Teacher counter stories to a citizenship education mega policy narrative. Preparing for citizenship in Chile

Abstract

The present article focuses on the counter stories of two Chilean social studies high school teachers. Counter stories describe how teachers use their professional experience to confront those mega narratives composed of dominant educational policies that impinge upon their pedagogical practices. The mega narrative described in this study as a citizenship education mega policy narrative is composed by citizenship educational guidelines that have become influenced by other market-driven educational policies, and is not only present in Chile but has also been influenced by policies coming from countries such as England and the US. Therefore, the discussions that emerge from these counter stories on the nature of this mega narrative and the ways through which teachers can confront it through their teaching, and the implications that all this has for the field of citizenship education, do not only fill a gap in Chilean research but also contribute to discussions on counter and mega narratives in the field of citizenship education within a wider international scope.

Keywords:

• Teachers
• personal narratives
• educational policy
• citizenship education
• social studies

Notes

1. The influence over Chile, especially from the USA, in the implementation of neoliberal policies cannot be understood reductively. Chile played a significant role in pioneering a set of these policies that were later exported back to the USA and other countries (Harvey, 2005). Nevertheless, such influence did exist and, in terms of education, became more visible starting in the 1990s with the projects signed with the World Bank (Delannoy, 2000).

2. Official reports explain the context of this claim. For instance, a 2013 report on the results of a national test applied to eighth-grade students informs that 49% of these students belonged to subsidized schools, 43% to public schools and 7% to private schools (funded only with private fees and attending exclusively students from the high-income sector of the country). Out of those students, 46% were from low- and middle-low income families, 70% of which studied in public schools. In terms of results in language, on average and considering students from different income sectors, public schools scored 254 points; subsidized schools 259 points; and private schools 289 points. The differences between these points are considered to be significant (Agencia de Calidad de la Educación, 2013).