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Abstract
This article reflects on the school’s role in the building of citizenship, especially in socially vulnerable contexts. We argue, and try to show, that effective participation in decision‐making processes is a key tool to promote conditions that help in social transformation and the formation of active citizenship. We offer a brief description of the current socio‐educational scene, characterised by poverty and school failure, both emerging from the profound social, economic and cultural crises that affected Argentina in 2001. The resulting need for social integration, links between State and civil society, people’s empowerment and political development make it necessary for the school to become an institution of community development, promoting opportunities for political socialisation and moral education. We describe a two‐year action‐research project in a secondary school in the north east of Argentina that aimed to enhance the bond between the school and the community and to democratise relationships in the school. Based on that experience, we critically analyse the way in which the school offers or denies opportunities for genuine participation and, as a consequence, the way in which the formation of citizenship is managed, and make some recommendations for rethinking the school from a social and political point of view.
Notes
1. During 2006–2007 the Social Studies Centre of the National Northeast University carried out two action‐research projects in schools in low income and poorly resourced neighbourhoods. The first project was oriented towards lowering school failure rates and the second aimed to develop opportunities for community participation. These projects were designed to influence the building up of citizenship development processes and were financed by the Iniciativas para el fortalecimiento democrático y social [Initiatives for social and democratic strengthening], managed by Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) [The Latinamerican Faculty of Social Sciences], Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS) [The Centre for Legal and Social Studies] and San Andrés University, with Ford Foundation funds.
2. The calculation of homes and families living below poverty level (LP) is based on data collected by the Encuesta Permanente de Hogares (EPH) [Permanent Home Survey]. Based on the income available to the home, an estimate is made of the family’s capacity to fulfil basic needs (e.g. buying goods and services). There is an even lower poverty level (LI), which estimates if families have enough money to pay for food to provide minimum energy and protein needs. According to the 2001 Instituto Nacional del Estadística y Censo (INDEC) [National Survey and Statistics Institute] (Citation2002) evaluation, in the cities in north east Argentina where our study took place 57% of the population was below the poverty level and 26.8% was at the lower level.
3. In Argentina the cycle of neo‐liberalisim initiated during the military dictatorship that assumed power in March 1976, was supported by a very traditionalist and authoritarian ideology spread among some sectors of the Church and the army forces, by its repressive power and by the traditional free‐market ideology of political groups that expressed the interests of local oligarchies. A democratic turn was established in 1983 with Raul Alfonsín’s government, which had to face not only the Latin American external debt crisis and the pressure of economic corporations that were strengthened during the dictatorship, but also the persistence of authoritarian groups and the systematic opposition of labour unions. Hyperinflation during 1988–1990 left a very vulnerable society, one where neo‐liberal discourse about the crisis had room to grow. It was intensively embraced by Carlos Menem, who was elected President in 1989. Menem’s discourse emphasised the inefficiency of the State, which he blamed for the economic problems and the ‘hyperinflation crisis’, because he understood that those protections acted as disincentives for investment and undermined workers’ motivation to work. His government set as a political priority (and unrealisable) objective the reduction of public expenses: adjustments, such as budget cuts and reassignment to different sectors, were the main axes of state politics. In the name of rationalisation of State expenses, investment and support for basic public services, such as health, security, education, scientific research and public infrastructure were cut (Grassi & Alayón, Citation2004, pp. 23–24).
4. This person represented the State and thus could legitimate the proposed innovations as well as acting as a mediator with the educational authorities, presenting requests and managing bureaucratic and administrative matters.
5. In schools attended by students from lower social classes, breakfast consisting of a cup of milk with cookies, or muffins and cereal is served. This is resourced by the government through the distribution of powdered milk and other foods.
6. This expression is Argentinian slang for someone who is overbearing and pushy.
7. During the Federal Law reform (República Argentina, Citation1993) teachers and their salaries became ‘the reduction variable’ because by law it was mandatory for them to retrain on the public capacitation programs on which quality of education was held to be dependent. So teachers were held to be accountable or ‘responsible’ for the decay of the educational system, judged by the measures implemented (qualification demands, professionalisation and redeployment).
8. According to two studies carried out by Ecolatina, Consultora de Economía y Empresas [Ecolatina, Economy and Enterprise Consultants], el Instituto de Estudios y Formación de la Central de Trabajadores Argentinos (CTA) [Institute of Studies and Formation of the Central Argentinian Workers] and Prefinex consultants (see http://www.atlas.org.ar/Articulos/print.asp?Id=12431 (accessed 7 July 2009)).
9. In recent years most of the factories shut before and during the 2001 crisis have been reopened successfully by the workers and have become symbolic of anti‐hegemonic fights in Argentina.