مجلة العمارة وبيئة الطفل
Volume 11, Numéro 2, Pages 4-22
2026-08-28
Architectural Education As An Approach To Developing Active Citizenship In Children: An Evaluation Through Primary School Textbooks
Authors : Benbessai Lynda .
Abstract
This research addresses the role of architectural education as an innovative pedagogical approach to fostering active citizenship and civic awareness among children, rejecting the view of the child as a passive user of space and proposing project-based learning as a mechanism to transform abstract values of citizenship into conscious behavioral practices and collective action. The study adopts a descriptive-analytical methodology, utilizing a content analysis card to examine a purposive sample of social studies activity books (History, Geography, and Civic Education) for the fifth year of primary education in Algeria. The results reveal a clear variation in the inclusion of the established criteria; the Geography textbook excelled in developing awareness of the built environment and attachment to place, the Civic Education textbook uniquely reinforced responsibility and the preservation of public property, while the History textbook focused on deepening the dimensions of identity and emotional national belonging. Despite this integration, the study uncovered a shared shortcoming: the dominance of traditional, rote-learning activities and the absence of the practical application of extended field projects. Consequently, the study recommends integrating participatory design workshops and micro-urban projects into child-centered curricula to empower children to practice real-world citizenship roles and develop their critical and creative skills from an early age
Keywords
Architectural education ; active citizenship ; project-based learning ; Content Analysis ; Primary School Curricula
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