Citizen Consciousness in Cambodia : Politic-Didactical Reconstruction of a Social Accountability Project

Johannes Ph. Backhaus applies the Model of Education Reconstruction (MER) to the context of a social accountability intervention in Cambodia. This book is not an evaluation but adopts a qualitative perspective on the learning approach applied by the researched intervention. The research found that the learning intervention does not systematically include learners' pre-existing social knowledge. It would potentially benefit from systematically harvesting and reinforcing pre-held convictions to sustainably motivate participation. It does not address potentially sensitive topics while interviewees show a sophisticated and holistic understanding of these. Finally, there are inconsistencies between the program's aims and objectives. In sum, the piloted approach offers pathways on how to beneficially include qualitative perspectives on similar development interventions. Contents ■ Decentralization and social accountability in Cambodia ■ Academic and programmatic citizenships ■ (global) citizenship education and I-SAF's approach ■ Empirical citizenship constructions in Cambodia ■ Conclusions for the researched program Target Groups ■ Researchers in (didactics of) political education, research on democracy, citizenship studies, development policy ■ Practitioners in social accountability Author Johannes Ph. Backhaus is a development practitioner with more than ten years work experience in different civil society organisations predominantly focussed on supporting engagement and advocacy. Acknowledgements 6 Preface 7 Abstract 8 Zusammenfassung 9 Table of Contents 16 Table of Figures 18 1 Introduction 19 1.1 Translations 24 2 Country Context and Current Political Situation 30 2.1 Political Culture in Cambodia 34 2.2 Consequences for this Dissertation’s Research 40 3 Decentralisation and Social Accountability 44 3.1 I-SAF: Implementing Social Accountability Framework 50 4 Introduction of the Research’s Conceptual Framework 54 4.1 Model of Educational Reconstruction (MER) 57 4.2 Conceptual Framework ‘Citizen Consciousness’ 61 5 Normative Anchor: Academic and Programmatic Citizenships 69 5.1 (Post-Colonial) Citizenships 70 5.2 Analysing I-SAF’s Normative Assumptions 83 5.3 Normative Anchor: Summary of Findings 91 6 Subject-Specific Anchor: (Global) Citizenship Education 92 6.1 (Global) Citizenship Education 93 6.2 Analysing I-SAF’s Approach to Citizenship Education 109 6.3 Subject-Specific Anchor: Summary of Findings 113 7 Conceptual Anchor: Empirical Citizenship Constructions 116 7.1 Questionnaire: Assessing the Research Area 117 7.2 In-Depth Interviews: Selection of Participants & Development of Guidelines 125 7.3 In-Depth Interviews: Method of Analysis and Challenges 133 7.4 In-Depth Interviews: Presentation of Results 138 7.5 Context: Interview Results in Relation to Other Primary Data 168 7.6 Conceptual Anchor: Summary of Findings 172 8 Centroid: Peculiarities, Similarities, Differences, and Limits 182 8.1 Centroid: Summary 200 9 Conclusion 203 10 Academic and Programmatic Outlook 215 Attachments 219 A. Map of Cambodia (administrative) 219 B. Interview Agreement 220 C. Agreement on Data Protection and Non-Disclosure 221 D. Relevant Project Information 222 E. Literature-based citizen consciousness in Cambodia – important concepts 226 F. Normative Anchor: Summary of extracted concepts and competences 227 G. Subject-Specific Anchor: Summary of Relevant Steps in the Analysis 232 H. Overview: All identified I-SAF Competences and Concepts 236 I. Versions of the Questionnaire 237 J. Results of the Online Questionnaire 241 K. Guidelines for the In-Depth Interviews 248 L. Overview of Interviewees’ Behaviour During the Interviews 255 M. Interview Transcripts: Example Page (from interview no. 1) 257 N. Interview Analyses: Example Page (from interview no. 1) 258 O. Overview: Concepts & Competences128 259 Bibliography 286 Front Matter ....Pages i-xxi Introduction (Johannes Ph. Backhaus)....Pages 1-11 Country Context and Current Political Situation (Johannes Ph. Backhaus)....Pages 13-26 Decentralisation and Social Accountability (Johannes Ph. Backhaus)....Pages 27-36 Introduction of the Research’s Conceptual Framework (Johannes Ph. Backhaus)....Pages 37-51 Normative Anchor: Academic and Programmatic Citizenships (Johannes Ph. Backhaus)....Pages 53-75 Subject-Specific Anchor: (Global) Citizenship Education (Johannes Ph. Backhaus)....Pages 77-100 Conceptual Anchor: Empirical Citizenship Constructions (Johannes Ph. Backhaus)....Pages 101-166 Centroid: Peculiarities, Similarities, Differences, and Limits (Johannes Ph. Backhaus)....Pages 167-187 Conclusion (Johannes Ph. Backhaus)....Pages 189-200 Academic and Programmatic Outlook (Johannes Ph. Backhaus)....Pages 201-204 Back Matter ....Pages 205-299