(Re)Imagining the Responsible, National Citizen: Analysis of Moroccan Citizenship Education Textbooks

Abstract

Citizenship education in compulsory schooling plays a critical role in the level of engagement and abilities of young people to assume basic civic roles. Both internationally and nationally, there are increasing calls to reconsider the dominant approaches to citizenship education in order to address the pressing needs of the interdependent and interconnected 21st century global world. This paper analyzes citizenship education in the context of Morocco, considering whether, how and to what extent citizenship education in Morocco’s primary school social studies curriculum addresses themes of human rights; democracy and civic participation; and national and global citizenship. Qualitative data is generated from a sample of 4th, 5th and 6th grade social studies textbooks targeting students aged 9-12. The results indicate that citizenship education offers rather limited content and activities for students to improve their competencies for global learning, political literacy, respect for diversity, and critical thinking, suggesting the challenge in (re)imagining the construction of the predominant responsible, national Moroccan citizen. Keywords: Social studies textbooks, Education for citizenship, Human rights, Global citizenship, Morocco.