translated from Spanish: New citizen education subject: some background and projections

Recently, law 20.911 of 2016 calls for the development of a Citizen Training Plan with activities that cross-cutting and from the beginning of schooling. It also defines a subject for the last levels of middle education, a measure that has been at the center of the controversy as it has been presented as replacing or limiting the space of History and Social Sciences in 3rd and 4th medium, a decision that has cost him so much to the National Council of Education and the Ministry harsh criticism and a strong debate in public opinion. At this point it becomes relevant to ask what is the background of this new subject and citizen education plan, to analyze to what extent its implementation is justified and what its possible projections are.
Civic training has been part of Chilean education for more than a century, alternating from its origins different definitions and approaches in both its contents and its methodologies. With this, the civic contents zigzagged in the school curriculum throughout the twentieth century between two modalities: as a specialized or independent subject, on the one hand (in the years 1912-1928; 1935-1946; 1955-1967; 1981-1998); or as a cross-sectional content or integrated into other subjects, on the other (mainly History and Social Sciences and secondaryly Philosophy and Psychology) (Cox and García, 2015).
In our recent memory is the subject of Civic Education and Economics in 3rd and 4th half established in 1981 during the military dictatorship. Its main objective was the school socialization of the newly established Constitution, emphasizing patriotism, family and coexistence. The end of the dictatorship called into question the meaning of this subject and strengthenthe the idea of education for democratic life, diversity and tolerance. These guidelines were realized in the curricular reform of 1998 that brought about a major change in the concept of citizen education: since then the subject has been eliminated in order to promote and enhance the presence of these contents throughout the school experience and distributed in various disciplines. After this reform, Chile became the only unspecified Latin American country to civic education as a subject (Cox, 2010).

However, in mid-2004 and alerted by the distance of young people with formal political participation through the vote, the Ministry of Education convenes a Citizen Training Commission to analyse the status and characteristics of the provision of this to school level. After 6 years of distribution of the citizenship content in several subjects, together with the impossibility of clearly identifying the teachers responsible for them, the area had resulted in a certain invisibility and, at the public level, was had installed the idea of a deficit in content associated with this matter.
The Commission’s work concluded that, from the point of view of the prescribed content and cross-cutting objectives, the country’s school curriculum was consistent with the guidance and criteria provided by comparative international experience. It at the same time issues a set of suggestions to strengthen knowledge and skills that are considered in the curriculum reform of 2009, although maintaining the scheme of transversality. Then, with the curricular update of these bases in 2013, the presence of this field is consolidated defining an axis of “Citizen Training” in the subject of History, Geography and Social Sciences for all levels of teaching, and an axis of ” Participation in the subject of Orientation (Cox & García 2015).
Concern about the shortfall in student learning opportunities resurfaces 2015 on the basis of the recommendations of the Engel Commission, which concludes the importance of giving greater emphasis to this domain as a way to promote development of ethical and democratic conduct and thereby preventing corruption, conflicts of interest and influence-trafficking. After that, a new curriculum format emerges, unprecedented, that combines the presence of an axis of content of citizen training within the subject of History, Geography and Social Sciences, from 1st basic to 2nd middle and then a subject Specialized Citizen Education for 3rd and 4th medium. To this is added the obligation that each school has a Citizen Training Plan, which implies a comprehensive approach and with responsibilities for the entire school community in this regard. It is now worth wondering to what extent this new curriculum change is necessary, positioned and validated amid the controversy over the time contraction of the subject of History and Social Sciences in 3rd and 4th medium in favor of citizen education.
As part of the curriculum reform that began in 2011-2012, in parallel with the implementation of the compulsory subject of Citizen Education, History and Social Sciences would become an elective bouquet for 3rd and 4th half from 2020. The relevance of this change requires, however, to think in terms of content and not subjects, and to specify that the 3rd medium Units of History and Social Sciences would not be omitted, but transferred and revised in 1st and 2nd half. In addition, the contents currently taught in 4th half – in fact, relating to citizen education – would be expanded to become the compulsory subject for both levels. With this and as raised by the CNED, it would not be a “elimination” of the contents of the field of History and Social Sciences, but a restructuring and expansion of them that gives rise to the new subject. As set out in the new curricular bases published in June 2019, the new subject will address: democratic functioning and institutions, human rights, environment, public space and the challenges of globalization. Likewise, political ethics are incorporated, with a focus on the practice of probity and transparency, collecting the suggestions of the Engel Commission.
This policy would especially favour students of vocational technical education (approx. 150,000 students, almost 40% of the total universe) who will also receive philosophy and sciences in a common training nucleus. This means correcting the imbalance in the formative opportunities between scientific-humanist and technical-professional education, which is still positive when it is considered that students in the latter sector tend to get worse test results performance in civic content.
The results of this curriculum redesign, however, remain uncertain. The theme of transversality versus the specialization of a subject for the most efficient provision of knowledge and civic skills, is an open discussion and both approaches have presence from an international perspective: the different countries they used various approaches, although among those who participated in the International Study of Civic and Citizen Education of the IEA 2009, 21 out of 38 had the subject format in this field (Schulz, Ainley, Friedman, & Lietz, 2011).
In the Chilean case, the results of this test (applied in 1999, 2009 and 2016) also do not provide answers in favour of one or the other approach. This, therefore, in the case of the first measurement, which collects results from those who studied exclusively under the subject of 1980, as in the second and third measurement aimed at students who were formed entirely post-reform and under the modality Chilean average content or knowledge remained stable and below the international average. Generally speaking, low knowledge of important topics of civic education suggests the validity of adjusting and re-adjusting the curriculum framework in the sense of being able to improve these results.
Finally, in the observations made in the framework of our research, we have seen that there are high and positive expectations among the different actors in the school world (managers, teachers and students) regarding the new subject . In general and so far, students are not aware of being trained or receiving a preparation in relation to citizenship. With this, this concept is far from being far-flung, normative, restricted and belonging to the adult world. It is then expected that the subject will be a contribution in the line of making this theme visible to them within school.
At the same time, however, it also implies some apprehensions related to the risk that, despite the existence of the cross-cutting plan, the implementation of a differentiated subject tends to have an impact on the problem of citizen training being focused and atomized exclusively in the subject and in the teacher in charge of it. Avoiding the above implies a commitment on the part of all teachers and their managers to and for citizen training and that it be considered in its many aspects and potentialities, both inside and outside the classroom. For this it would be necessary to start looking at the different school spaces as opportunities and formative instances for deliberation, reflection, the development of critical thinking and the linkage with the surrounding social and political world. Consider, along with this, that citizenship training begins and is reinforced daily in school as a first experience of meeting an ‘other’ broader and more diverse than the family, with which community and social cohesion are built.

The content poured into this opinion column is the sole responsibility of its author, and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line or position of El Mostrador.

Original source in Spanish

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