Citizenship Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: History and Current Instructional Approaches

This review article attempts to review current studies related to Citizenship Education (CE) in order to shed light on the provisions of citizenship education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The review examines the significance of CE in the KSA. It also explores the history of CE in the KSA followed by its national identity, as this too, affects the nature of the CE offered in the country. Then the article identifies and explores the implementation of CE in the KSA. In addition, the article discusses the approaches of introducing Citizenship Education in the KSA, its content and implementation. It can be argued that Islam has played a crucial role in shaping Saudi citizens’ private and national identities and their national values. The study also found that CE in Saudi Arabia faces multiple challenges. It emphasizes citizens’ responsibilities, duties, identity formation, and obedience towards the system and how one can achieve them. It also appears that promoting freedom, equality, fairness, freedom of expression and participation in the decision making process is poorly addressed. Moreover, lack of teaching aids and lack of specialist teachers and training are some major challenges to implement CE in the KSA. The article ends by drawing some conclusions