Analysis of Democratic Values as Dimension of Democratic Education at Elementary Level in Punjab: National Curriculum Document 2006 Perspective

Abstract

Islamic republic of Pakistan is a democratic country and it is important to develop democratic citizens through education system. Curriculum, textbooks and classrooms‟ practices are means to teach and practice democratic values to students. Focusing the significance of democratic values as dimension of democratic education, present study was designed to analyze objectives of national curriculum documents 2006 and content of textbooks of Islamiyat,English, Urdu, and History for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades regarding democratic values and to find out teachers‟ classrooms‟ democratic practices at elementary level in Punjab.Research was descriptive in nature and mixed method research design was used in extension of QUAL + quan exploratory research design. Sources of data consisted of national curriculum documents 2006, text books of Islamiyat, English, Urdu, and History for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades and students studying in these grades. Content analysis was made at two stages: at first stage; list of common democratic values was prepared after reviewing literature and finalized through political science subject specialists and curriculum experts. The finalized values were enlisted as benchmarks for content analysis. The objectives of national curriculum 2006 and content of selected textbooks were analyzed by using Concept Mapping Framework; CMF focusing every statement, idea and concept related to democratic values. At second stage; the intensity of the content related to democratic values were analyzed by applying Dimensional Description Framework; DDF on the basis of four dimensions; brief, extensive, implicit, and explicit. Findings of qualitative content analysis revealed that objectives of national curriculum of Islamiyat and English focused on some aspects of democratic values while objectives of curriculum of Urdu and History did not focused on any aspect of democratic values. Description of democratic values in objectives of xi national curriculum and content of textbooks were less focused in enriched form with healthy description. Generally description of democratic values was brief and most of the values were insufficiently focused in objectives of national curriculum and content of textbooks. Content of textbooks of Islamiyat gave due attention towards stating and describing democratic values while textbooks of English delineated less democratic values. Textbooks of Urdu and History need to revise to inculcate democratic values in their contents. Democratic practices such as explanatory and simulated practices were repeated in exercises of the lessons of different grades and remaining practices such as participatory, critical thinking, problem solving, reflective and investigatory practices suggested in exercises of textbooks were less focused. Sample of 3,600 respondents; 1,260 male and 2,340 female students from rural and urban areaswere selected from 120 schools from six districts by applying multistage random sampling technique from three zones of Punjab Province. Self constructed Questionnaire for students on Teachers’ Classrooms’ Democratic Practices; TCDP, was administered to collect data from 6th, 7th, and 8th grades students to find out teachers‟ classrooms‟ democratic practices. Questionnaire comprised of five sub-scales; explanatory, participatory, simulated, critical thinking and problem solving, reflective and investigatory practices based on 5-point Likert type options; always, often, sometimes, rarely and never. Content validity of instrument was ensured from experts. Initial questionnaire was pilot tested on the sample of 600 respondents; 300 male and 300 female students randomly selected from10 rural and 10 urban localities of public sector elementary schools of District Jhang. Reliability was confirmed by calculating Cronbach‟s Alpha scores; .889. Normality of data was confirmed by calculating Kolmogrove-Smirnove test; n > 2000, p < .05. Data were analyzed in SPSS version 16 by applying; mean, std. xii deviation, independent samples t-test and one way ANOVA at .05 level of significance. Findings of quantitative data showed that teachers were more focusing on explanatory practices and simulated practices were least practiced in classrooms. Findings further revealed significant difference between teachers‟ classrooms‟ democratic practices in terms of teachers‟ gender and schools‟ locality. Male teachers were practicing more democratic practices as compared to female teachers and teachers working in urban schools were practicing more democratic practices as compared to teachers teaching in rural schools. Findings further revealed significant difference between teachers‟ classrooms‟ democratic practices teaching in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades; teachers teaching in 8th grade were practicing more democratic practices as compared to teachers teaching in 7th and 6th grades‟ students. It is recommended that democratic values may be included in the objectives of national curriculum documents of Urdu and History and extensively elaborated in the content of textbooks of Islamiyat, English, Urdu, and History as there is more space for description of these values in different lessons of textbooks. Teachers may provide democratic environment for young learners to practice democratic values through explanatory, participatory, simulated, critical thinking, problem solving, reflective and investigatory practices. Modules on democratic values may be included in teacher education programs, induction and in-service trainings and workshops for teachers to enrich their teaching skills with democratic values.