What kind of citizenship for what kind of

What kind of citizenship for what kind of democracy? A challenge to educator´s professional education Lic. Adriana B. Murriello Contributors Prof. Andrea Ledwith Prof. Cecilia Naddeo Colegio Ward, Bs. As. , Argentina “Deepening democracy as a way of life. Challenges for participatory democracy and citizenship learning in the 21 st. Century” May, 13 -16, 2010 - Rosario, Argentina

Case study within the framework of an international and collaborative project o Global Doing Democracy Research Project – Dr. David Zyngier - Dr. Paul Carr o Institutional background: Teacher’s Training College at Colegio Ward. Educational experience (2002 -2007) revealed a tendency to understand citizenship and democracy in the most traditional version o Political background: Coups d'état; thousands of missing people; only 27 years of uninterrupted democratic life (1983 – 2010); Pseudo-democratic and pseudoparticipative experiences; Civic Education traditionally focused on rights and duties; status; vote o 2001: institutional political crisis: “All of them must go”

Purposes and Problems o Which are student’s representations of Democracy, Citizenship and their relationship with Education? o How do they perceive the influence of schooling? o What kind of responsibility they feel in relation to their role as future teacher’s? o How can we educate future teachers committed to democratic participation and democracy at school?

Methodology o Self-administered questionnaire adapted from Carr’s , taken at Colegio Ward’s lab. o 43 questions with an open section (quantitative/qualitative analysis) o Poll: June 2009, some days before the parliamentary elections. o First year students, before addressing in class the topics involved in the questionnaire o 67 students present; 64 completed the questionnaire o Voluntary and anonymous

Profile of the students polled Category Gender Age % Number Male 56, 5 35 Female 43, 5 27 < 22 64, 5 40 22 - 25 17, 7 11 26 - 30 9, 7 6 31 - 40 8, 1 5 0 0 Physical Education Teacher T. 65, 7 44 English Education Teacher T. 34, 3 23 > 41 Course None of the students have studied at Colegio Ward

Parent’s profile o Heterogeneous levels of education o Mainly concentrated in secondary education (more fathers than mothers o Father’s employment: mostly shopkeepers and employees o Mother’s employment: housewives or unemployed; following, teachers.

Democracy: freedom of expression and voting ritual? In decreasing order, democracy appears related to: o Freedom, freedom of expression (also freedom vs. ‘licentiousness´) o Electing representatives or casting a vote o Form of government o Faintly related to citizenship (open answers) Besides… o No references to our history nor to education o Scarce references to critical factors that may explain Argentina’s democracy situation o Fragmented and somehow anecdotal concept of democracy: thin democracy (Gandin & Apple, 2002)

Democracy: freedom of expression and voting ritual? o Elections get upmost importance (80%) in a democracy o Naturalization of vote: democracy = vote (voting is compulsory in Argentina) o Recurrent fear of electoral fraud burst in several open answers. Led to review main newspapers (march to june ’ 09). Certainly the fear had been brought up by media. (Appendix) o However, 90% say that given the choice, they’d vote. o 94% have never been members of a political party

Satisfaction with candidates, topics and campaigns o Dissatisfaction o Politicians ‘make promises” ´fail to discuss what really matters’; ‘do nothing’; ´don't speak about lack of security´ (media again!) o Political parties: only way for participation o Politics gets condemned because of politicians

Engagement with democracy o Sarcasm and skepticism tinged many answers, thou gh most of them are very young: ´…I think that the best for a country is a well administered democracy, without corruption. . . That is not the case in our country (. . . ) I believe this is never going to change and there is no other chance than indignation. ´ ´Democracy has become a ´business´. They rule for a few and priories economic interests´ ´This society has been bought. I’m not interested in being part of the circus´ Do you feel actively engaged with democracy? (1=not actively engaged; 5= very engaged)

Citizenship: spectator of everyday events or protagonist in history? o Strong tendency to avoid arguing open questions (a third of the students polled) o Difficulty to portray ‘citizenship’. In decreasing way: - belonging to a nation/city/country, etc. - inhabitant; living in a certain region - related to rights/rights and obligations (vote) - award membership or certain age o Participation seldom mentioned as a possibility in a democracy o Citizen = passive spectator. Action = vote o Citizenship as a legal status (hiding the conflict of inequality)

Citizenship: spectator of everyday events or protagonist in history? o 74, 4% find that democracy and citizenship are related o Being a good citizen and not voting: strong polarization o Not feeling motivated to be active citizens o Spectator-consumer citizen reinforced

Citizenship, social justice and discrimination o Difficulties to relate with social justice: vague answers o Discrimination: ethnic groups and social class - some support their answers from a moral stance: ´discrimination shouldn’t exist’; ´a good citizen should be tolerant and their should be a law against intolerance´ - for others, there is a historical and unavoidable relationship: ´extremes have always existed´; ´I don't agree with racism but it is impossible to eradicate´; ‘Racism is part of the people´; ´discrimination against social class happens every day´; ´The poor always work so that the rich can get richer´; etc. o They realize that equality before law is relative to social and economic inequities at base, what challenges the previous concepts of democracy and citizenship.

School paths shape representations and practices o Most of them describe the schools as ‘democratic’ o This mainly means they were free to speak and express o Authorities and rules: regulations are seen as ‘restrictive’ of school democracy. (Raises our concern as regards the value of rules, insofar as law) o Previous agree with their notion of democracy (legal criteria: ‘empty citizenship’ (Gentili); ‘legal fiction’ (Follari) o A few answers: school failed to create ´social awareness´

Some Conclusions or teacher education as an opportunity (“second process of professional socialization”. Gimeno Sacristán) o Fostering critical thinking and debate in future teachers to generate awareness and change is essential to leave behind the role of social spectator, tinged with skepticism and indifference, and visualize a more active and leading role that enables the social construction of hope. o Not only a matter of creating civic values, but also of providing opportunities to put into practice democratic behaviors and develop skills for a critical analysis leading to reflective and leading action. (Westheimer and Kahen) o School system has left aside the media, neglecting an important aspect for building (or destroying!) critical citizenship. We need to address this matter now.

Final notes… to keep on working! o Pedagogic value of the poll itself: kind of´evolution’ of the answers given by some students. o Work with the representation of law and authority. o Political not equal to politicians! o Create educational experiences to help relating variables with critical influence that let go beyond thin democracy and towards thick democracy.

Thank you for your attention! Adriana Murriello amurriello@ward. edu. ar Colegio Ward www. ward. edu. ar