The Role of the Administration of the Faculty of Basic Education in Promoting the Values of Loyalty and Citizenship Among Faculty Students and Impediments to Promoting Them

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the role of the administration of the Faculty of Education in promoting the values of loyalty and citizenship among faculty students and the impediments to promoting such values. It also sought to reveal differences in the views of students related to their age and educational stage. The study population included all students of the Education of The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training program, as well as leaders from the senior administration of the faculty. The study adopted a descriptive approach, where a questionnaire consisting of three parts was applied: The first includes demographic data; the second includes three dimensions that included 27 clauses; the third includes a closed question to rearrange the values that the faculty seeks to promote from the students’ point of view. The study population reached 16,000 students to collect quantitative data, where the questionnaire was distributed to 1,600 students and approximately 1,152 responses were collected. The researchers also conducted semi-structured interviews to collect qualitative data from a sample of five senior administrators—the dean and the assistant deans. The results indicated that the students agreed that the faculty has sought to promote and develop the values of citizenship in them, and the senior administration confirmed their efforts in developing and promoting the values of citizenship and the presence of activities and events that promote these values. Of the most prominent values that the faculty sought to promote, the students saw that the priority of the values promoted by the faculty was: the value of cooperation and community participation, then the value of belonging and loyalty, and finally the value of rights and duties. The deans also emphasized the existence of citizenship values and mentioned the most prominent, but in a different order of importance from the students’ answers, as well as among themselves. The study also found some impediments that hinder the promotion of citizenship values, such as the need for funding and preoccupation with other tasks, which may have affected the efforts of the deans in promoting these values among female students. The results also indicated that there are statistically significant differences attributed to students’ academic stage in favor of the category (new - first academic year in faculty), which is considered the most approved category on the clauses of the questionnaire in the first theme, which is “enhancing the value of loyalty and belonging.” The researchers formulated recommendations and proposals that contribute to promoting the values of citizenship and loyalty in higher education institutions.

Keywords: Values of Loyalty and Citizenship, students, education

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/15-5-12

Publication date: April 30^th 2024