We study the causal effect of school curricula on students’ political attitudes, exploiting a major textbook reform in China 2004–6201014ya. The sharp, staggered introduction of the new curriculum across provinces allows us to identify its causal effects. We examine government documents articulating desired consequences of the reform and identify changes in textbooks reflecting these aims. A survey we conducted reveals that the reform was often successful in shaping attitudes, while evidence on behavior is mixed. Studying the new curriculum led to more positive views of China’s governance, changed views on democracy, and increased skepticism toward free markets.
Figure 3: Differences in means between students who studied the old curriculum and the new curriculum. The bars show means for the relevant group of students in the 13 provinces with variation in curriculum in our sample. Provinces are organized into 3 categories by the year when the new high school curriculum was introduced: either 2007, 2008, or 2009. The 95% confidence intervals are indicated by lines. For comparison, the dots show means for the corresponding cohorts within the set of provinces without variation in curriculum among the cohorts we study.
