Practical Conditions of Civic Education : Teachers’ Informedness of Civic Education and Problems in Carrying it out in Public Schools in Bangkok

Abstract

This research paper titled “The practical conditions of civic education : teachers’ informedness of civic education and problems in carrying out civic education in public schools in Bangkok”, has the following objectives: (1) to study citizenship teachers’informedness of civic education; (2) to study the problems in carrying out civic education in public schools in Bangkok. The sample group for this research is secondary school teachers who are teaching the subject in the present semester or those who used to teach it for at least one full semester – long period. The research follows probability sampling, using stratified sampling method on the condition that the first 70 teachers come from 121 schools under the Office of Basic Education Commission (OBEC) and the second 70 come from 102 schools under Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, totaling 140. The research uses mixed methods. The research tools used are the questionnaire about the level of the citizenship teachers’ informedness about civic education and the problems in carrying it out, and interview guide for the teachers who teach citizenship. The analysis of the data is conducted using percentage, average, standard deviation and analytical description.

The findings reveals that the citizenship teachers under study are generally very well informed about civic education in all four aspects: (1) the informedness about civic education (= 4.00, S.D. = 0.49); (2) the informedness about the persons related to citizenship; (3) the informedness about the place for the learning management of citizenship (= 3.87, S.D. = 0.50); and (4) the informedness about the time period for teaching and learning citizenship (= 3.47, S.D. = 0.56). It also demonstrates the overall moderate level of the teachers’ problems in the learning management of citizenship (= 2.97, S.D. = 0.75). Arranged in descending order according to the values of average and standard deviation, the problem about the content of the subject (= 3.13, S.D. = 0.90) and the one about organizing learning activities (= 3.13, S.D. = 0.92) are most prominent, followed by the problems about the students (= 3.03, S.D. = 0.86) and then the ones concerning the area (= 2.81, S.D. = 0.79). Least prominent are the problems about the teachers (= 2.76, S.D. = 0.94). The combination of the empirical data with the interview findings demonstrates that the teachers are very knowledgeable about citizenship. They know and understand the process of citizenship learning management, knowing what strategies should be used to create active citizens. However, they have been hampered by the practical condition that has come in the form of structural problems of the system, causing them to lack flexibility in learning management. In addition, the teachers have an obligation to the assessment of their students under the time frame. The end result of these problems is discernible in the students of citizenship.