Elite global citizenship, a case of a secondary school in Bogotá, Colombia

ABSTRACT

Global citizenship education has been in the world agenda for some time. However, different understandings of global citizenship are at play not only on the official curricula but also in the daily enactments of students within each institution. The research presented in this article seeks to investigate the notions of citizenship practices in an elite secondary school in Bogota, Colombia’s capital city. Following Andreotti,, I argue that this particular school educates under the light of a soft global citizenship that reproduces the country’s status quo and its inequalities. Empirical data were collected through classroom observations, interviews and group interviews.

KEYWORDS:

• Citizenship education
• global citizenship
• private education
• secondary education
• Colombia

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank the Reviewers for their kind feedback and Sergio Lizarazo for his support and willingness to discuss this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

María Lucía Guerrero Farías

María LucíaGuerrero Farías Ph.D. (University of Bristol, UK), postdoctoral researcher at the Centre of Teaching and Learning, School of Education, Universidad de Los Andes. Her research interests include ways in which democratic citizenship education can enable the creation of a fairer society. She has taught different courses at both secondary and higher education levels, highlighting the recently developed and facilitated pedagogical training programmes for Teaching Assistants and Professors.