Understanding the nature of citizenship education under the national curriculum / Jeehan Mahmood

Abstract:

This research is a qualitative explorative study conducted with the aim of gaining insight about the nature of the citizenship education programme implemented under the new curriculum for education in Maldives.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers and leading teachers from two reputed school in Maldives and additionally document analysis of the national curricular document were done to address the research objective understanding the conceptions and concepts regarding citizenship and citizenship education, investigate the policy objectives of citizenship education the Maldives, explore the pedagogical practices in the delivery of the citizenship education and finally to understand how citizenship education is incorporated in the curriculum.

The findings indicate that citizenship education in the Maldives is Passive in nature, and the policy rationale of the objective of the citizenship education is nationality and identity driven. The citizenship education strand under the learning area of social studies is based on the knowledge and understanding and falls short in being competency driven. The values and disposition upon which citizenship education is constructed are deficit in democratic values and a human rights based approach. The research culminates in identifying areas policy action required to change the passivity in the current citizenship program to an active model of citizenship medotary for a participatory democratic future