Teachers’ perspectives on the challenges facing in implementing citizenship education in South Gondar Zone Secondary Schools, Northwest Ethiopia

Abstract This study investigates challenges facing citizenship education practices in Ethiopia from teachers’ perspectives. Data were collected from 94 Citizenship teachers through validated questionnaires, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Statistical analyses included descriptive measures and chi-square test analysis. The descriptive statistics was applied to analyze the perception of teachers; Chi-Square Tests analysis was utilized to compare within teachers’ opinion differences on challenges facing to the effective implementation of citizenship education. Specifically, using Pearson chi-square results was evaluated from its significant difference (p < 0.05); whereas thematic approach was followed to analyze qualitative data. The findings revealed that perceiving citizenship education as a tool for ruling party indoctrination and the negative attitudes towards citizenship teachers and teaching profession is perceived to be the critical challenges for Citizenship education practices. Focusing mainly on theoretical issues instead of socioeconomic and political realities in the ground, viewing the transmission of knowledge to students as the sole teaching approach and the meager supply of teaching materials are also believed to be the bottleneck of citizenship education practices. The findings suggested the need for awareness creation, empowering citizenship teachers, reconsideration of the curriculum and supply of educational inputs.