448712 2012
ESJ7310.1177/1746197912448712Shultz and Guimaraes-IosifEducation, Citizenship and Social Justice
ecsj
Article
Citizenship education and the promise of democracy: A study of UNESCO Associated Schools in Brazil and Canada
Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 7(3) 241–254 © The Author(s) 2012 Reprints and permission: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1746197912448712 esj.sagepub.com
Lynette Shultz
University of Alberta, Canada
Ranilce Guimaraes-Iosif Universidade Católica de Brasília, Brazil
Abstract With current manifestations of globalization creating local problems, including widening equity gaps, increased environmental destruction and burgeoning poverty, many policymakers, civil society, organizations and educators are seeking models of education that promise social justice and a democratic public sphere that reflects more than democracy of and for elites. This study of UNESCO Associated Schools, located in Brazil and Canada, identified how educators negotiate contradictory global agendas and employ UNESCO ideals of a peaceful world, human rights and democracy, and a healthy environment to create a platform for citizenship education. While there is no package of liberation and transformational education that comes with being a UNESCO Associated School, there is encouraging evidence that educators are working in creative and critical ways to educate toward more engaged citizens who are capable of contributing to a strengthened public sphere. This article compares the Brazilian and Canadian experiences with the UNESCO Associated Schools project, and examines both commonalities and differences. While global neoliberalized governance structures define much of what happens even in local contexts, the schools in this study demonstrated innovative ways in which citizenship education can be a pathway to understanding and resisting destructive global agendas while, simultaneously, maintaining a critical global awareness and citizenship engagement. Recommendations are made for citizenship education that prepares activist citizens to participate in a pubic sphere that challenges normative elitism and opens possibilities for a justice to be the common foundation of public engagement.
Keywords Citizenship education, democracy, UNESCO Associated Schools, globalization, policy
Corresponding author: Lynette Shultz, University of Alberta, Department of Educational Policy Studies, 7-104 Education North, Alberta, AB T6G2G5, Canada Email:
[email protected]
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Introduction Given the complexity of globalized understandings and practices of citizenship, there is a need to explore how we can educate for a more vibrant public sphere with citizens who participate as activists and emancipated citizens. Can education contribute to a democracy beyond democratic elitism? If democracy can be found in the spaces between citizens (the public sphere) then educators’ work can be examined through this conceptualization of citizenship. Concerns by educators, policymakers, global civil society and multilateral organizations are increasingly raised about the diminishment of citizenship spaces and citizenship action and in order to understand the urgency of this interest, it is important to examine its context. The struggle for democratic citizenship in times of global inequality, environmental destruction, and the intentional diminishment of public spaces to make room for ever-increasing privatization, demands more than obedient citizens with good intentions. In this article, we argue that citizens should be activist and emancipated which calls on more than an elected elite to consider others in their decisions, but is a call to all citizens to realize their power to understand, contest, and shape the policies and practices that impact them. The concepts of the public and the public sphere help us to overcome the elite-mass dichotomy and to focus on acts of citizenship participation and engagement to understand the possibilities of democracy that are being learned into being. Citizenship relies on people who have the knowledge and commitments to encounter and engage with the diversity (cultural, epistemological, biological) that makes up the global commons. This is not an easy task given the extent that globalized neoliberalism has worked to create a homogenous and harmonious mono-culture that serves a liberalized global economy, and, as David Harvey (2005) points out, the great deception of neoliberalism is that while it makes claims of equality and liberty, it is, in reality, designed to create the opposite. In the context of countries and communities in the ‘global south’ the impact of globalized neoliberalism forms a type of neocolonialism, creating an increasingly uneven human social development. As educationists, we suggest that a reconceptualized citizenship education might be a key factor in shifting this problem. Citizens as emancipated and activist participants in authentic democratic public spaces are able to engage in relevant issues and with institutional structures, as well as to build relationships based on critical thinking and the ability to act collectively in order to strengthen the public sphere and create a just democratic society (Abdi and Shultz, 2008; Guimaraes- Iosif, 2009b; Isin, 2008; Shultz, 2010). Current manifestations of global issues, enhanced by an extensive but uneven globalization, create ever widening gaps between the rich and poor, increasing environmental destruction with subsequent increases in hunger, and increased militarization to protect the interests of local, regional and global elites. In response, many educators, policymakers, civil society organizations and parents are seeking models of education that inspire children, youth and teachers to take leadership in creating and enhancing a culture of democratic, active and inclusive citizenship (Shultz et al., 2009). Many of these models rest on ideals of a deepening citizenship engagement, or as Carr (2008a, 2008b) suggests, a thickening of participation for democracy. Education for this democracy requires citizens who understand and can act within this sphere at the local and global level. While some of the educational models launched internationally by multilateral organizations – such as OECD,1 World Bank2 and UNESCO3 – have the stated goals of promoting democratic values and improving the quality of life of millions of people living in poverty worldwide, we argue that their educational agenda can also reproduce or widen situations of poverty, exclusion and inequity if educators involved at the micro level of these projects do not engage as activist citizens and work towards transforming the public sphere for democracy and social justice.
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Seeking activist citizenship through UNESCO Associated Schools The study This article draws on two qualitative research studies that investigated the educational and social impact of becoming Associated Schools in Brazil and Canada. The main objective of these studies was to explore the goals, values, themes and methodologies adopted by UNESCO Associated Schools, and analyze the approach to democracy and citizenship in these two democratic and diverse societies in times of globalization. Are the democratic ideals of UNESCO Associated School being realized in these schools? Do they contribute to continued forms of elite democracy or are possibilities for re-constructing public engagement through activism possible? The Associated Schools Project Network was launched in 1953 by the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), with the initial purpose of strengthening the role of education in promoting the culture of peace, international cooperation and democratic values in all countries members of the United Nations (UN). Currently, there are approximately 8500 Associated Schools, located in 180 countries. Brazil has approximately 300 schools, the country with the largest number of Associated Schools, with approximately 75 percent of them belonging to the private sector. Canada has 25 Associated Schools (although this number is set to increase due to recent efforts of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO), with the majority being public schools. Worldwide, 80 percent of the Associated Schools belong to the public education system. The number of Associated Schools enrolled in the project in each country is supervised by the UNESCO ASPnet International Coordination in Paris. Schools become designated schools by demonstrating over a period of time that they have shifted their policy and programming to be in line with UNESCO goals, themes, and pillars. These schools are described by UNESCO as ‘a network of committed schools engaged in fostering and delivering quality education in pursuit of peace, liberty, justice and human development in order to meet the pressing educational needs of children and young people throughout the world (UNESCO, 2003: 2). Our studies took place in 15 public schools: 10 in Canada and 5 in Brazil. The data was collected through observation, document analysis and semi-structured interviews with more than 130 participants, including public school board trustees, administrators, teachers, staff members, parents and Associated Schools coordinators at the local, regional and national level. These studies compared UNESCO Associated Schools in the two countries that share some common features and also vary to a great extent. Brazil is an emerging power in the shifting global economic order, carrying both new political and economic power into international relations even as it struggles with massive inequities and social challenges locally. Canada, while a very small country in terms of population and economic ‘clout’, has enjoyed an international reputation for respecting and promoting human rights and peace even as it maintained injustice and marginalization of indigenous people and many immigrants within its own borders. In the new multi-polar world, we also see more commonalities between these two democratic societies. While international standardized test scores describe only a small part of an educational system, they can provide a point of comparison in terms of some aspects of the international ‘quality education’ goals. Statistics published by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (OECD, 2007) illustrate that, in spite of increased access to education, the quality of public education in Brazil continues to be a major problem. Canada was among the top five in the PISA 2007 report while Brazil occupied the 52nd position among the 57 countries that participated in the 2006 survey. Although Canada is considered one of the countries with the best education in the world it also faces challenges providing high quality education for its indigenous population, Afro-descendant and non-Western European descendant communities, immigrants
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(Joshee and Johnson, 2007) and those who live in poverty. Such disparity opens space for a kind of unequal citizenship that puts at risk the legitimacy of the countries’ democratic institutions. Guimaraes-Iosif (2009a) points out that education in Brazil was born in the form of a technocratic and restrictive one, having a goal to form two diverse groups of citizens: a very small and wealthy elite, normally white and from the South, who govern, and the masses – a majority who are Afro-descendant or native, and from the North – who are governed. Therefore, the foundational questions for this research emerged from considerations of how citizens in these democratic and culturally diverse societies respond these issues in a globalized world where citizenship is being challenged and reinvented.
The study conceptual frame With the increasing influence of neoliberal policies in education and the shifting towards internationalization and marketization of this sector in recent years (Martens et al., 2007; Rizvi, 2006), the objectives and areas of the Associated Schools project has changed in order to meet the new demands of society in times globalization and deepening of worldwide problems. Freire (2004a: 2004) emphasized how crucial it is to ‘challenge ourselves as fathers and mothers, teachers, factory workers, and students, to reflect upon the role we play and the responsibility we have to take on the construction and betterment of democracy among us’. Such democracy requires activist and emancipated citizens able to enact citizenship, and to re-imagine and reconstruct the platforms and parameters of the public sphere. The work of political theorists (Benhabib, 1996; Dryzek 2006; Dryzek and Dunleavy, 2009; Habermas, 1984, 1996; Harvey, 2005; Isin, 2008) and critical pedagogy educators (Apple, 2007; Freire, 1970, 2004a, 2004b; Giroux, 1988) help us to understand that educating for democracy in schools cannot be reduced to merely participating the electoral process or what can be seen as thin democracy (Carr 2008a, 2008b). The normatization of elitist democracy (e.g. electing elites) has been a key mechanism facilitating globalized neoliberal economic structures. Harvey (2005) argues that the role of citizens in our current globalized neoliberal time has been reduced to a something resembling a individualist consumer rather than an engaged person actively working to create just institutions for the social good. The notion of citizenship education for democracy adopted in this study challenges the conceptualization of the neoliberal citizen whose role it is to choose a representative from a group of elite members of society in an already structurally predetermined and diminished public sphere (Benhabib, 1996; Habermas, 1996; Harvey 2005). More than educating for good and active citizenry, schools need to create new sites and scales of struggle that empower students and educators to perform acts of citizenship that transform the forms and manners of ‘being political by bringing into being new actors as activist citizens’ (Isin, 2008: 39). We draw on Isin’s (2008: 38) distinction between active and activist citizenship: ‘We contrast activist citizens with active citizens who act out already written scripts. While activist citizens engage in writing scripts and creating the scene, active citizens follow scripts and participate in scenes that are already created. While activist citizens are creative, active citizens are not.’ If education is to contribute to improved participation and a strengthened public sphere, there must be education experiences that are foundations for activism and solidarity to be learned into being. In order to reach democratic legitimacy, social institutions, including education, must be arranged so that decisions reflect both common interests but also the political will of free and equal citizens (Benhabib, 1996; Fraser, 1997, 2009). This calls for forms of citizenship representation and participation that are inclusive and generative. ‘Deliberation is a particular kind of communication that involves recognizing the reasons advanced by those with whom one disagrees, even though one does not share them … The aim in not consensus, but rather working agreements about
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how to resolve practical problems’ (Dryzek and Dunleavy, 2009: 198). Deliberative processes are important because they emphasize the public sphere rather than the institutions of the state and encourage engagement of discourses across the different sites in society. Such empowerment, of what we might consider civil society, opens space at the local and international level for citizens to truly participate in negotiations and political decisions that influence their lives and the lives of others directly or indirectly. Deliberative democracy can be seen as a key process that might link acts of voting in democracies with the deeper engagement within communities as they strive to improve the dignity and wellbeing of citizens. The role of education to prepare citizens for this transformed political space is critical. As Starratt (2003) points out, a society whose schools don’t prepare the new generation to understand their social, environmental and political world, will contribute to a totally dysfunctional future. In addition, Guimaraes-Iosif (2009b: 156) highlights that ‘if all individuals, regardless of their origin receive an education that will empower them to think and act critically, social justice, human rights and democracy is more likely to be protected and blossom. Public school is a strategic environment that fosters liberation if its curriculum is designed to educate global emancipated citizens.’
Global agendas and the challenges to democratic education The UNESCO Associated Schools that participated in our study are strongly influenced by the tension between education that transforms and transgresses as a democratic and emancipatory project against the pressure of the legitimized norms, values and practices of the neoliberal global market. Educators are caught between neoliberalism and justice, struggling to educate for democracy when the available foundation and support of UNESCO has a notion of democracy and citizenship that is being reduced. On the other hand, it is also possible to identify educators in both countries who are managing to use the UNESCO foundation as opportunities for constructing/ reconstructing education for an activist, emancipatated and politicized citizenry. There is ample research that describes how a globalized economic agenda serves current constructions of a de-politicized public sphere and a passive political subject (see for example, May, 2008; Ranciere, 2006). The commonality across nations suggests that it is not just national policies that have led to this depoliticizing trend. According to Martens et al. (2008), this trend is evident in the case of educational policy, where the impacts of international governance and market forces are increasingly visible in pressures to privatize and marketize education systems and programs. These shifts are in contrast to a more longstanding international agendas, such as that of UNESCO that has, since its formation in 1945, developed education related conventions, resolutions, recommendations and programs for its members states. These are however, not without great challenge. As Mundy (2008: 21) highlights: [n]owhere are the tensions within embedded liberalism clearer than in the initial construction of multilateral institutions to support education after 1945 … What emerged was a highly diffuse, often contradictory set of international activities, each generating political contests around tensions between their redistributive/ compensatory and competitive/strategic aims. The first stage on which such tensions played out was UNESCO – a specialized agency of the UN formed to promote the ‘common welfare of mankind’, and the ‘universal right to education’.
The UNESCO Associated School program is one such program, providing both great opportunities for educating global citizens for just, democratic societies while, at the same time, providing the possibility of facilitating the increased empowerment of small global elite because not all schools can participate in the project. The accreditation process is developed and monitored by the central
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organization of UNESCO in Paris rather than locally, where they claim that due to the international scope of the program, it would be impossible to monitor schools if the program were to grow without restriction (interview, school project coordinator, Canada). In addition, many other global institutions use UNESCO’s access to educators to promote their particular institutional agendas which creates a situation where many of the goals and projects are in competition for the attention of educators or in direct ideological or pedagogical conflict with each other and/or the general goals of the local schools. For example, in the document, UNESCO (2009: 8) Associated School Second Collection of Good Practices: Education for Sustainable Development it is suggested that the Associated schools should strive to ‘translate the principles and priorities of UNESCO, the United Nations and some of the other Specialized Agencies and UN bodies (for example, FAO, WHO, UNEP, UNICEF) into concrete learning approaches and outcomes’. Teachers in many of the schools in this study questioned which values and principles they were really supporting as an Associated School: We need to question the role of these agencies and how they fit to make the world a better place. (Teacher, Manitoba, Canada) When I heard that this school was associated with UNESCO, I questioned myself where the presence of UNESCO in this school has been. How does the project proposed by this organization impacts the teaching-learning process? (Teacher, Federal District, Brazil)
Other educators found the principles to be strong platforms for antiracism, anti-poverty and other justice oriented topics. Whether or not the UN can make those things happen they do espouse them and I think that’s a key thing and so I usually talk about taking the moral high ground. There’s very little that you can do in a UNSECO school that doesn’t take the moral high ground. (School principal, Alberta, Canada) The UNESCO framework created the opportunity for teachers to do what they thought was right. (Teacher, Federal District, Brazil) The biggest thing for us is that sense of community, that we are a community school. Whether that’s community within a classroom, within the bigger school, within the community of [Kelmont], or the community of Alberta, I think what we are trying to do is make the kids realize that were all part of a bigger picture. So I think the word for me would be community. (School trustee, Alberta, Canada)
The contradictions in agendas within these institutions is significant and cannot help but present a tangle of educational perspectives and proposals as educators working in local contexts attempt to use these global perspectives to frame educational efforts. The study shows how important it is to redefine the way education for democracy and citizenship is understood in spaces where neoliberal globalization has legitimized the global and minimized attention to local issues, knowledge and perspectives. Democracy can be jeopardized if students do not engage critically in the promotion of local social justice (Carr, 2008; Guimaraes-Iosif, 2009a; Westheimer and Kahne, 2004). The danger is that schools will promote the education of ‘good and responsible’ citizen as one who neither questions nor wants to transform the conditions of injustice, in their local and global community. Our study shows that the notions of personally responsible citizen and participatory citizen are emphasized by UNESCO Associated Schools in both countries and little work was focused on educating the justice oriented citizen (Westheimer and Kahne, 2004) or the activist citizen (Isin, 2008).
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This ‘thinning of citizenship’ approach to democracy was further highlighted during the period of the study data collection when the word ‘democracy’ was removed from the foundational themes of Associated Schools in its most recent ASPnet documents. While until 2009, the four themes for UNESCO Associated Schools were: (1) world concerns and the role of the United Nations system; (2) human rights, democracy and tolerance; (3) intercultural learning; and (4) environmental concerns, these have been changed to the much more liberalized themes: (1) Associated Schools and UN priorities; (2) peace and human rights; (3) intercultural learning; and (4) education for sustainable development (UNESCO, n.d.). The delinking of human rights from democracy indicates a significant liberalization of the UNESCO approach and a move away from the social project of democracy. Shultz (2010) highlights that this suggests an increased closing of public spaces for citizenship. The liberal citizen, who upholds the rights of others and makes choices for who will represent her in creating and maintaining state institutions, is very different from a citizen who is able to participate in the public sphere, shaping policies while accessing the benefits of citizenship and demanding that the benefits and burdens of membership in society be shared equitably. In addition to the recent removal of the word ‘democracy’ from the foundational themes, UNESCO Associated Schools documents now recommend that education be focused on the following Pillars of Learning: ‘learning to know; learning to do; learning to be; and learning to live together’ (Delors, 2006; UNESCO, n.d.). While few would argue against the importance of such pedagogical goals, the shift away from the UNESCO themes that keep the social goals of society at the centre of education toward a more individualized student learning focus should be viewed in light of the wider context for such shifts. Education from a neoliberal perspective rests on norms of education for individual capacity building and skill enhancement that will result in increased economic activity and therefore an improved society. By shifting the primary focus away from enhancing the public sphere through human rights and democracy, diversity and intercultural learning, environmental sustainability and world concerns, this individualized education model (or economic model for education) is given primacy. The study in both countries illustrated that the Associated Schools are following the shifts expressed in the UNESCO policy documents, with many of the projects framed around the learning pillars and concentrating many of their projects on the area of environmental education and sustainable development, and reducing their activities around the themes of democracy, diversity, and local social injustice and human rights violations. This shift is not accidental. Goldman (2005) points out how global institutions have adopted and promoted a kind of sustainability project that creates a ‘greened’ dominant knowledge that is only environmentally focused in a surface way and is actually based on neo-colonial conservationist principles of enclosure and protection. The World Bank is an example of a neoliberal institution that ‘successfully produces a green authoritative knowledge that contradictorily caters to the critics’ demand for democratization and the investors’ call for privatization’ (Goldman, 2005: 191). Again, educators looking to build education foundations on the ideals of UNESCO find they are caught in such contradictory agendas at the global level. Without intentional critical analysis, educators stands to engage in environmental education projects believing that they are promoting necessary changes for better human and planetary well-being, but in fact, end up promoting the opposite (see Harvey, 2005).
UNESCO Associated Schools and local responses to global agendas To deal with these now selfishly globalized programs, we cannot and should not give up on the possible social justice project that may only be achieved through open dialogues and mutual understanding among peoples, states, and indeed, globally. To achieve this at a level that can have a widely diffused impact, the role of educators and educational programs cannot be underestimated. (Abdi and Shultz, 2010: 137)
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While local understandings of the history and purpose of Associated Schools certainly vary, participants in accredited schools in Canada and Brazil maintained the idealism embedded in the global project and felt strongly that the network provided an important educational platform for transforming the direction of education in their local context: A UNESCO school is a school that cares about human rights, democracy, peace, tolerance; that educates people with these ideas. (Teacher, Manitoba, Canada) This is a relevant project because it is directed to improve the quality of education. The goal is to integrate school, family and society, and to improve the public school and the education in general. (Teacher, Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Associated Schools are meant to seek innovative and creative ways to make the educational process more dynamic and closer to the students’ real world (UNESCO, 2003). They should open space for ‘good practices of quality education’ which is a goal of UNESCO since the ‘Education for All’ goals were set in 1990. The main goals of the UNESCO Associated Schools expressed in its more recent documents (UNESCO, 2008, 2009) is to deliver quality education that promotes sustainable development and educates responsible and caring citizens, who are conscious of their role in the local community and at national and global picture. While addressing important social issues, many educators pointed that the UNESCO project can open space for change and encourage educators and students to take leadership towards the promotion of social justice and political engagement (thick democracy) locally and globally. I think that’s, whether you want to call it UNESCO, whether you want to call it whatever, our school was moving in this great direction and UNESCO just sort of links it all together and gives a name to it and helps us to look toward future goals. I think then you just apply it. (Teacher, Manitoba, Canada) I think we need to stress to our students the great social responsibility of the Associated Schools. It is necessary to create exchange events among students. UNESCO has to plan a way of making this experience available for public Associated Schools. (Teacher, Sao Paulo, Brazil) Student awareness has been raised and an increased sense of social responsibility has improved, creating a student voice within the school community. In addition, the neutrality attitude has been lost and both staff and students have more of a desire to express their views. (Teacher, Manitoba, Canada)
Despite these efforts, the study showed that a continuing challenge faced by the Associated Schools in Brazil is to overcome their elitist character and democratize access to it for public schools. Research has demonstrated (Demo, 2002; Guimaraes-Iosif, 2009b) that the Brazilian public schools suffer the most from low quality education as well as lack of support and trust from the government and society. It is therefore, contradictory that the Associated Schools in the country are mostly private. Currently, there are only a small number of public schools in the Associated Schools UNESCO project. And there is a large distance between the public schools and private schools in the project. The associated private Schools need to understand how important it is to exchange experiences with the associated public schools. (School principal, Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Since one of the UNESCO goals is the reduction of poverty and social inequality, local educators in Brazil wanted more assistance from UNESCO in creating the conditions for public schools to contribute equitably in that direction.
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The major contribution is the improvement of the quality of education [in public schools]. The children start to enjoy going to the school because there are more activities for them. The students start to see themselves as an integral part of the society and no longer feel excluded, in spite of living in peripheral and poor areas. This project converts these children into participatory citizens; despite all the social problems they face they don’t feel marginalized. The student’s attendance improves because the school becomes more enjoyable, offering more activities and is better cared. They enjoy being in school and end up participating more. (School coordinator, Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Caught between liberalism and justice: teaching to empower the passive citizen The Associated Schools in this study all demonstrated the tensions from working within the contradictory messages of the UNESCO program. The following discussions highlight how educators and schools, as institutions, were navigating these contradictions. Most educators were more familiar with the learning pillars than the social themes but in every school there was evidence of activities related to the themes. While only one of the Brazilian schools made some reference to projects in the area of human rights and global issues, most of the Canadian schools have a Human Rights committee and develop projects that usually emphasize Human Rights violations. In many Canadian schools, educators were interested in discussing globally focused projects while the more local projects were seen as less urgent. In the Brazilian case, participants at four of the five schools in the study stated that their schools do not have computer labs connected to the Internet, which made it very difficult to get information to examine global issues. Although Brazil and Canada are nations with extensive cultural diversity, few schools made reference to specific projects around the theme of intercultural learning. Local issues such as racism, the life conditions of aboriginal people, inequity and local human rights violations were not sufficiently addressed by schools in both countries. Merryfield (2008) questions to what extent a country can be considered democratic if it is neglecting, devaluing and repressing the knowledge, voice and experiences of some social groups. Schools in a multicultural society must teach students to respect the history and knowledge of those who are oppressed, mistreated, stereotyped or marginalized because they have different culture, nationality, sexual orientation, religion or political beliefs. Freire (2004a: 24) also speaks of the importance of understanding democracy from more than the position of the elites: I do not speak of a democracy that deepens inequalities, that is purely conventional, that strengthens the powerful, that watches with crossed arms as the small are outraged and mistreated, one that coddles impunity. I do not speak of a democracy whose dream for the state is for a liberal state that maximizes the freedom of the strong to accumulate capital even if that means poverty, at times total destitution, for the majority.
The UNESCO documents emphasize the role of Associated Schools in educating responsible and caring citizens with peaceful minds (UNESCO, 2003, 2008, 2009). I think some of the kids that were here when they heard we had become a UNESCO school they took it more that they were in the UNESCO group for leadership. They said we’re the UNESCO kids and we’re going to do the UNESCO stuff and for me, I had this discussion with them, that’s not what it’s about. It’s about all kids getting a deeper understanding of being a good citizen, being a global citizen, being globally aware and trying to make an impact and develop a culture of peace in the high school. So I think it’s just planting that seed in kids’ minds and trying to develop it so that it’s just intrinsic so that kids have a feeling
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of peace at the school, a feeling of community and wanting to contribute to the greater picture.(Teacher, Manitoba, Canada)
The notion of education for citizenship differed from school to school, and particularly among the two countries. In both contexts, we found that while one group of educators believes that the school needs to educate citizens to be prepared to act in the job market and to be successful in a globalized society, another smaller group, advocated for an education directed at preparing citizens who act as social protagonists in the fight for social justice, both in the local community and worldwide. One Brazilian teacher pointed out an important gap in the UNESCO project: You speak about the UNESCO pillars of education, which are: learning to learn, learning to be, learning to do, learning to live together, but we are also adding learning to be politically aware. This fifth pillar, learn how to be a politicized citizen, is fundamental to educate social protagonists. (Teacher, Sao Paulo, Brazil)
The concern about educating for active and political citizenship also appeared in data from the Canadian schools. However, as was the case in Brazil, it was not the predominant discuss among them. In the Canadian context, many educators engaged in fundraising as citizenship actions, with students colleting funds for organizations and issues. This avenue to promote global citizenship is suggested as exemplary in UNESCO Associated Schools Strategic Plan for 2004–2009 (UNESCO, 2003). We did encounter educators who viewed fundraising as acts of citizenship as contentious: We are really stressing a sense of awareness and what we can do. The kids need to know what the issues in the world are and what we can do. We are really active in the citizenship end of things. We really try hard. We are not fundraising; it is not to raise money; it is to raise awareness and education. (School principal, Alberta, Canada) I have questioned myself about the role of the citizen in the world. When we talk about globalization we need to think about it. Are we consumers only? I think and I need to reverse this logic brought about by globalization, and I have to show the students that they need to work on building the kind of citizens they want to be. (Teacher, Sao Paulo, Brazil)
While education for citizenship, especially global citizenship, occupies a large space in the Canadian Associated Schools policies and curricula, in Brazil, it is still very incipient and needs to be better addressed and understood by schools leaders and teachers. The study shows that schools in both countries need to find a balance, since education for emancipated, active and democratic citizenship must address equally the local and global picture. The impact is not only cognitive, but students become more aware about global issues. Students learn that they can make a difference; how to resolve problems. You don’t see this in a lot of schools out there. (School principal, Manitoba, Canada) The concept of global education and global citizenship is not part of the discussions here. I miss educators worrying about this. There is a rejection for what is new; they only care about the things that happen in the classroom; there is no concern with global issues (Teacher, Federal District, Brazil)
As Carr (2008a: 160) states, ‘a typically ‘thin’ view of democracy seems rather ingrained, in large part through experience in schools, and also through formative life-experiences’. Our study shows that, in both countries, the process of becoming an Associated Schools and the way leadership
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takes place in the project needs to be more participatory and deliberatively democratic if schools are to be places where activist citizenship and thick democracy are learned into being. I wish we could participate more actively and have more contact and information about the project. We teachers need to know more about what UNESCO means, and what the philosophy of this project is. I would like to know how we can be part of this, inside and outside the classroom. (Teacher, Sao Paulo, Brazil) [Our] students vote during the federal election. This raises awareness of rights. However, I don’t know if I would call this school a democratic school … Voices are heard, but we need more. (Teacher, Alberta, Canada)
To be considered democratic, a school should create a dialogical, collaborative and deliberative space where teachers feel inspired and comfortable to speak up about their rights, political view and choices towards educating for democracy and social justice. In order to address some controversial issues in the classrooms, teachers may need a kind of specialized professional development that will empower them with educational tools and political knowledge for them to make a difference locally, nationally and internationally. In most schools, interviewees wondered about how they might expand this leadership opportunity to more students. A beginning point might be in understanding levels of participation and finding ways to engage the whole student body more frequently at higher levels of participation. By combining higher level participation and deliberation of students through creating openings, opportunities and obligations (Shultz et al., 2009), UNESCO Associated Schools could be model sites where children, youth, teachers, administrators, support staff and interested community members all work to achieve the highest levels of democratic and emancipator citizenship. Abdi and Shultz (2010: 134) state that deliberation is a ‘key to re-imagining a shared future including global justice’. Learning to participate and deliberate in a more emancipatoy and humane way and act politically as citizens is strategic to a healthy democratic society and therefore, part of overall citizenship education goals. This requires some shifting of traditional hierarchies that are, in many ways, embedded in the historical structures of schools, whether in how committees are organized or how staff and/or students are selected for leadership roles.
Finding a place for social justice Sometimes, I think we talk about citizenship like it was a very abstract concept with certain magical qualities. Like when the word citizenship was uttered, automatically, everybody won it. Or maybe like it were a present politicians and educators give to people. It is not that. It is important to clarify that citizenship is a product, a creation engendered by politics. It does not result from the simple fact that you were born in some country; this can happen from the legal point of view. But from the political point of view, citizenship is created or not (Freire, 2004b: 127).
The studies showed that although the Associated Schools are operating under the influence of a neoliberal globalized agenda, they have the potential to educate citizens able to promote social justice, locally and globally, and educate for a public sphere held by democratic actions and institutions. However, in order to do that, Associated School educators, in both Brazil and Canada, must understand that social justice is more than legal relationships and demands a constant and collective fight for equity, inclusiveness and a democratic politicized space created by activist citizens and supported by active citizens continually involved in strengthening the public sphere.
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Freire (2004b) emphasizes that citizenship demands political ‘conscientization’, a permanent process of engagement and reconstruction, what cannot be offered by politicians or educators. In this context, educators must be aware that they do not have the power to give citizenship to their students. Conversely, if they are truly committed to the transformation of society, they can create a dialogical, critical, participative and deliberative space that will empower students to rethink and recreate their citizenship continuously.
Conclusion Given the globalized and commodified context for practices of democracy we examined citizenship education for its possibilities in contributing to the democratization of the public sphere. Activist and emancipated educators are needed to work towards creating a public sphere that empowers the school community members to enact citizenship in critical and transformative ways. While there is by no means a package of liberation and transformational education that comes with being UNESCO Associated Schools school, the possibilities identified in this study were encouraging and there was evidence of spaces for educators to critique the status quo and many educators who see their own agency (as professionals and as actors in the wider public sphere) as the key to social justice. Although there are many contradictions and challenges to be faced among the investigated UNESCO Associated Schools in Canada and Brazil, our study shows that some schools are, in many cases courageously, beginning to engage cultural, political, and social diversity through opening up discussions, creating awareness of issues related to diversity, humans rights, environment and to helping everyone in the school community see that it must be a collective responsibility in the school to defend democracy and promote social justice locally, nationally and globally. However, we also identify that the social impacts of many schools projects are limited by the normative strength of elitist democratic models. The recent shifts toward a neoliberal framework offered by UNESCO, and the lack of financial and pedagogical support for deep engagement with UNESCO’s ideals of education for human rights, democracy, diversity, environmental sustainability and world perspectives, create significant limitations for educating activist citizens within the Associated Schools project. Educators need to be aware that the UNESCO material available for this project can help them make the curriculum more dynamic and socially relevant, but it is necessary to go beyond the curriculum and critically address local and global issues,. Therefore, it is helpful that the Associated Schools can use UNESCO ideals as a platform, but it is educators within the schools who will build citizens through the democratic processes and engagement with their communities and with others throughout the world working in solidarity on global issues. In order to educate for democracy in schools, we argue that educators must create deliberative space that offers a method for learning to be activist citizens as they are engaged in ‘re-imaging, reconstructing and therefore, repositioning toward more just relations’ (Abdi and Shultz, 2010: 135). Thus, we argue in favour of a citizenship education that creates and emphasizes a public sphere where activist citizens work for social justice. UNESCO Associated Schools demonstrate both the possibilities and limitations of such a project. Funding and Acknowledgements The Brazilian study was funded by University of Alberta and occurred from February to November 2009. In Portuguese, the Brazilian official language, the Associated Schools are called PEA (Programa de Escolas Associadas). The data was collected in three schools in the State of Sao Paulo and two in the Federal District. We would like to acknowledge the contributions of Tejwant Chana, Julia Medland and Ali Abdi in the
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Canadian study. The research took place from May 2008 to April 2009 and it was funded by Alberta Education, Alberta Teacher’s Association, Manitoba Ministry of Education, Canadian Commission for UNESCO, and the University of Alberta. The data was collected in five schools in the province of Alberta and five in Manitoba.
Notes 1 OECD: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development http://www.oecd.org 2 World Bank http://www.worldbank.org 3 UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization http://www.unesco.org
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