Engagement, Deliberation and Information: How Students Think About Democracy

Abstract

This work sought to understand the how high school students in a public school in Porto Alegre (RS) understand the concept of democracy. The premise of this objective is that understanding democracy is necessary to engage effectively in civic society and that this could also show how education can affect public life in this context. This is a qualitative and exploratory study and is part of a larger piece of research. A school was contacted in May 2018, and 197 high school students participated in the survey. The article will present the results of the analysis of the students' answers to the question “What is democracy?”. Thematic Analysis was used as the method. Five thematic axes were generated, based on the responses of the participants, in which their ideas about democracy seem to show a significant lack of interest in the subject of democracy. It is argued that, despite the many resources available to promote it nowadays and clear pro-democracy postures being taken, the biggest barrier to its effective exercise in public life may still be the lack of opportunities to be politically active, by providing more information and defending the values of democracy.We lack, therefore, support from institutions for an aspect that has been clearly evidenced to be indispensable, according to the academic literature: political education. It is argued that the most deficient aspect in achieving active youth citizenship is ensuring that they do have the opportunity to develop their understanding, and this must take place within schools..