ISLAMIC MORAL VALUES AND SOCIAL MEDIA IN AN AGE OF GLOBALISATION: A STUDY OF MALE STUDENTS’ AGENCY IN SAUDI HIGH SCHOOLS

Abstract

In the context of ongoing rapid political and social changes in Saudi Arabia, this study explores the impact of globalisation on Islamic moral education in Saudi high schools and on young people. Specifically, it examines the role that social media has come to play in shaping students’ moral values, as well as the opportunities and challenges for Saudi high schools to provide Islamic moral education in a world increasingly interconnected through social media. This research adopts an ethnographic approach to gain holistic insights into the current situation of Islamic moral education in Saudi high schools. It involved twenty-two Saudi participants from three high schools in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, including school head teachers, teachers, students, a student counsellor, and a school inspector. The study is the first in-depth ethnographic exploration of how globalisation, through social media, impacts and reshapes how students engage with and negotiate moral values teaching in Saudi high schools. Utilising Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, capital and field and Bandura’s social cognitive theory, the study illustrates the interplay between social structure, agency, and moral development in the Saudi context. The research provides rich new insights by discussing Saudi high schools’ policies and atmospheres, teachers’ practices and methods, students' daily lives and interactions, and the different sources of moral values within and outside schools. The findings show that the impact of social media on students’ moral development is not simply positive or negative but complex and multifaceted. It challenges the notion that students are passive recipients of moral values and reveals that young Saudis are active participants in their moral education. The study argues that young Saudis’ exposure to diverse social fields, including social media, has created a gap between students' expectations and the current policies and practices of Saudi high schools. Students demonstrate significant agency in navigating and negotiating various sources of moral values. The study also highlights how young people develop strategies to negotiate, evaluate, and integrate competitive discourses from various sources of moral values, demonstrating their agency and moral autonomy in decision-making and online engagement, as well as their critical thinking skills.