Citizenship education in Mexico: the depoliticisation of adolescence through secondary school

Abstract

Recent contributions have argued about the depoliticisation of citizenship education (CE), mainly through theoretical and documentary analyses, and based on the European context. Nonetheless, there is a lack of field studies which can provide empirical evidence about how does the depoliticisation of CE actually operate. Based on a mixedmethod research in Mexico City's secondary schools, this paper shows how the contemporary approach to CE, instead of looking at nurturing children's and adolescents' politicity, contributes to pupils' depoliticisation. Among different potential characterisations of political participation (PP), the curriculum of CE circumscribes it within the arena of formal politics, from which students are largely excluded in the present. Additionally, CE promotes a range of practices of participation which are deprived from a political meaning. Students appropriate them discursively, but perceive limited opportunities for perform them, especially in school. Through the depoliticisation of CE, adolescents mostly learn that PP is a promise of inclusion in the future, while the idea of active citizenship becomes reduced to a correct discourse about largely imperceptible practices in students' everyday life. The article stresses the need of shifting the priority of CE in Mexico from the formal curriculum to the transformation of school practices, in order to develop students' politicity through participation.

Systematic review of empirical studies on citizenship education in Latin America 2000 to 2017 and research agenda proposal

“…She concludes that while the curriculum reflects a modern conception (global citizenship, social justice focus), the textbooks remain more traditional (nationalism, maintenance of status quo and a celebration of Argentina being the Latin American country with the most White people of European descendent). Pérez-Expósito (2015) observed a similar trend in the Mexican curriculum:a slow transition in the following directions: from a combination of Catholic morality and civic indoctrination to secularism; from authoritarianism to a commitment with democracy; from ideology to a procedural value education; from nationalism to a balance between localism, nationalism and cosmopolitanism; from cultural homogeneity and male domination to the acknowledgement of cultural diversity and gender equity; and, in the case of secondary education, from adultcentrism to an adolescent-centred orientation. (p. 230)…”

“…Pérez-Expósito (2015), however, remains critical of the curriculum, which he argues, depoliticizes students, relying ‘strongly on moral and altruistic motivation . .…”

Radical pluralism and the challenges of educating for democratic-ecological civic identities: Reflections from the Mexican school context

“…In my 2008 research, I could hardly find any FCE teachers who were still trying to pursue this kind of ‘authentic’ civic engagement from within the school—it involved swimming against too strong a current. And a recent study only confirms the trend I had perceived in 2008—that Mexican teachers are failing to encourage a more participatory approach to citizenship education (Pérez-Expósito, 2015). Metaphorically speaking, the schoolhouse wall has reasserted itself.…”

The legitimacy of development nongovernmental organizations as global citizenship education providers in Korea

“…GCE could build cosmopolitan solidarity but failed to challenge transnational inequality (Nash, 2008). Therefore, some criticize GCE as depoliticization of development education (McCloskey, 2016;Pérez-Expósito, 2015).…”