivid educational resources such as Party history knowledge, Party history stories, and Party history theories, helping students learn historical knowledge, clarify historical threads, and grasp historical laws, thereby improving educational effectiveness. Revolutionary cultural relics effectively manifest the great spiritual power contained within revolutionary history, carrying the original aspiration and founding mission of the Chinese Communists, and centrally embodying the Party’s nature, purpose, character, and temperament. The integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” provides ideological and political education with fresh spiritual guidance, guiding students to transform from “emotional loss” to “emotional presence” and to sublimate from “factual identification” to “emotional identification.” Second, the integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” is an effective way to combine the small classroom of ideological and political courses with the big classroom of society, greatly expanding the field of ideological and political education. The field is a prerequisite for carrying out ideological and political education. Cohering the forces of the field is both an inherent requirement for meeting the needs of students’ growth and development in the New Era and an inevitable choice for promoting the integrity and innovation of ideological and political education. The integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” expands the social field of ideological and political education, provides platform support and resource guarantees for ideological and political education, effectively realizes spatial linkage between inside and outside the school, between the physical and the psychological, and between online and offline, coheres the spatial educational forces, and enhances the effectiveness of constructing the “grand ideological and political course.” At the same time, the integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” is an effective practice for enriching the methods of ideological and political education, making ideological and political education no longer a “lifeless, dry” theoretical sermon delivered by reading documents. By deeply excavating the historical events, character stories, and revolutionary spirit behind revolutionary cultural relics, creating touching stories with warmth and depth, and embedding the principles of ideological and political courses within these stories, this method of using objects to verify history and using events to move people can effectively enhance the appeal and affinity of ideological and political courses. Third, the integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” brings opportunities for the development of inter-subjective ideological and political education, realizing a two-way educational effect. Currently, the interactivity, communicativeness, equality, and democratic nature of the subject-object relationship in ideological and political education increasingly affect the effectiveness of ideological and political education. Inter-subjective ideological and political education increasingly emphasizes the collision of ideas between educators and the educated in equal interaction, understanding, and dialogue. The integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” can form an educational field of two-way interaction and joint exploration, thereby effectively shaping the dual-subject consciousness of educators and the educated, enabling teachers and students to jointly explore the historical truth, spiritual connotation, and contemporary value of revolutionary cultural relics with a strong subjective consciousness, achieving the unity of resource integration, emotional interaction, and spiritual inheritance in the educational process, and thereby realizing the dual shaping of the subjectivity of both teachers and students.

II. Principles for Integrating Revolutionary Cultural Relics into the Construction of the “Grand Ideological and Political Course”

The integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” involves six elements: subject, object, purpose, content, method, and context. The smooth operation of each element internally, between elements, and of the entire construction system is the key to construction. The integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” must follow the following principles.

1. Collaborative Co-education: Leveraging the Synergistic Educational Force of Subjects. The integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” involves multiple subjects, including schools, revolutionary cultural relic management departments, education departments, teacher groups, student groups, social organizations, and media platforms, facing the complex challenge of balancing power distribution and discourse rights among participating subjects. In establishing key links such as construction goals, content planning, teaching methods, and resource allocation for integrating revolutionary cultural relics into the “grand ideological and political course,” these subjects may hold different positions and interest demands. Therefore, to promote the integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course,” the principle of collaborative co-education should be upheld, effectively integrating construction subjects and related resource elements onto the “education” [“育”], transforming “social subjects” into “curriculum subjects,” improving the collaborative co-education mechanism, and maximizing the effect of synergistic education. Ideological and political courses and resources related to revolutionary cultural relics form a “demand-supply” relationship, with the realization of the purpose of ideological and political courses as the goal and the provision of revolutionary cultural relic resources as the condition. Under the principle of collaborative co-education, relevant subjects realize two-way active construction around the “demand-supply” relationship, rationally incorporating revolutionary cultural relic resources into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course,” achieving a win-win situation for education and the protection and inheritance of revolutionary cultural relics.

2. Teaching Students According to Their Aptitude: Grasping the Cognitive Characteristics of the Objects. The integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” requires formulating personalized construction plans for different educated groups in universities, middle schools, and primary schools. By coordinating and designing the construction of ideological and political courses across different educational stages—primary school, middle school, and university—a three-dimensional, synergistic “grand ideological and political course” system that is internally unified, horizontally consistent, and vertically connected can be constructed. The primary school stage focuses on enlightening moral emotions, stimulating students’ interest in revolutionary history and patriotic feelings; the middle school stage focuses on laying a solid ideological foundation, deepening students’ knowledge learning of revolutionary history, and cultivating students’ historical responsibility and sense of mission; the university stage focuses on cultivating ideals and beliefs, realizing the transformation from theoretical cognition to belief generation, and cultivating students’ social responsibility and feelings for the family and country; the graduate stage focuses on enhancing mission and responsibility, cultivating students to strengthen the promotion, interpretation, and research exploration of revolutionary cultural relic resources. On the basis of sharing and optimally allocating revolutionary cultural relic resources, achieving prominent focuses and organic connections in ideological and political education across different educational stages, transforming and constructing revolutionary cultural relic resources according to teaching logic and curriculum logic, and intervening in a timely, orderly, scientific, and reasonable manner in all links such as curriculum organization, implementation, teaching, and evaluation, can effectively promote the high-quality development of the construction of the “grand ideological and political course.”

3. Fostering virtue and nurturing talent: firmly grasping the ideological and political attribute of the objective. The integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of "grand ideological and political courses" follows the characteristic requirement of "grandness," but the focus and foundation remain the "course," and the objective is to achieve "nurturing people," that is, to implement the fundamental task of fostering virtue and nurturing talent. "The educational process of 'grand ideological and political courses' is also a practical activity centered around 'fostering virtue and nurturing talent,' extending the scope of practice from classroom learning to social learning, making social life a practical field for cultivating new people of the era, and making the content and process of nurturing people more infectious, comprehensive, and contemporary." [7]7 Original source: "The educational process of 'grand ideological and political courses' is also a practical activity centered around 'fostering virtue and nurturing talent'..." This is a quotation from a Chinese scholarly work on ideological and political education. Therefore, the focal point, emphasis, and key point of integrating revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of "grand ideological and political courses" still lie in the construction of ideological and political courses themselves. In realizing the task of fostering virtue and nurturing talent, all participating subjects should closely adhere to the requirements of ideological and political course construction, transform and construct revolutionary cultural relic resources in accordance with teaching logic and curriculum logic, intervene in a timely, orderly, scientific, and reasonable manner in all aspects such as course organization, implementation, teaching, and evaluation, firmly grasp the fundamental task of "fostering virtue and nurturing talent," enrich and supplement ideological and political course teaching resources with revolutionary cultural relics, broaden the coverage of ideological and political courses, extend the nurturing space of ideological and political courses, and construct an expansive nurturing pattern.

4. Adapting measures to local conditions: aligning the nurturing potential of the content. According to statistics, China has registered 36,000 immovable revolutionary cultural relics, over 1 million (sets of) state-owned movable revolutionary cultural relics, and more than 1,600 revolutionary museums and memorial halls. [8]8 These figures are from official Chinese government statistics on cultural heritage, typically cited from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. Overall, revolutionary cultural relics exhibit conditions such as rich and diverse content, uneven and dispersed regional distribution, and unbalanced levels of exhibition and utilization. This requires that when integrating revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of "grand ideological and political courses," we must avoid standardization and homogenization, and instead adhere to the principle of adapting measures to local conditions, formulating targeted strategies based on the characteristics of different regions. First, systematic and continuous research should be conducted around revolutionary cultural relics, especially investigating and excavating the ideological and political elements within revolutionary cultural relics from an educational perspective, to lay a solid foundation for carrying out the integration work. Second, targeted strategies should be formulated for specific situations; this is a necessary condition for enhancing the effectiveness of the integration work. The integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of "grand ideological and political courses" involves integration into ideological and political courses and curriculum-based ideological and political education in universities, middle schools, and primary schools, integration into social practice activities, integration into campus culture construction, and integration into online ideological and political education. Targeted strategies should be used to enhance the effectiveness of integration.

3. Fostering virtue and nurturing talent: firmly grasping the ideological and political attribute of the purpose. The integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” follows the characteristic requirement of “grandness,” but the focus and foundation remain the “course,” and the purpose is to achieve “educating people,” that is, to implement the fundamental task of fostering virtue and nurturing talent. “‘The educational process of the ‘grand ideological and political course’ is also a practical activity centered on ‘fostering virtue and nurturing talent,’ extending the scope of practice from classroom learning to social learning, making social life a practical field for cultivating new persons of the era, and making the content and process of education more infectious, comprehensive, and contemporary.” Therefore, the focal point, emphasis, and key point of integrating revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” still lie in the construction of the ideological and political course itself, and in realizing the task of fostering virtue and nurturing talent. All participating subjects should closely adhere to the requirements of ideological and political course construction, transform and construct revolutionary cultural relic resources in accordance with teaching logic and curriculum logic, intervene in a timely, orderly, scientific, and reasonable manner in all links such as course organization, implementation, teaching, and evaluation, firmly grasp the fundamental task of “fostering virtue and nurturing talent,” enrich and supplement ideological and political course teaching resources with revolutionary cultural relics, broaden the coverage of ideological and political courses, extend the educational space of ideological and political courses, and construct a broad educational pattern.

4. Adapting measures to local conditions: tapping the educational potential of the content. According to statistics, China has registered 36,000 immovable revolutionary cultural relics, over 1 million pieces (sets) of state-owned movable revolutionary cultural relics, and more than 1,600 revolutionary museums and memorial halls. Overall, revolutionary cultural relics exhibit conditions such as rich and diverse content, uneven regional distribution, and unbalanced levels of exhibition and utilization. This requires that when integrating revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course,” we must avoid standardization and simplification, and instead adhere to the principle of adapting measures to local conditions, formulating targeted strategies based on the characteristics of different regions. First, systematic and continuous research should be conducted around revolutionary cultural relics, especially investigating and excavating the ideological and political elements in revolutionary cultural relics from an educational perspective, to lay a solid foundation for carrying out integration work. Second, targeted strategies should be formulated for specific situations; this is a necessary condition for enhancing the effectiveness of integration work. The integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” involves integration into ideological and political courses and curriculum-based ideological and political education at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels, integration into social practice activities, integration into campus culture construction, and integration into online ideological and political education. Targeted strategies should be used to enhance the effectiveness of integration.

5. Advancing with the times: upgrading and innovating methods. The integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” should adhere to the principle of advancing with the times, seize the opportunities of the era, utilize advanced technology, innovate educational methods and approaches, forge ahead with determination, and seek development. On the one hand, construction models should be innovated, making full use of digital technology to meet the development requirements of the New Era. The rapid development of digital technology has created a new situation for the protection, collection, display, and dissemination of revolutionary cultural relics, not only allowing revolutionary cultural relics to break through the limitations of time and space and achieve widespread dissemination across regions, but also making the audience’s understanding and perception of revolutionary history and revolutionary spirit more vivid and intuitive. Therefore, promoting the integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” through digital technology is a general trend conforming to the times. On the other hand, educational methods should be innovated to align with the psychological and cognitive characteristics of contemporary students, in order to improve the pertinence and appeal of the “grand ideological and political course.” Contemporary students live in an era of information explosion, accustomed to quickly obtaining information and preferring intuitive and vivid modes of expression. For this reason, teachers can use vivid methods to present revolutionary cultural relics, enhancing the pertinence and appeal of understanding revolutionary cultural relics and perceiving the revolutionary spirit.

6. Guiding according to circumstances: leveraging the infectious role of the situation. The integration of revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” requires constructing an educational situation with immersion, interactivity, and infectiousness, to stimulate, guide, and optimize students’ emotions, cognition, and behavior. The educational situation for integrating revolutionary cultural relics into the construction of the “grand ideological and political course” is rich and diverse. It can not only provide students with vivid and intuitive historical teaching materials but also create immersive educational experiences and foster a revolutionary cultural atmosphere. In the process of constructing the “grand ideological and political course,” the constructed situation should have immersion, enabling revolutionary cultural relics to be presented vividly and intuitively through panoramic, three-dimensional, and visual means, so that those immersed in it naturally generate meaning connections and shared experiences; it should have interactivity, enabling deep interactive communication between the educational subject, the educational object, and the educational situation, thereby strengthening the sense of experience, activating interest, and consolidating the sense of gain; it should have infectiousness. Revolutionary cultural relics are cultural symbols carrying historical memory and value concepts. Through their symbolic function, they can enhance the infectiousness of the educational situation, awaken emotional resonance, and consolidate emotional energy.

III. The Mechanism of Integrating Revolutionary Cultural Relics into the Construction of the “Grand Ideological and Political Course”

There are two forms and paths for integrating revolutionary cultural relics into the “grand ideological and political course”: revolutionary cultural relics entering the ideological and political course and revolutionary cultural relics being transformed into the ideological and political course. These two forms have different implementation emphases and requirements, and corresponding mechanisms need to be constructed.

1. The screening mechanism and embedding mechanism for revolutionary cultural relics entering the ideological and political course. The construction of the “grand ideological and political course” in this form is built upon the basic framework of the ideological and political course, with the small ideological and political classroom as the main space, ideological and political course teachers as the leading force, and the indirect presentation of revolutionary cultural relics as a characteristic. The classroom is the main space for interaction between teachers and students, an important window for students to learn knowledge, perceive culture, and cultivate spirit; ideological and political course teachers are the organizers and implementers of the ideological and political course, playing an indispensable leading role in the construction of the “grand ideological and political course.” In the process of organization and implementation, ideological and political course teachers undertake the important function of analyzing, narrating, transforming, and integrating revolutionary cultural relics. The indirect presentation of revolutionary cultural relics can be achieved through the “secondary narration” of ideological and political course teachers or revolutionary cultural relic researchers, museum docents, etc., or through the form of thematic activities such as simulating historical scenes, conducting themed speeches, recitations, and situational dramas.

2. The synergistic mechanism and transformation mechanism of revolutionary cultural relics into the ideological and political course. The construction of the "grand ideological and political course" in this modality is built upon the "great classroom of society," taking revolutionary cultural relic venues as the main space, with the educational community as the leading force, and characterized by the direct presentation of revolutionary cultural relics. Through modules such as on-site visits, red study tours [10]10 Red study tours (红色研学): Educational travel programs organized by Chinese schools or Party-affiliated institutions that take students to revolutionary sites, memorial halls, and historical bases to study the history of the Chinese Communist Party's revolutionary struggle., and practical investigations, schools transform revolutionary cultural relic venues into vivid and lively ideological and political courses, developing "ideological and political courses in memorial halls," "walking ideological and political courses," and "ideological and political courses along themed routes of revolutionary cultural relics." Revolutionary cultural relic venues directly convey revolutionary culture and revolutionary stories, creating an educational context with a sense of immersion and infection, prompting students to directly receive and comprehend the spiritual values contained in revolutionary cultural relics, arousing students' emotional resonance, and generating spiritual strength. In revolutionary cultural relic venues, ideological and political course teachers are not the sole dominant role; the presented revolutionary cultural relics and scenes, docents, venue staff, volunteers, other visitors, etc., all remain present as educational subjects, forming an educational community of mutual learning and integration, thereby enhancing the richness and credibility of ideological and political education.

The implementation of this modality requires the construction of corresponding coordination mechanisms and transformation mechanisms. The coordination mechanism demands that all parties in the revolutionary cultural relics venues coordinate and interact, forming a multi-subject overall coordination and effective integration of relevant resources into the educational form. For revolutionary cultural relics to be transformed into ideological and political courses, it is necessary to effectively integrate various subjects and resources from both inside and outside the school, online and offline, to participate jointly. This is achieved by building museum-school cooperation platforms, aggregating the linkage forces of multiple educational subjects, innovating teaching methods and approaches, and strengthening resource integration and sharing, thereby promoting the transformation of revolutionary cultural relics venues into teaching fields for ideological and political courses. The transformation mechanism requires that revolutionary cultural relics venues, as social spaces, be transformed into classrooms, and the social subjects within them be transformed into course subjects. This means that revolutionary cultural relics venues are no longer merely static exhibition spaces but become vivid, interactive learning environments, in which each social role bears the responsibility of educating and guiding students, jointly participating in the construction of the classroom. Therefore, the transformation mechanism must be based on educational principles, follow the objective laws of educational development, and carry out effective transformation, orderly integration, and scientific planning around the goal of educating people, so as to realize the value pursuit of the construction of the “grand ideological and political course.”

At the same time, the coordination mechanism and the transformation mechanism are mutually complementary and mutually reinforcing. First, the coordination mechanism is a prerequisite for the transformation mechanism; only when various subjects and resources are coordinated and integrated can the transformation of revolutionary cultural relics into ideological and political courses become possible. The transformation mechanism, in turn, is the subsequent extension of the coordination mechanism; through the transformation mechanism, the subjects and resources that have been coordinated and integrated can be effectively utilized, dedicated to the construction of the “grand ideological and political course.” Second, there is also a relationship of feedback and adjustment between the coordination mechanism and the transformation mechanism. Through the implementation of the transformation mechanism, problems and deficiencies that may exist in the coordination process of various subjects and resources from inside and outside the school, online and offline, can be discovered, thereby timely adjusting coordination strategies and promoting the orderly development of the coordination mechanism. At the same time, through the optimization of the coordination mechanism, the effect and influence of the transformation mechanism can also be enhanced, improving the effectiveness of classroom teaching.

(The author is an assistant researcher at the School of Marxism (Weihai), Shandong University, and a researcher at the National Revolutionary Cultural Relics Collaborative Research Center of Shandong University.)

Online editor: Ma Jingren