Constructivist Conceptions Without Structural Conditions: Pre-Service Teachers’ Understanding of Problem-Based Learning for Citizenship Education in Pakistan

Abstract

This study examines constructivist and student-centred conceptions of pre-service teachers towards problem-based learning (PBL) for teaching citizenship at elementary schools in Pakistan. However, these conceptions are in conflict with the situation they are likely to face as actual teachers. This is a qualitative study with ten out of the ten final-year BS Education students from the public university of Pakistan, and its findings are presented in this paper using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Four themes emerged: PBL as active knowledge construction, citizenship as values-based, action-focused practice, PBL as a road to civic agency and as a critical thinking process, and barriers to PBL implementation, both structural and contextual. The cross-theme analysis resulted in the following central contradiction: participants have epistemologically sound, constructivist understandings of PBL-based citizenship education, but lack the institutional conditions for enactment. The study concludes that attention to pre-service preparation alone is not enough; there needs to be structural investment in a more flexible curriculum, provision of resources, and sustained professional development support at the national level.