Exploring the civic and political education curriculum in Nepal: shaping a democratic culture of youth

• In Event: Dissertation workshop session
  In Special Session: Youth, Citizenship, and Belonging

Proposal

This abstract reports upon an in-progress doctoral study at the University of Tasmania, Australia under the dissertation supervision of Senior Lecturer Dr Peter Brett. The data collection for this research took place in February 2018 and preliminary themes have been identified through thematic analysis of the interview data. The refining of the themes along with the first three chapters ( Introduction, Literature review and Methodology) are in progress.

The rise of democratic states and multi-cultural societies, increased corruption, increasing poverty and growing awareness about the civic and political engagement have contributed to the necessity and increased emphasis placed upon civic and political education in the contemporary world (Bayeh, 2016; Mazhar & Goraya, 2015). However, the outcome of education for democratic citizenship has been questioned by the growing detachment from civic and political affairs in a number of developed nations demonstrated by successive generations of young people (Bayeh, 2016). This demands a closer examination of the efforts to promote education for democratic citizenship.

Nepal provides a rich developing-world context to explore these issues. Despite possessing strong historical foundations of democratic institutions, democracies in South Asia have often failed to fulfil the people’s aspirations and have accordingly struggled to promote democracy (Mazhar & Goraya, 2015). Following a decade-long civil war in Nepal, the ending of a benevolent monarchical regime, and the ushering in of more democratic political structures in 2008, increased attempts were made to extend democratic governance in Nepal. Despite these efforts, sluggish economic development, political paralysis and policy stagnation have placed the country behind on a range of global and regional standards and stifled the development of Nepal’s democracy (Wagle, 2015). In contemporary Nepalese schools, where students learn about democracy and its associated virtues, there are significant challenges for teachers given that the lived reality of democratic experience has been less than optimal.

This research primarily aims to analyse the intended role of the Civic and Political Education curriculum in Nepal in developing 9-14-year-old students’ democratic values, skills, and attitudes. Specifically, the study will analyse the relevant policies and policy drivers contributing to the development of the civic and political education curriculum. It will also determine how the relevant policies and policy drivers’ actions play out in the development and promotion of the curriculum and accompanying resources. The research will then go on to investigate the extent of alignment between the intended and the enacted curriculum and to explore the approaches to civic and political rights in Nepal in the basic education years of formal education. The perceptions and perspectives of the major stakeholders of education will enable an unpacking of some of the specific contexts of the civic and political education curriculum. The study will also help to understand and bridge the gap and mismatches between the intended and enacted curriculum.

The study will utilise Ball’s Policy Cycle as a theoretical framework to policy analysis, a concept developed by Bowe, Ball, and Gold (1992). The approach consists of three contexts of policy production: the context of influence, the context of text production, and the context of practice. This approach enables an examination of policy contexts, ranging from curriculum policies to textbook production and the context of teacher practice and draws clear distinctions between those three levels of analysis (Fimyar, 2014). The principal research question to guide the research is: How does the civic and political education curriculum in the Nepalese formal education system promote education for democratic citizenship? Three auxiliary research questions aligning with the three contexts of Ball’s Policy Cycle were derived out of this principal research question to capture the required data:

a) What have been the main policy drivers and national political, cultural, and social factors contributing to curriculum reform in the context of civic and political education in Nepal?
b) How do the planners and policy makers envision the role of the civic and political education curriculum in influencing the attitudes and values of Nepalese basic education level students?
c) What are the institutional arrangements to implement the Civic and Political Education curriculum?

The research questions will be addressed through qualitative content analysis of the related policy documents, curriculum and textbooks using content analysis framework offered by Schreier (2012) and thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) of the interview data. Major stakeholders of the education for democratic citizenship in Nepal, including policy makers, curriculum developers, textbook writers, principals, teachers and civil society representatives will be interviewed to understand their perceptions, practices and suggestions to enhance the efforts to promote democratic citizenship in the country.

Author

• Rabi Shah, University of Tasmania