National Policies on Education For

NATIONAL POLICIES ON EDUCATION FOR

DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP IN THE AMERICAS

Analytic Report

Jo-Ann Amadeo and Adriana Cepeda

Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practices

http://www.educadem.oas.org

Department of Education and Culture

Organization of American States

Washington, DC, June, 2008

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This report was written by Jo-Ann Amadeo and Adriana Cepeda, whose insightful analysis and dedication to the task are truly noteworthy. The participation of such a large percentage of the region’s education ministries was achieved through Adriana’s diplomatic persistence, and her cross-cultural sensitivity illuminates the report; Jo-Ann’s experience as researcher and author of studies from the IEA Civic Education Study in some 30 countries was invaluable to this report. Lenore Yaffee Garcia and Jorge Baxter of the OAS Department of Education and Culture provided oversight of the project, review and multiple suggestions.

Thanks also are due to the Inter-American Program’s young scholars, Carla Jiménez, Maarten de Jong, and Joao Salm, for their work on the demographic data in appendix 1, the Americas map in figure 1, and Portuguese translation coordination, respectively, and for the enthusiasm that they bring to the subject of citizenship education in the Americas. We would also like to thank Alyson E. R. Steele G. Weickert and Ariana Zanella, and Annie Mercure, for their generous translation of Brazil’s Portuguese responses and Haiti’s French responses, respectively. We are also grateful for the effective support provided by Roxana Reyes and Mercy Kohlberg of the OAS Department of Education and Culture.

We highly appreciate the Inter-American Program’s Advisory Board comments to drafts of this document, especially the contributions of Bradley Levinson, Luis Monteros, Fernando Onetto, Nelly Stromquist, and Judith Torney-Purta.

We would like especially to thank the respondents in the Ministries of Education in the OAS member states whose thoughtful responses form the basis for this analysis. The National Ministry of Education (MEN) of Colombia was instrumental in assuring a high response rate, as Minister Vélez White wrote follow-up letters in June 2007 to her colleagues in those member states that had not yet responded. We are especially grateful to the Inter-American Committee on Education (CIE) and to its Chair, Marva Ribeiro, whose support made this project possible.

For further information on this study, please contact Jorge Baxter at , Adriana Cepeda at or Jo-Ann Amadeo at .

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INTRODUCTORY NOTE:

DIRECTOR OF DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND CULTURE

Research shows that one of the most important determinants of democratic values and attitudes is a person’s education. Therefore, it is only fitting that article 16 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, adopted by our member states on September 11, 2001, emphasizes the critical role that education plays in ensuring the strength and viability of our democracies, stating that:

“Education is key to strengthening democratic institutions, promoting the development of human potential, and alleviating poverty and fostering greater understanding among our peoples.”

In addition, Article 27 of the Charter declares that:

“...special attention shall be given to the development of programs and activities for the education of children and youth as a means of ensuring the continuance of democratic values, including liberty and social justice.”

In response, Ministers of Education of the 34 member states of the Organization of American States (OAS) have asked the Inter-American Committee on Education, through the OAS Department of Education and Culture, to implement an Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practices. As part of this Program, we are working with the member states to develop, analyze and compare policies and programs in the field of education for democratic citizenship.

While recognizing that no one single policy or program fits every context, we believe that international comparison can provide valuable insights that can inform actions within individual contexts. It is in this spirit that we promote policy dialogue and the sharing of experiences among policy makers, practitioners and researchers. And it is in this spirit that we have undertaken this study, based on information provided by our member states, to understand and share current policies on education for democratic citizenship throughout the Americas.

There is a wealth of experience in the region on how to help young people acquire the knowledge, skills, and beliefs or dispositions that can help them to become thoughtful and active participants in democratic societies. We aim to bring this experience together, organize and interpret it, and share the results with as broad an audience as possible. We hope that this study is a useful contribution to the work of the individuals and groups who are working tirelessly to promote a culture of democracy in the Americas through education.

Lenore Yaffee Garcia,

Director

Department of Education and Culture

Executive Secretariat for Integral Development

Organization of American States

INTRODUCTORY NOTE:

COORDINATOR OF THE INTER-AMERICAN PROGRAM ON EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRATIC VALUES AND PRACTICES

Ministers of Education of the member states of the OAS established education for democratic citizenship as one of their main priorities at the IV Inter-American Meeting of Ministers of Education held in Trinidad and Tobago in August 2005. Ministers discussed how education might better respond to trends among citizenry that indicate a decline in civic participation and declining faith in the efficacy of democratic political institutions to deliver the benefits of democracy. Finally, ministers committed to launching the Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practices in order to strengthen their own policies and programs in this area.

Three main conclusions can be drawn from the deliberations that took place at the IV Meeting of Ministers and from findings presented in this OAS report on National Policies in Education for Citizenship.

The first conclusion is that advances have been made in this area over the past decade, evidenced by the fact that many countries in the region now have specific policies and reforms in education for democratic citizenship.

The second conclusion is that there has been a significant shift in research and policy discourse on the topic. This shift involves a move from an emphasis on the acquisition of civic knowledge to a more dynamic conceptualization that incorporates cognitive, behavioral, and emotional aspects into citizenship learning. Many countries are moving to transversal and whole-school approaches in their delivery of citizenship education. This implies aligning reforms in curricular, pedagogic, and administrative dimensions of schooling.

The third conclusion is that considerable gaps continue to exist between policy aims in education for democratic citizenship and actual practices in schools. From the perspective of the OAS, a main factor contributing to this gap is the disconnect between research, policy, and practice.

Therefore, we have focused the efforts of the Inter-American Program on promoting collaboration and dialogue between a variety of stakeholders working in this area in both formal and non formal education and in other spaces, such as the media. In addition, we are working to structure the initiative so that we can better leverage the unique strengths, creativity, and hard work of those individuals and organizations working in the field. This implies a transformation from a centralized program mentality to a more dynamic and decentralized alliance.

To move in that direction the OAS, with the support of the Inter-American Committee on Education (CIE), established an advisory board composed of an interdisciplinary group of policymakers, researchers, and practitioners from each sub region of the Americas. The role of the Advisory Board is to pool together their diverse knowledge and expertise in order to identify the current gaps in research, professional development and information exchange in the hemisphere and make strategic recommendations for the Inter-American Program’s activities. Several Advisory Board members play a proactive part in leading key initiatives of the Program, such as the Inter-American Journal on Education for Democracy www.ried-ijed.org. In their first meeting, held in Bogotá, Colombia in 2005, the Advisory Board recommended that the Program compile and analyze current policies and programs in education for democratic citizenship in the hemisphere.

The following is the first of several reports that aim to compile information on current policies, programs, and research in education for democratic citizenship. Upcoming reports will focus on promising programs from around the region and on the state of evaluation of citizenship education policies in the Americas. We hope that these reports and the other activities of the Inter-American Program contribute to dialogue and increased collaboration among those working to strengthen a democratic culture in the Americas.

Jorge Baxter

Coordinator, Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practices

Department of Education and Culture, Executive Secretariat for Integral Development

Organization of American States

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 1

Context 1

Education for Democratic Citizenship 2

Inter-American Program on Education for Democratic Values and Practices 3

Goals of this Study 3

Research Questions 4

Method and data collection 4

Results 5

National Policies, Policy Definitions and Standards 5

An Overview of Policies and Goals in Education for Democratic Citizenship 5

Policy Definitions of Education for Democratic Citizenship 9

National Standards 10

Description of National Standards 10

Opportunities, Target Ages and Pedagogical Approaches 13

Spaces for Democratic Citizenship Education 13

Age Levels for Democratic Citizenship Education 15

Pedagogical Approach 17

Policy Implementation, Training, Monitoring and Evaluation 20

Policy Implementation 20

Mandatory Policy Implementation 20

Training for Policy Implementation 21

Mechanisms to Monitor Policy Implementation 23

Evaluation of Policy Impact 27

Main Challenges Faced and Priority Needs 28

Discussion 33

Directions for Future Research 34

Limitations of this Study 35

Summary and Conclusions 36

References 37

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INTRODUCTION

During the last 25 years, a trend toward democratically elected governments occurred in widespread regions of the world. In many societies, these changes have brought about questions on how best to prepare citizens—especially youth—for their role as democratic citizens. As civic leaders and policy-makers endeavor to strengthen democracy, they have increasingly begun to examine how schools and other societal institutions prepare people to take part in the civic life of their communities and nation. The development of specific knowledge, skills, and dispositions is deemed to be essential to maintain progress toward democracy and to foster social cohesion and understanding.

This goal seems especially pressing today as many countries, including many in the Americas, find themselves with increasing numbers of citizens, particularly young citizens, who are disengaged from the political system and lack a sense of belonging to the civic culture (Torney-Purta, Schwille, Amadeo, 1999). The aim of this study is to examine the ways in which countries in the Americas have conceptualized education for democratic citizenship[1] and how it is being addressed through national or provincial policies and standards.

Context

Latin America and the Caribbean experienced substantial political change over the past 25-30 years. In particular, many Latin American countries experienced a transition from authoritarian to democratic rule. In fact, before 1978, only three countries in the region (Colombia, Costa Rica, and Venezuela) held competitive, free elections. By 1990 transitions toward democracy occurred in most countries of Latin America, and with these transitions came an expansion of democratic institutions and processes and respect for human rights (Reimers, 2007).

However, the region’s economic disparity may challenge citizens’ commitment to democracy. The countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are among the world’s most unequal in terms of income and access to health care and quality education. According to a 2003 World Bank report: “The richest one-tenth of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean earn 48 percent of total income, while the poorest tenth earn only 1.6 percent”. According to a recent opinion poll, while most citizens in the region prefer democracy, half of the respondents would be “willing to accept authoritarian government if it could solve their country’s economic problems” (OAS, 2005, p.1). And, in a comparative study of civic knowledge and attitudes, the responses from secondary school students in Colombia suggested that they were more likely than students from other countries in the study to be “sensitive to the potential threat to democracy posed by unequal wealth distributions” (Torney-Purta & Amadeo, 2004, p. 73).

The research described above as well as other recent studies have called policy-makers’ attention to the need to promote and enhance democratic knowledge and culture. For example, the 2004 Latinobarometro report indicated that support for democracy in Latin American had fallen from 61% in 1996 to 53% in 2004 (as cited in OAS, 2005, p.4). And, in the IEA Civic Education Study students from the two participating Latin American countries had relatively low scores on a test of knowledge of democracy as compared to students from the other 26 countries. The Latin American students, however, had scores above the international average on a number of attitude scales, including a scale which measured students’ expectations that they would participate in political activities as adults (Torney-Purta, et. al, 2001).

This concern about education for democracy is also evident in other parts of the region. For example, many educators, and policy advocates in the United States have examined ways that schools and other institutions prepare citizens for democracy. As Kahne (2005) noted: “This focus reflects concern regarding the health of democracy in the United States and, in particular, young peoples’ declining civic and political engagement” (p.1).

The Inter-American Democratic Charter, adopted by the ministers of foreign affairs of the Americas in September 2001, emphasizes the importance of promoting democratic values to establish a democratic culture and to teach new generations to commit themselves to those values and practices. Articles 26, 27, and 28 of the Inter-American Democratic Charter express the OAS commitment to promoting a democratic culture through formal and non-formal education and specify that “Special attention shall be given to the development of programs and activities for the education of children and youth as a means of ensuring the continuance of democratic values, including liberty and social justice.”

In summary, political, social, and economic changes in Latin America and the Caribbean were among the factors taken into consideration when this study was undertaken. The shift from authoritarian to democratic rule coupled with economic hardship and general concern that support for democracy among young people is low has increased attention on the importance of promoting a democratic culture.

Education for Democratic Citizenship