Ideological and political education includes the following elements: educational subject (educator), educational object (educatee) and educational media (media is the general name of educational content, educational means, educational purpose and educational activities, and it is the work and intermediary of ideological and political work. )

There are also great differences in academic circles about the subject and object of ideological and political education. There are single-subject theory and double-subject theory (subject is subject and object is subject), which are mainly manifested in whether the object can carry out self-ideological and political education.