Obstáculos y Contradicciones: Cuban Parents' Views on Preparing Young People for Schooling, Work and Citizenship

• In Event: Educating the New Century Cuban Citizen

Abstract

Alongside building knowledge and skills central to civic life, citizenship education in Cuba places particular emphasis on young people’s values formation. Multiple actors partake in this formative process, including teachers in schools. The Cuban state also recognizes the home sphere as a powerful civic community where parents play an instrumental role in preparing their children for civic engagement (Baxter, 2003, 2007). In this paper I explore Cuban parents’ beliefs in the ideals of the Revolution in conflict with the many challenges they face in inculcating these same ideals today, especially in light of the increasingly growing economic gaps in Cuba. I rely on interviews with seven parents aged 45 – 60, employed across different state sectors, as well as observations of their daily lives. Using narrative analysis, I focus on parents’ views of schooling completion, work and citizenship. Findings suggest that all parents upheld the belief that completing high school was essential to becoming a “good” citizen, as was working for the state. Yet parents struggled to rationalize for their children the economic benefits of their formal schooling and official employment. Some parents reflected that in aiming to shield their children from poverty, they had given their children too much. In doing so, they had failed to inculcate habits of perseverance and collective contribution, qualities essential to ideal Cuban citizenship.

Author

• Jenny R Dawley-Carr, Minnesota State University - Mankato