Exploration of the concepts and contents of citizenship education for upper secondary students in Punjab, Pakistan : a critical discourse analysis
Creators: name: Kousar, Rehana
Publisher: name: University Of Tasmania
Year: 2023

description: Citizenship education (CE) is important in preparing students for making an active contribution at both community and country levels, encouraging their commitment to social justice issues and creating awareness about their rights and responsibilities. Official policy articulations insist that every citizen of Pakistan has equal rights and responsibilities and that there should be a fair distribution of power and resources across society. Unfortunately, there are some gaps between the rhetoric of the Pakistani Constitution and its enactment in Pakistani education. This thesis explores power imbalances based on the demographic characteristics of ethnicity, religion, class, and gender which can emerge in their representation in Pakistani CE curriculum, and CE textbooks (Grades 11-12). Specifically, it analyses selected Pakistani CE textbooks and also draws upon qualitative data from focus group interviews with 80 students and semi-structured interviews with 18 teachers from eight rural and urban senior/ higher secondary schools and colleges based in Punjab, Pakistan.<br>Fairclough's (2009) dialectical-relational approach (DRA) provides a conceptual framework for this study. This approach helps to identify the dialectical relationship between the selected Pakistani CE textbooks and teachers' and students' interview data in the representation of Pakistani citizens and society. In this study, DRA is used at three levels of analysis: content and linguistic analysis, discursive practices analysis, and societal practice analysis. Content analysis was undertaken of the Pakistani CE textbooks (grades 11-12) in order to understand the articulated notions of CE. Linguistic analysis was undertaken as an entry point to existing sites of power imbalances based on ethnicity, religion, social class, and gender at senior secondary level. Discursive practices analysis was used to bring power imbalances endorsed by the selected Pakistani CE textbooks into a discussion with teachers' perspectives and students' experiences. Societal practice analysis was applied to bring the emerging data generated both by linguistic analysis and discursive practices into dialogue with challenges faced by Pakistani society across the dimensions of ethnicity, class, religion and gender. DRA provides an opportunity to explore embedded power imbalances in the Pakistani CE system based on demographic characteristics.<br>This study pursued the following broad research question:<br>Given the social and political aims of citizenship education in Pakistan, how do the discourses employed by the curriculum and by students and their educators understand and represent potentially divisive ascriptive differences in the nation (ethnicity, religion, class, and gender)?<br>Three auxiliary research questions were developed related to CE textbooks, teachers' interpretations and students' experiences.<br>Findings indicate that there is a limited representation of minority groups in the selected Pakistani CE textbooks. The findings further illustrate that Pakistani textbooks exist in a dialectical relationship with the Pakistani teachers' and students' interview data, particularly in relation to the diverse representation around ethnographic characteristics. Moreover, the study demonstrates how textbooks represent a view of Pakistan as a homogenous country united by patriarchal supremacy, a distinctive Islamic foundation, and the Urdu language. Consistent with its constitutional aims, textbooks also attempt to project an image of Pakistan offering an inclusive embrace to those from diverse groups within the Pakistani nation.<br>In the selected CE textbooks, there is a dearth of content on ethnographic characteristics including representation of these minority groups' contribution to Pakistani society, economy, and literature in a positive way. The thesis reflects upon the challenges of developing students' civic knowledge and understanding about diversity and identity in Pakistan, given the limited and idealised treatment of these themes in the selected CE textbooks. Some teachers expressed an awareness of the unequal representation of ethnicity, religion, social class and gender in textbooks, curriculum and out in society. They talked about possible ways to raise awareness among students and their families so that excluded minority groups can secure more equitable access to decision making at domestic, societal, educational and employment levels.<br>The study recommends that formative and future educational policy in Pakistan does more to include and recognise minority voices to provide enough opportunities for students and teachers to debate and to address emerging identity issues in a diverse and pluralistic Pakistani society. In this way, more inclusive and democratic attitudes can be built among the citizens of Pakistan that can serve to mitigate the sense of exclusion of minority groups and thus contribute to a more peaceful and stable future society.