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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 9, No. 8
Publication Date: August 25, 2022
DOI:10.14738/assrj.98.12926. Liu, W., & He, C. (2022). Visual Analysis of Chinese Research Teams in Curriculum-based Ideological and Political Education (2014-
2021). Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(8). 395-404.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Visual Analysis of Chinese Research Teams in Curriculum-based
Ideological and Political Education (2014-2021)
Wei Liu
Logistics Group, China University of Geosciences (Beijing)
Beijing, P.R. China
Chunyan He
School of Foreign Languages
China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing, P.R. China
ABSTRACT
Recent years, research on curriculum-based ideological and political education is
one of hotspots in the field of higher education in China. Based on relevant literature
of China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), research field, cooperative
relationship between authors and research teams, years of publication and
research interests of scholars of 429 papers from 2014 to 2021 on curriculum- based ideological and political education have been analyzed visually with the help
of CiteSpace and traditional quantitative research methods. The study has found
that research of curriculum-based ideological and political education in China is
currently in its growth spurt. However, from research results, the number of
publication and cooperation of teams are still in infancy with more potentials in the
future.
Keywords: curriculum-based ideological and political education; CiteSpace; research
team; visual analysis.
INTRODUCTION
Curriculum-based ideological and political education is highly related to the fundamental task
of what kind of talents colleges and universities cultivate, how to cultivate them, and for whom
to cultivate them [1]. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, CPC
General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly proposed the fundamental task of "morality
education" and raised it to the national level in the reform of college education [2]. At the
National Conference on curriculum-based ideological and political education in December
2016, Xi emphasized that "through making full use of teaching in the classroom as the main
method, curriculum-based ideological and political education should insist on both
consolidation and improvement in order to enhance its appetency and pertinence and to meet
the growth students. According to their expectations, all other courses must guard their own
fields, thus various courses and ideological and political education can share the same-direction
advance so as to form a synergistic effect”. [1] It has solved the disconnection between teaching
and education in higher education and started ideological and political courses nationwide. In
October 2018, the Ministry of Education issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction
of High-level Undergraduate Education to Comprehensively Improve the Cultivation of
Talents", which laid the foundation for the development of curriculum ideological and political
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education. In June 2020, the Ministry of Education also issued the "Guidelines for the
curriculum-based Ideological and Political Education", and thus its construction has entered
the stage of promotion and implementation.
The promulgation and implementation of curriculum-based ideological and political policies
have not only aroused heated discussions in the society, but also aroused widespread concern
in the academic circles, which has become a hot topic in the study of reform in higher education
in the new era. Therefore, who are the high-yield authors and their institutions in this field?
Recent years, most literature has focused on the trend and hotspot of curriculum-based
ideological and political education. However, they haven’t made a detailed analysis of the
research teams and institutions.
The literature from CNKI database in this paper are set from January 1, 2014 to July 30, 2021,
because 2014 is the first year of curriculum-based ideological and political education. Based on
bibliometric method and co-occurrence analysis method, research field, cooperative
relationship between authors and research teams, years of publication and research direction
of scholars of 429 papers from 2014 to 2021 on curriculum-based ideological and political
education have been analyzed visually with the help of CiteSpace and traditional quantitative
research methods. According to the data, drawing a knowledge map to clarify the schools of
curriculum-based ideological and political research in China, the author has sorted out and
analyzed the development of curriculum-based ideological and political policies. Therefore, it
also provides objective and accurate reference for the construction and development of
research teams in this field and for further policies in promoting the reform of curriculum- based ideological and political education.
DATA SOURCES AND RESEARCH METHODS
This paper selected the sub-database of academic journals of China National Knowledge
Infrastructure (CNKI), set "curriculum-based ideological and political education" and "colleges
and universities" as the subject headings, ranged from 2014 to 2021, and the locked literature
source categories were Peking University core periodical catalogue, CSSCI journals and CSCD
journals. After retrieval and manual screening, non-academic journal papers such as book
reviews, interview transcripts, meeting minutes, call for papers, and journal introductions were
excluded, and eventually 429 papers were refined (as of July 30, 2021).
Co-occurrence analysis method uses a software to analyze co-occurrence information
quantitatively among various information so as to explore the relationship between research
objects and reveal the structural evolution of a certain field, mainly including analyzing the
cooperation between authors and their institutions, understanding the research hotspots,
changes of topic structure and trends through keywords, which is suitable for the trend of
emerging research fields [4]. Based on this method, CiteSpace5.8.R1 by Dr. Chen Chaomei of
Drexel University in the United States was finally selected in order to explore the curriculum- based ideological and political education teams in China through comparative analysis of the
advantages and characteristics of various scientific tools. Its mapping knowledge domains
(MKD) are based on the knowledge by "snapping" the scientific knowledge in a certain field
[5,6], and concatenating the pictures to form a panorama of information. This is used to identify
key literature, hotspots and frontier directions of curriculum-based ideological and political
education [7].
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Liu, W., & He, C. (2022). Visual Analysis of Chinese Research Teams in Curriculum-based Ideological and Political Education (2014-2021). Advances
in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(8). 395-404.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.98.12926
The refined 429 literature data were converted and imported into CiteSpace 5.8.R to generate
a visual map of authors (Author) and collaborating groups, so as to realize the network analysis
of cooperation. Through statistical analysis and map interpretation, this paper mainly answers
the following two questions:
(1) What is the current situation and trend of the publication of literature in curriculum-based
ideological and political education in China and how to position its development?
(2) What is the cooperation between the core teams and institutions of curriculum-based
ideological and political education in China?
Analysis of Literature in Curriculum-based Ideological and Political Education
Time of Publication and Distribution of Research Fields
As the endogenous force of the research, the authors and their institutions are of great
significance to the development and evolution of a certain discipline [8]. The temporal
distribution of publications is helpful to evaluate the past and present stages and to predict its
future development trend [9]. According to the data, the number of annual publications in
curriculum-based ideological and political education in China from 2014 to 2021 is
demonstrated in Figure 1 with a wave-like growth. As academic research can be regarded as an
industry, industrial life cycle theory in industrial economics is used to divide the diachronic
development of academic research into four stages, including formation, growth, maturity, and
downturn, whose inflection point is the demarcation point of the life cycle [10,11]. Since the
curriculum-based ideological and political education in China is only 7.5 years, according to the
linear trend in Figure 1, the research has only developed to the second stage (growth stage), so
the formation period of the first stage is further divided into budding period and low-speed
developing period. Accordingly, the development of curriculum-based ideological and political
education in China from 2014 to 2021 can be divided into three stages: the budding stage
(2014-2016), the low-speed developing stage (2017-2018), and the growth stage (2019-2021).
The budding period is the initial stage when the paper is quite little. There are only 17 papers
in three years and the number of published papers is not stable, thus it belongs to the
exploration stage. The number of papers during the low-speed developing period grows slowly,
but the average annual number of papers is still limited, which can be seen the initial stage.
From the entire period, the curve is convex to the horizontal axis which demonstrates a slow
rate of growth, a short duration and a small number of papers. According to the meetings and
policies in curriculum-based ideological and political education of Table 1, this is the stage of
formation and development. It was not until the second half of 2018 that curriculum-based
ideological and political education was basically formed and upgraded to a high level, which
laid the theoretical and policy foundation for its comprehensive development. An academic
paper needs a mature theoretical basis, therefore, before the formation of theoretical
framework, the output of high-quality academic papers is not quite large, which explains the
reason why the total number of papers published during the formation period is small.
According to the characteristics of the growth period, it can be judged that it is currently at the
explosive growth period. Since 2019, the rate of growth has increased rapidly, and by 2020, the
first leap in the number of papers (147 papers) has been achieved, which is known as the "Year
of Curriculum-based Ideological and Political Education" [12]. The policy shows the all-round
guidance of the Ministry of Education on curriculum-based ideological and political education
in China. However, from the perspective of the entire growth period, it has not yet reached its
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peak. As the data in 2021 is affected by the date of collection, the papers selected in this paper
are from January 1st to July 30th (the specific date of collection). According to the exponential
trend line (R2 close to 1 indicates a good fit), the growth rate and magnitude continue to
increase, indicating that the number is increasing year by year. It is expected that the number
of literatures will exceed 200 in 2021, achieving a new high. This stage is the most critical period
for the prosperity. With the continuous improvement of the theoretical framework and the
completion of the first stage, curriculum-based ideological and political education has entered
the stage of practice under the guidance of a mature theoretical framework from the stage of
exploration. It is the foundation stage for the in-depth development of the research in this field,
and the growth rate and total number of papers in this stage are surging. The author predicts
that the literature will rapidly reach a new peak in the next few years, and then the growth rate
will slow down and develop steadily to the third stage (mature stage). Before the arrival of the
third stage, research in this field needs to make breakthroughs and innovations in some
practical directions, or to combine with other disciplines, promoting the further improvement
and maturity of curriculum-based ideological and political education.
Figure 1. Trend of the annual number of papers in curriculum-based ideological and political
education in China (2014-2021)
y = 2.0067e0.5909x
R2 = 0.9853
0
50
100
150
200
250
2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Quantity of Papers
Year
Formation
Stage
Growth
Stage
Budding Stage
Low-speed
Developing Stage
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Liu, W., & He, C. (2022). Visual Analysis of Chinese Research Teams in Curriculum-based Ideological and Political Education (2014-2021). Advances
in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(8). 395-404.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.98.12926
Table 1. Sort and position of policies in the development stage of curriculum-based ideological
and political education in China
N
o. Meetings or Policies Time
Stage of Curriculum- based Ideological and
Political Education
Stage of
Literature
Research
1
Comprehensive Education
Reform Plan in Shanghai(2014-
2020)
Novembe
r, 2014 pilot
beginning
of the
theory
buddin
g stage
formatio
n period
2
National Conference of
Curriculum-based Ideological
and Political Education
Decembe
r, 2016
beginnin
g
developme
nt of the
theory
low- speed
develop
ing
stage
3
Opinions on the Improvement
Curriculum-based Ideological
and Political Education
Decembe
r, 2017
deepenin
g
4
The Year of Teaching Quality in
Curriculum-based Ideological
and Political Education in 2017
and Shanghai Research
Conference —— From
"Ideological and Political
Courses" to "Curriculum-based
Ideological and Political
Education"
June,
2017
5
Opinions on Deepening the
Reform of the Educational
System and Mechanism
Septemb
er, 2017
6
Implementation of Improving
the Quality of Curriculum- based Ideological and Political
Education
Decembe
r, 2017
7
National Conference on
Undergraduate Education of
Higher Education in the New
Era
June,
2018
8 National Education Conference
Septemb
er, 2018
formatio
n
9
Opinions on Accelerating the
Construction of High-level
Education and Improving the
Cultivation of All-round
Talents
October,
2018
institutio
nalizatio
n
10
Opinions on Deepening the
Reform and Innovation of
Ideological and Political
Courses in the New Era
August,
2019
planning
teaching
practice:
perpetrati
11 on growth stage
Opinions of the Ministry of
Education on Deepening the
Reform of College Education
and the Comprehensive
Improvement of Talents
October,
2019
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12
Guidelines for the Construction
of Curriculum-based
Ideological and Political
Education
June,
2020
beginnin
g
teaching
practice:
full
implement
ation
13
Online Conference of
Comprehensively Promotion in
Curriculum-based Ideological
and Political Education
June,
2020
impleme
ntation of
the first
14 stage
Conference on Promoting the
Reform of Curriculum-based
Ideological and Political
Education in Shanghai in 2020
Opinions on Further Promoting
Curriculum-based Ideological
and Political Education in
Shanghai
Septemb
er, 2020
15
Promotion of Ministry of
Education in Curriculum-based
Ideological and Political
Education
June,
2021
periodic
summary
Searching from CNKI, it has been found that 429 papers are mainly distributed in the fields of
higher education (90%), education theory and education management (3.5%), foreign
languages (2.6%) and (2.6%). The first paper on curriculum-based ideological and political
education of foreign languages and physical education is both published in 2019. It can be seen
that curriculum-based ideological and political education is still limited to the field of higher
education and that researchers in other disciplines have not paid much attention to it. At
present, only two major disciplines, including foreign language and physical education, first
focus on the practice of the ideological and political education. In addition, with the
development of the research in educational technology, online learning platforms such as
MOOCs, curriculum-based ideological and political education in the past five years have also
concerned the fields of educational theory and educational management, mainly researching
the teaching practice with blended teaching models, Internet +, flipped class model and new
media technology.
The core journals in this field are fingered out through analyzing their carriers, which provides
a basis for literature collection and management, and significant information of “the same
direction” [13]. According to CNKI, 429 papers came from 109 journals among which the high- quality journals (Peking University core, CSSCI journals and CSCD journals) only accounted for
10%. It demonstrates that the research on curriculum-based ideological and political education
is becoming more and more popular, but it is still in the infancy when there are a small number
of high-quality research results. Thus, the research on this filed has great potentials. Among
these high-quality journals, China Higher Education (13%), The Party Building and Ideological
Education in Schools (10%), Teaching Reference of Middle School Politics (9%) and Leading
Journal of Ideological & Theoretical Education (5%) contain the largest number of publications
on curriculum-based ideological and political education. Therefore, only higher education and
the theory and practice in ideological and political education are the most concerned categories
at present, but others pay less attention to this field, confirming its infancy similarly. In this
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Liu, W., & He, C. (2022). Visual Analysis of Chinese Research Teams in Curriculum-based Ideological and Political Education (2014-2021). Advances
in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(8). 395-404.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.98.12926
stage, the research perspective is quite single. In the future, curriculum-based ideological and
political education can be combined with other disciplines and chose a variety of research
perspectives to achieve interdisciplinary research. Moreover, some journals also could
encourage papers on this field through specific columns and other ways.
AUTHORS AND RESEARCH TEAMS
Authors and their institutions as the endogenous force are of great significance to the
development and evolution of curriculum-based ideological and political education [8].
Therefore, research on authors and teams which is helpful of the management and guidance in
their scientific activities promote the balanced and rapid development of curriculum-based
ideological and political education [8,14]. With the help of CiteSpace, this study pays attention
to the cooperation among authors of 429 papers and generate a knowledge map (Figure 2). The
graph shows 172 network nodes and 46 connecting lines, and the network density is only
0.0031. This simple and loose connection indicates that the degree of cooperation between
authors in this field is quite low. There are only 4 small-scale cooperative teams, including Gao
Deyi's team, Dong Cuixiang's team, Shen Yang's team and She Shuanghao's team. Among them,
the larger Dong Cuixiang’s team is composed of Fan Sanming, Li Mengxin, Zhu Chunshan, Ji Liu
and Gao Yanli. According to the number of papers, main members of these four teams publish
more than that of others, which also highlights the character of high output in groups. Taking
the number of papers by each author into consideration, Han Xianzhou from Capital University
of Economics and Business published most among 172 authors with a total of 4 papers.
However, Prof. Han has not yet cooperated with others. The proportion of authors with two or
more papers is only 14% through calculations. According to Lotka's Law, the proportion of
authors with more than one paper less than 40% means the immaturity of one certain field
[15]. Thus, curriculum-based ideological and political education is still in the early stage when
a certain academic team has not yet formed and the current research also lacks leading figures.
In addition, the distribution of research institutions reflects the loose cooperative relationship.
The study found that the institutions of high-yield authors are mainly concentrated in Marxist
colleges and other ideological and political education administrative institutions and research
centers. According to the number of papers, East China Normal University (13 papers) and
Southwest University (9 papers) published the most papers. Hohai University, Wuhan
University, Fudan University and Higher Education Press ranked third with 6 papers. In
conclusion, the institutions of high-yield authors mainly come from East China and Central
China, especially from Shanghai. Authors in Shanghai published most mainly because Shanghai
is the birthplace of curriculum-based ideological and political education. It must first produce
the results and promote the development of other places. From the perspective of teams, the
team of East China Normal University led by Dong Cuixiang team and Hohai University led by
Shen Yang team in Eastern China, and the team of Wuhan University led by She Shuanghao team
in Central China have been established currently. Although Southwest University published a
large number of papers, it has not yet had a research team in this field.
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Figure 2. The knowledge map of the cooperation network of authors in curriculum-based
ideological and political education of China
Based on the above analysis, the loose cooperation of the authors and their institutions is due
to the fact that curriculum-based ideological and political education is still in its early stage. The
theoretical research has formed a certain framework. Although the research is extremely
popular, the it is still in the stage of “letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of
thought contend”, featured as low concentration, limited research depth and breadth, and
single research direction. In addition, from the perspective of the nature and scholars' cognition
of curriculum-based ideological and political education, some scholars have a bias of
positioning its category. Actually, it belongs to the comprehensive interdisciplinary research,
thus authors in other disciplines based on their research background are able to cooperate with
curriculum-based ideological and political education so as to realize the interdisciplinary study.
In this way, the sharing and construction of different disciplines can be realized. Through
expanding the research teams and forming a certain scale of research area and multi-core
research team, the in-depth development of curriculum-based ideological and political
education could be realized.
CONCLUSION
This study has analyzed papers of curriculum-based ideological and political education in China
from 2014 to 2021 and then found out the stage of this field with the help of CiteSpace and
traditional statistical methods. Putting policies in order, the author has positioned each policy
in each stage. Meanwhile, through the atlas analysis, the authors and their teams were obtained,
which outlined the school in curriculum-based ideological and political education. Curriculum- based ideological and political education in China has gone through a budding stage and a low- lying stage, and is currently in the explosive stage of a growth period. However, there are not
many high-quality papers with more potential in the future. In the cooperation among research
groups, groups and institutions in curriculum-based ideological and political education have
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Liu, W., & He, C. (2022). Visual Analysis of Chinese Research Teams in Curriculum-based Ideological and Political Education (2014-2021). Advances
in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(8). 395-404.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.98.12926
not yet formed a certain scale. Due to certain knowledge barriers between other disciplines, it
is more difficult to form scientific communities in interdisciplinary fields. It is expected that
under the guidance of higher education policies, research in this field will be separated into
several major research teams and institutions based on hotspots and disciplines in the future.
Its research path will expand from the theory to practice. As a result, multidisciplinary research
can be advanced to achieve more practical result in order to complete the transformation from
microcosmic to macrocosmic view point. If the ideological and political elements can be
integrated into all kinds of courses, China will achieve a unified curriculum-based ideological
and political education, realize the fundamental goal of moral education and then promote the
maximization of higher education research.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to sincerely express thanks for the Logistics Group Open Research
Projects for China University of Geosciences (Beijing) (2022), the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities (Grant No.2652022205), as well as Enterprise-University
Cooperative Education Program of Ministry of Education (Grant No.202002059034).
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