Tensions Between Values Education and Critical-Democratic Citizenship Education in a Private-Subsidized Catholic Chilean School

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  In Roundtable Session: Democratic Education in International Contexts (Table 7)

Abstract

This case study, part of a 3-year ethnographic study looking at the implementation of citizenship education in six Chilean schools, shows the tensions, in a private-subsidized catholic school, involved in promoting citizenship trough a values education, focusing on socialization, discipline, and academic performance. Interviews, observations and documentary analysis were conducted. A Critical Discourse Analysis was performed, which understand discourse as a site of power and ideology. Results show that Critical-Democratic Citizenship Education is displaced by a focus on academic results, which leaves little time for participation; a socialization mission that prevents open dissent; and an individualistic and leadership-based orientation that veers away from collective approaches. However, resistance to such logics was also identified, allowing the emergence of a critical-democratic citizenship.

Author

• Andrea Lopez, Universidad Católica Silva Henríquez