Citizenship in Curricula of Saudi Kindergartens A Comparative Study

This study tried to investigate the occurrence of the four dimensionsof citizenship (national affiliation, socio-family affiliation, socio-schoolaffiliation, and media affiliation) among three different curricula (Self –Learning, Montessori, and Bawakeer) which are taught for children enrolledin public and private kindergartens in Riyadh-Saudi Arabia. In other words,this study aims at identifying the impact of these educational curricula oninstilling and developing citizenship among children. The study sample was167 children (63 male and 104 female); 73 children were taught using theSelf-Learning curriculum, 43 children were taught using a Bawakeercurriculum, and 51were taught the Montessori curriculum. Results showedstatistically significant differences at (α=0.05) in Self-Learning curriculumgroup compared to the other two curricula. The study did not reveal gender-based differences in citizenship. In light of the results of the current study,the researcher recommended all kindergartens in Saudi Arabia to adopt Self-Learning curriculum to ensure loyalty of the future generation to theircountry. On the other hand, she encouraged other researchers to explore theimportance of developing loyalty among children through different curriculain use. More over, she suggested conducting longitudinal studies toinvestigate citizenship development among gender at various age levels inorder to provide deeper understanding regarding the effectiveness ofkindergartens' different curricula.