‘Good’ citizens or ‘faithful’ Muslims? Contested narratives for citizenship education in Pakistan

One of the key objectives of citizenship education is to prepare future citizens who will meet the needs and the vision of their respective nations. In Pakistan, state-developed curricula are suffused with aspirations for developing both faithful Muslims and good citizens. This article is concerned with the ways teachers make sense of this official discourse equating faithful Muslims with good citizens. It uses thematic analysis to explore the in-depth perspectives of sixteen teachers of Pakistan Studies concerning the dominant state narrative. The findings show that teachers’ conceptualization of being a ‘good’ citizen is not consistent with the state narrative. Instead, the idea of a ‘good’ citizen is understood in a secular sense by many teachers. The focus is on developing personally responsible citizens albeit with little consideration for an explicit political role.