Enhancing Democratic Participation Through Education

1. 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 21st. Century” May, 13-16,2010 - Rosario, Argentina

2. Case study within the framework of an international and collaborative project • Global Doing Democracy Research Project – Dr. David Zyngier - Dr. Paul Carr • 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 • Political background:Coups d'état; thousands of missing people; only 27 years of uninterrupted democratic life (1983 – 2010); Pseudo-democratic and pseudo-participative experiences; Civic Education traditionally focused on rights and duties; status; vote • 2001: institutional political crisis: “All of them must go”

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

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

5. Profile of the students polled None of the students have studied at Colegio Ward

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

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

8. Democracy: freedom of expression and voting ritual? • Elections get upmost importance (80%) in a democracy • Naturalization of vote: democracy = vote (voting is compulsory in Argentina) • 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) • However, 90% say that given the choice, they’d vote. • 94% have never been members of a political party

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

10. Engagement with democracy • 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)

11. Citizenship: spectator of everyday events or protagonist in history? • Strong tendency to avoid arguing open questions (a third of the students polled) • 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 • Participation seldom mentioned as a possibility in a democracy • Citizen = passive spectator. Action = vote • Citizenship as a legal status (hiding the conflict of inequality)

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

13. Citizenship, social justice and discrimination • Difficulties to relate with social justice: vague answers • 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. • They realize that equality before law is relative to social and economic inequities at base, what challenges the previous concepts of democracy and citizenship.

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

15. Some Conclusionsor teacher education as an opportunity (“second process of professional socialization”. Gimeno Sacristán) • 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. • 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) • School system has left aside the media, neglecting an important aspect for building (or destroying!) critical citizenship. We need to address this matter now.

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

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