Civic Education, Belonging, and Identity: Becoming Citizens in “Postconflict” Guatemala

• In Event: Civic Learning in the Crux of Change: Citizenship and Belonging Amid Radically Transforming Contexts

Abstract

The 1996 Guatemalan Peace Accords brought an end to decades of violent civil conflict. The Accords included a promise by the government to “design and implement a national civic education programme for democracy and peace, promoting the protection of human rights, the renewal of political culture and the peaceful resolution of conflicts” (Accord, 1997, p. 55). In 2011, Guatemala signed on to the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Democratic Charter, committing “to the development of programs and activities for the education of children and youth as a means of ensuring the continuance of democratic values, including liberty and social justice” (p. 16).

Civic learning is critical to emerging democracies, particularly in contexts marked by historical conflict. The 2010 Latinobarómetro report, an annual public opinion study of 18 Latin American countries, revealed that, in of all of Latin America, Guatemalans hold the lowest support for democracy (46%), lowest levels of satisfaction with how their democracy is functioning (28%), and lowest level of interest in politics (17%). The 2009 International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) found that the civic knowledge of young Guatemalans, using standard measures and definitions of the concept, was rudimentary, not extending “beyond basic knowledge of fundamental principles or broad concepts” (Schultz, et al, p. 84).

These are discouraging statistics, but is more to this story. Civic learning in Guatemala has almost entirely been investigated through survey research - multi-nation studies of civic knowledge, opinions, and engagement with very little research conducted within schools to look closely at the experiences of students and teachers. Yet the history of conflict, oppression, resistance and activism, particularly in relation to the country’s large indigenous population has implications for civic learning and identity development that can best be understood through qualitative study.

This paper presents the results of a qualitative study of youth civic learning and civic identity development in Guatemalan schools. To uncover the daily processes, practices and experiences of civic learning and identity within the Guatemalan educational context, we observed, interviewed and ran focus groups with over 90 youth in 9 different educational settings (public, private, rural, urban, indigenous, Ladino, mixed, varied income levels), focusing on how current issues, personal and community concerns, memories, histories, family stories and daily experiences become salient in this process

For the young people described in this paper, notions of identity, belonging and nation were bound up with the economic, historical, social, ethnic and political dimensions of their particular communities. The idea of a broad and unified "Guatemalan" identity was complex and contested for these youth, who were aware of their society's wide economic and cultural disparities, discouraged by commonplace violence, and outwardly focused in their search for national identity.

Curricular initiatives related to civic development in Guatemala draw upon a generalized human rights perspective on national identity, rather than understandings civic life and belonging particular to post-conflict Guatemalan youth. This study uncovers youth perspectives that could provide the basis for a more nuanced and relevant approach to post-conflict civic learning.

Authors

• Beth C. Rubin, Rutgers University

• Deirdre Dougherty, Rutgers University - New Brunswick/Piscataway