On citizenship education and thick cosmopolitanism: evidence from two schools in Bogotá, Colombia

• In Event: Highlighted session: Rethinking global citizenship education within macro and micro levels

Proposal

This paper looks comparatively at the enactments of citizenship that were evidenced at two educational settings in Bogotá, Colombia: a private elite institution and a public-private partnership school located in the outskirts of the city. In both scenarios, I accompanied a ninth-grade class for a four-week period and conducted semi-structured interviews with students and teachers. Using the Research Consortium on Education and Peacebuilding 4Rs framework (Novelli, Cardozo Lopes, & Smith, 2017; Novelli, Lopes Cardozo, & Smith, 2015), enactments of students were conceptualized as to identify the discourses of citizenship that were at play in each of the schools. The framework builds on Nancy Fraser’s (2005, 2008) well-known theory of justice based on recognition, representation, and redistribution but adds reconciliation as a fourth dimension. This fourth dimension is important in the light of the events of contemporary Colombia.

I argue that both schools are under the influence of a strong neoliberal project that places emphasis on educating productive citizens. However, this conceptualisation of citizenship might not work for contemporary Colombia as it continues to reproduce a highly stratified society that carries within itself colonialities (Maldonado-Torres, 2007; Mignolo, 2000), which do not allow for the interaction and collaboration of peoples. These enactments do not allow for a recognition of students’ personal habitus and its influence over who they are and their place in the world. In addition, these enactments privilege an individual that is self-made, taking away all responsibility from the State, and promoting a competitive culture between students. In this sense, they respond to the logic of the market and standardisation (Camicia and Franklin, 2011).

This neoliberal conception of citizenship reproduced in both these schools does not allow for the recognition of the voices of students nor of their individualities. This was evident in the management of critical incidents within the classrooms. The dynamics between teacher-students are crucial elements of daily life in schools and they serve to evidence notions of citizenship that they reproduce. I argue that the lack of recognition of the students’ voice prevents them from engaging with current events and brings forward an on-hold citizenship. In this respect, students feel powerless and hopeless towards their future and that of Colombia. This is reinforced by myths and misunderstandings of the 60 year-long conflict that recently ended and does not allow for the reconciliation of different individuals.

The paper concludes by arguing that a thick cosmopolitanism that emphasises the interconnectedness of individuals through Dobson’s idea of causal responsibility (2006, 2014) might be a more adequate lens for citizenship education in Colombia. A thick cosmopolitan lens would allow students to work collaboratively to achieve social justice as they reflect upon their own history and place in the world. In other words, a thick cosmopolitan citizenship education might support the construction of a society that moves past its colonial history and the colonialities that are now embedded in the production of a neoliberal citizen. In addition, a thick cosmopolitan lens might allow for the recognition of students and their voices as fundamental elements of a school’s ethos. Giving voice to students, questioning their role in society (their own habitus), and allowing them to enact their citizenship in a democratic arena—elements of a thick cosmopolitanism—could bring Colombia one step closer to achieving a less fragmented society.

References:
Camicia, Steven P. and Barry M. Franklin (2011). “What type of global community and citizenship? Tangled discourses of neoliberalism and critical democracy in curriculum and its reform”. In: Globalisation, Societies and Education 9.3-4, pp. 311–322. doi: 10.1080/14767724.2011.605303.
Dobson, A. (2006). “Thick Cosmopolitanism”. In: Political Studies 54.1, pp. 165–184. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.2006.00571.x.
— (2014). Listening for Democracy: Recognition, Representation, Reconciliation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fraser, Nancy (2005). “Reframing Justice in a Globalizing World”. In: New Left Review 36, pp. 69–88.
— (2008). Scales of Justice Reimagining Political Space in a Globalizing World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Maldonado-Torres, Nelson (2007). “On the Coloniality of Being”. In: Cultural Studies 21.2-3, pp. 240–270. doi: 10.1080/09502380601162548.
Mignolo, Walter D. (2000). Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, p. 551. doi: 10.1215/0961754X-9-3-551.
Novelli, Mario, Mieke T A Cardozo Lopes, and Alan Smith (2017). “The 4Rs framework: analysing the contribution of education to sustainable peacebuilding in conflict-affected contexts”. In: Journal of Education in Emergencies 3.1, pp. 14–43.
Novelli, Mario, Lopes Lopes Cardozo and Alan Smith (2015). A Theoretical Framework for Analysing the Contribution of Education to Sustainable Peacebuilding : 4Rs in Conflict-Affected Contexts.

Author

• Maria Lucia Guerrero Farias, Universidad de los Andes