Citizenship Education in Elite Schools of Pakistan: Examining Requisite Skills for Civic and Political Participation in History Textbooks

Abstract

The study employed qualitative content analysis to investigate the model of citizenship education in the history textbooks of elite schools in Pakistan. This study specifically explores the representation of requisite skills, one of the micro components of citizenship rights. This requisite skill is further divided into qualification, motivation, and information. Purposeful sampling was used, and textbooks from grades 6th to eighth were selected. Elo and Kyngäs’s method was used to conduct content analysis, and NVivo software was used to code textbooks.

It has been found that textbooks exclusively written for Pakistani students focus more on facts as records of past events and show less tendency for higher-order thinking skills such as collaboration, communication, and critical thinking skills. Conversely, the textbooks exclusively written for International Baccalaureate (IB) students emphasized the situation where the students not only developed requisite skills for civic and political participation but also created a situation where the students could develop a holistic view of events in history and global issues. The findings of this research have implications and recommendations for the written curriculum of elite schools