Notions of Citizenship in Bangladesh Secondary Curriculum: The Interface between Policy, Perception, and Practice

Abstract

This research explores the slippages between the intended and the operational curricula in relation to understanding and enacting citizenship in a Bangladeshi secondary school. I draw on Pinar‘s (2006) notion of the curriculum as a political text to show that it is Western neoliberal understandings of citizenship that are considered as those 'most worth knowing'. The key themes of this research relate to the tensions between neo-liberal discourses of citizenship and 'critical' approaches to citizenship (Andreotti, 2006) and also relate to the slippages between the intended and operational curricula in terms of citizenship. Using qualitative research methodologies, I have analysed three Bangladeshi curriculum documents and the stated views of citizenship of a group of teachers and students and a principal at the level of the intended secondary curriculum. I have also analysed how competing views of citizenship are played out in practice in the operational curriculum of a high school classroom. The findings show that Bangladeshi secondary education is reproducing Western neoliberal knowledge of citizenship that thwarts opportunities for political subjectivity and agency for critical citizenship.