Date of Award

Spring 2015

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Curriculum & Instruction

First Advisor

Anatoli Rapoport

Committee Chair

Anatoli Rapoport

Committee Member 1

Mohamed Errihani

Committee Member 2

Joann Johnson

Committee Member 3

Chrystal Johnson

Abstract

Citizenship education plays a critical role in the development of civic attitudes and contributes to the appropriate delivery of a government's policy. However, there is a discrepancy in the literature in defining the meaning and understanding of citizenship concepts. This study is primarily qualitative in nature, using the method of phenomengraphy to investigate teachers' perceptions of citizenship in Morocco. The study recruited six elementary and secondary teachers from Casablanca and Rabat in Morocco to identify their understanding of citizenship. I adapted the three-phase interview approach proposed by Irving Seidman (1998) to frame the interviews with the teachers. The findings demonstrated that teachers' understanding of citizenship varied depending on their trainings, biographic information and years of experience. In the discussion part, I covered the historical, linguistic, social and political factors that characterize the context of citizenship in Morocco. In addition, I pointed out to several shortcomings and limitations in the research that require further investigation in future studies. ^ This study was an attempt to highlight the teachers' understanding of citizenship in Morocco, especially in terms of structure, curricular goals, and implementation. It mainly offered the teachers the opportunity to express their perceptions and concerns about citizenship, and tried to fill in the gap in the theoretical and practical aspects of research of citizenship in Morocco. More importantly, this study was intended to add to the growing literature exploring citizenship education worldwide and in the Arab World in particular.

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