Fostering Civic Responsibility through Cuba’s Civic Education Textbooks

• In Event: Educación cívica, democrática y para el desarrollo sostenible: libros escolares, patrimonio documental, herencia cultural e innovación pedagógica

Abstract

Beginning in the early 1960s, Cuba’s national K-12 school curriculum aimed to prepare young people for an active and moral civic life in Cuba (Blum, 2011; Carnoy & Samoff, 1990; ICCP, 1989). Beyond emphasizing knowledge and skills, formal schooling has since aspired to inculcate values such as dignity, honor, justice, patriotism, responsibility and solidarity (MINED, 2007). Although civic education exists as a school subject today, foundational citizenship norms are embedded across all classes and activities (Portales, et. al., 2009). Further, Cubans in homes and neighborhoods share responsibility with schools to foster young people’s civic development as part of a multifaceted citizenship formation model (Baxter, 2002, 2007; Dominguez, 2010; 2008).

This paper focuses specifically on Cuba’s formal school curriculum to analyze official notions of civic responsibility. Primary sources include Cuba’s fifth and ninth grade civic education textbooks and supplementary materials. Curricular materials were reviewed, coded, and developed into themes (Creswell, 2005). Visual representations in textbooks (cartoons, diagrams, and primary documents) were also analyzed. Findings suggest that while the textbooks outlined clear directions on how to participate in a national identity of convivencia (co-existence), they inevitably privileged particular social groups’ identities and histories while subjugating others (Nelson, 2001). Recent social reforms such as the legalization of homosexuality have begun to test the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion, something that is not reflected in current curricula. This inquiry is part of a larger dissertation study that explores how Cuban parents, teachers and young people embody and negotiate civic values as daily civic practices.

Author

• Jenny R Dawley-Carr, University of Wisconsin - Madison