What can I hear from silence? A philosophical exploration of China’s ideological and political education in the higher education system
Date
2026
Authors
Huang, Yuan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Since 2020, Ideological and Political Education (IPE) has been intensified across Mainland China ’s higher education system, extending ideological governance and political value alignment across classrooms in all subjects and into teachers’ professional conduct. This thesis examines the meaning of silence in educational contexts, asking how teacher silence functions between compliance and resistance under intensified IPE governance. Drawing on Foucault’s concepts of discipline, governmentality, and subject formation, it analyzes silence as shaped by sovereign power (policies, warnings, sanctions) and productive power (surveillance routines, normalization, and self-regulation). Within this governance environment, monitoring, inspection, and evaluative mechanisms increase professional risk and encourage anticipatory self-regulation. Methodologically, the study combines philosophical inquiry with storytelling and abductive interpretation to analyze narrative scenes alongside policy texts and publicly documented disciplinary cases in this context. It argues that silence is not absence but a practice that appears in disciplinary, strategic, and ethical forms through which educators negotiate value conflict, risk, responsibility, and care. Under intensified IPE governance, silence becomes a key site through which teachers anticipate limits, regulate affect, and exercise professional judgment within politically constrained educational settings.
Description
Keywords
Teacher silence, Ideological and political education (IPE), Governmentality, Storytelling, China higher education