Abstract

ELIZONDO HUERTA, Aurora. El discurso cívico en la escuela. Perfiles educativos [online]. 2000, vol.22, n.89-90, pp.115-129. ISSN 0185-2698.

In this article, the author presents the results of a research project carried out in collaboration with the Instituto Federal Electoral (Federal Electoral Institute) about the way in which children build civic practices during the daily school activities. The study is based on two theoretical references: a) citizenship is considered as a trade and not as a status; and b) civic education is conceived as a right to participation. In order to obtain empirical informations, the researchers established records based on an ethnographic section in a classroom of fourth grade primary school students in Mexico City public school. The exposition of the results, divided into three sections, describes some aspects of Mexican political culture and citizenship; it also highlights how necessary it seems to be to think of the school as place where cultures can live together in harmony and points out its role in the construction of a political subculture by showing the most significative informations of the field investigation.

Keywords : Civic practices; Civic culture; Participation; Political culture; Citizenship.