Email this article 
Citizenship Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: History and Current Instructional Approaches
Abstract
This review article attempts to review current studies related to Citizenship Education (CE) in order to shed light on the provisions of citizenship education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The review examines the significance of CE in the KSA. It also explores the history of CE in the KSA followed by its national identity, as this too, affects the nature of the CE offered in the country. Then the article identifies and explores the implementation of CE in the KSA. In addition, the article discusses the approaches of introducing Citizenship Education in the KSA, its content and implementation. It can be argued that Islam has played a crucial role in shaping Saudi citizens’ private and national identities and their national values. The study also found that CE in Saudi Arabia faces multiple challenges. It emphasizes citizens’ responsibilities, duties, identity formation, and obedience towards the system and how one can achieve them. It also appears that promoting freedom, equality, fairness, freedom of expression and participation in the decision making process is poorly addressed. Moreover, lack of teaching aids and lack of specialist teachers and training are some major challenges to implement CE in the KSA. The article ends by drawing some conclusions.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Alabdulkarim, R., & Alnassar, S. (2005). Citizenship education in schools in Saudi Arabia: A comparative analysis in the light of modern educational trends. Paper presented at The 13th Annual Meeting of the Educational Leaders, Albaha: Saudi Arabia.
ALajaji, A. (2002). Educational Difficulties Accompanying The Saudi Experience in Applying The National Education Syllabus, as secondary school teachers (Unpublished MA thesis). Faculty of Education: King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.
Alanzi, A. B. (2014). Third Intermediate Social and National Developed Textbook Evaluation from Teachers and Supervisors' Perceptions at Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Unpublished MA thesis). Faculty of Education, Yarmouk University, Jordan.
Aldubyan, A. ( 2013). Papers in citizenship chalanges and problems, London: Dar ALhikma
Alessa, A. (2009). The development of moral values for students in elementary school in Al Qunfudhah (Unpublished MA thesis). Faculty of Education: Umm- Alqura university, Saudi Arabia.
Alhabib, F. (2010). Contemporary trends of teaching Citizenship Education. Retrieved 2 October 2016, from http://aafaqcenter.com/post/22.
Alharbi, B. (2015). The ability of Islamic Religious Education to deliver Citizenship Education in elementary schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Faculty of Education, Exeter University, England.
Alharbi, N. (2010). The role of citizenship education in support national belonging to the students in secondary school in Saudi Arabia (Unpublished MA thesis). Faculty of Education, Taibah University, Saudi Arabia.
Alhuqail, S. (1994). Education System and policy in Saudi Arabia (7th ed.), Riyadh: Dar Alshebl
Aljazeera. (2011). 10% unemployment rate in Saudi Arabia in 2010. Retrieved 11 October 2011, from http://www.aljazeera.net/ebusiness/pages/31d65f56-b3da-4077-9d84-fa016315c7bb.
AlMaamari, S. (2009). Citizenship education in initial teacher education in the Sultanate of Oman: An exploratory study of the perceptions of student teachers of social studies and their tutors (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Faculty of Education, University of Glasgow, Scotland.
ALmaitah, R. (2011). Concepts of security awareness and build expertise in the general education curriculum, Paper presented at the Society and security King Fahd Security College : Saudi Arabia.
Almalki, A. (2008). The role of teaching citizenship education in the development of citizenship values among students in primary school, study from the viewpoint of teachers of citizenship education in the city of Alleth (Published doctoral thesis). Umm-Alqura University, Saudi Arabai.
Almarshad, Y. (2015). The development of Citizenship Education curriculum for first grade in secondary school in Saudi Arabia in light of some contemporary global challenges. The Journal of School of Education in Zagazig, 78(1), 73-124.
Alrashid, M. (2004). Our education to where. Riyadh: Al-Attar Press.
Alsalum, H. (1990). The history of development of education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (3 ed.). Washington: international graphics.
Alsharari, L. (2013). Degree of inclusion of the concepts of traffic education in books of Social and Citizenship Education in primary school in Saudi Arabia (Unpublished MA thesis) Faculty of Education: Yarmouk University, Jordan.
Al-Shimmari, M. (2007). The problems of teaching the Koran in the primary grades (Unpublished MA thesis). Faculty of Education: King Saud University, Saudi Arabia.
Alsubaih, A. (2005). Secondary school students’ view about citizenship and the role of some social institutions. Paper presented at the The thirteenth Annual Meeting of the Educational Leaders. AlBaha, Saudi Arabia.
Alzamil, O. (2003). High school Social Studies Teachers’ attitudes and usage of Instructional Technology in Saudi Arabia (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Faculty of Education, University of Arkansas, the USA.
Collado, M., & Atxurra, R. (2006). Democratic citizenship in textbooks in Spanish
Communications and Information Technology Commission, (CITC) (2013). Annual Report. Retrieved 20 August 2014, from http://www.citc.gov.sa.
Dean, B. (2005). Citizenship education in Pakistani schools: Problems and possibilities. International Journal of citizenship and Teacher education, 1(2), 35-55.
Eurydice. (2011). Citizenship education at school in Europe. Retrieved 15-09-2017, from http://www.eurydice.org
Faour, M., & Muasher, M. (2011). Education for citizenship in the Arab world: Key to the future, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Federation of Chambers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). (2007). Expats in Gulf countries. Retrieved 3 May 2015, from http://www.fgccc.org/uploads/images/19628735091266128592.pdf.
Government of Saudi Arabia. (1992), ). Basic Law of Government Riyadh: Government of Saudi Arabia. Retrieved 13 February 2014, from http://www.shura.gov.sa/wps/wcm/connect/ShuraArabic/internet/Laws+and+Regulations/The+Basic+Law+Of+Government/The+Basic+Law+Of+Government/. Accessed 13 February 2014.
Hanivah, M. (2000). The reality of the national education curriculum in the intermediate stage in some cities of Saudi Arabia (Published doctoral thesis). Faculty of Education, Umm-Alqura University, Saudi Arabai.
Haste, H. (2004), ). Constructing the citizen, Political Psychology, 25(3), 413-439.
Huddleston, T., & Kerr, D. (2006). Making sense of citizenship. A continuing professional development handbook. London: Hodder Education.
Lee, W. (2004). Perceptions of citizenship qualities among Asian educational leaders’, in W. Lee., D. Grossman, K. Kennedy and G. Fairbrother (eds.), Citizenship Education in Asia and the Pacific Concepts and Issues, CERC Studies in Comparative Education 14 (pp. 137–156), The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers Group.
Majed, Z. (1994). Civic Education in the Arab World organized, Paper presented at the Civic Education in the Arab World: Common Perspectives, Problems and Potential Cooperation, Lebanon.
Medina, E., & Fernandez, N. (2015). Citizenship Education in the European Curricula. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 197, 45 – 49.
Mellor, S., & Prior, W. (2004). Promoting social tolerance and cohesion in the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. In Citizenship Education in Asia and the Pacific, Netherlands: Springer.
Ministry of Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. (1970). Education policy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ministry of Education.
Ministry of Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. (1997). Document of citizenship Education in General Education, Ministry of Education.
Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government (MBRSG). (2014). Citizen Engagement and Public Services in the Arab World: The Potential of Social Media.’, The Arab Social Midea report, Dubai.
Mokhtar, H. (2007). Contemporary issues and trends in curricula and teaching approaches, Makkah: Bahader printing press.
Nevo, J. (1998). Religion and national identity in Saudi Arabia . Middle Eastern Studies, 34(3), 34-53.
Nwokocha, N., & Osuji, U. (2008). EDU 292 Primary education methods, National Open University of Nigeria.
Ochsenwald, W. (1981). Saudi Arabia and The Islamic Revival. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 13 (3), 271-286.
Ozbek, R., & Susam, E. (2017). The evaluation of prospective teachers attitudes towards citizenship and citizenship education. Educational Research and Reviews, 12(16), 801-810.
Prokop, M. (2003). Saudi Arabia: the politics of education. International Affairs, 79(1), 77-89.
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). ( 2007). Citizenship Programme of Study for Key Stage Three and Attainment Target. Retrieved 23 July 2013, from http://curriculum.qca.org.uk/uploads/QCA-07-3329-pCitizenship3_tcm8-396.pdf?return=/key-stages-3-and-4/subjects/citizenship/keystage3/index.aspx%3Freturn%3D/key-stages-3-and-4/subjects/citizenship/index.aspx.
The Office for Standards in Education in the UK. (Ofsted). ( 2010). Citizenship established? Citizenship in schools 2006/09. Manchester: Ofsted.
Vision 2030: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Retrieved 16 April 2017, from https://www.google.com.sa/search?rlz=1C1CHMO_enSA591SA591&espv=2&q=saudi+vision+2030pdf&oq=saudi+vision+2030pdf&gs_l=serp.3..0i13k1.7274.8164.0.8949.3.3.0.0.0.0.254.473.2- 2.2.0....0...1c.1.64.serp..1.2.473.DEuxFmFpF5s.
Wilkins, C. (2003). Teachers and young citizens: teachers talk about their role as social educators. Westminster Studies in Education, 26(1), p 63-75.
UNESCO (1998) Citizenship Education for the 21st Century. Retrieved: 15 October, 2017, from http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/mods/theme_b/interact/mod07task03/appendix.htm.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.5n.4p.78
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
2013-2023 (CC-BY) Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD.
International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies
You may require to add the 'aiac.org.au' domain to your e-mail 'safe list’ If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox'. Otherwise, you may check your 'Spam mail' or 'junk mail' folders.