Research on the Optimization of the Integrated and Collaborative Mechanism for Ideological and Political Education in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Education Institutions of China’s New Era

The fundamental task of moral education in the new era is the systematic construction of ideological and political education. This study comprehensively examines the development process and implementation challenges of the integration of ideological and political education in China since the reform and opening-up through literature review, case studies, and field research. The study found that China’s moral education system has undergone a paradigm shift from “political education” to “comprehensive moral education,” exhibiting significant policy-driven characteristics. Inadequate coordination mechanisms and limited horizontal synergy effects are the primary challenges currently facing the development of ideological and political education courses, with their root causes lying in structural contradictions in the supply side of collaborative governance mechanisms. Based on the example of the integration of ideological and political education in primary, secondary, and higher education institutions in Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province, the study proposes a new four-dimensional collaborative mechanism involving the family, school, society, and the internet. The family dimension focuses on the daily immersion in excellent traditional culture; the school dimension constructs a composite education system with spiral-shaped content development, cross-disciplinary teacher training, and multi-dimensional evaluation; the social dimension builds a platform for practical education communities; and the internet dimension innovates the digital education ecosystem. The research findings indicate that this mechanism can effectively promote the integrated connection and coordinated development of ideological and political education across all educational stages, providing a systematic, innovative solution for the modernization of the ideological and political education system in the new era.