Interrogating corruption through teaching and learning of civic education in selected secondary schools in Lusaka, Zambia

This article offers an in-depth interrogation of corruption persistence in the education sector, notwithstanding the teaching and learning of Civic Education in Zambia. The article brings out the gaps of the pedagogy and content adopted in teaching CVE by analyzing educational reforms aimed at affecting people’s political awareness, beliefs, commitments, capabilities and actions as members of the community. One of the civic goals of the reforms was to eliminate corruption through civic awareness in the schooling system. Despite this aim, education malpractices in schools have persisted. The article interrogates this goal by analyzing the effect of teaching and learning CVE in relation to corruption elimination in schools.

French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of social capital provided a theoretical framework for the article. Social capital was defined as social obligations or connections, which reflect the interpersonal relations between pupils and teachers, and among teachers and education administrators. Social capital highlighted relations of trust, their function in facilitating cooperation between head teachers and education authorities. This is because the trust demonstrated in interpersonal relationships enhances cooperation between actors involved in corrupt conduct in schools. Further, social capital means reciprocity in exchanges of gifts and educational services; namely, school places and promotions.

Methodologically, the article used an inductive and qualitative approach based on interviews and group discussions with key informants. The argument in this paper is that the philosophical policy necessity in the pedagogy and content to justify the educational reforms by introducing CVE syllabus in Zambia are weak hence the persistence of corruption in schools. It is equally contended that ignoring the linguistic perspective of corruption in localized words, titles and concepts fuels corruption persistence between and among stakeholders in schools.

The article concludes that the poorest in Zambia are most affected by corruption in the education sector because it has significant benefits to education service users resulting in the lack of interventions and weak teaching and learning foundations necessary for its elimination in schools. The article proposes a reflexive policy inquiry and political commitment to eliminate corruption in the education sector of Zambia.