Abstract

ARAUJO-OLIVERA, S. Stella; YUREN CAMARENA, M. Teresa; ESTRADA RUIZ, Marcos J.  and  CRUZ REYES, Miriam De la. Respect, Democracy and Politics, Negation of the Consensus. The Case of Civics and Ethical Instruction in the Secondary Schools of Morelos. RMIE [online]. 2005, vol.10, n.24, pp.15-42. ISSN 1405-6666.

An analysis is made of the constellation of values that influence teaching citizenship to students in secondary schools in the state of Morelos. Part of the analytical reconstruction is based on interviews, observations and surveys carried out with students taking Civics and Ethical Instruction. Findings show that the significance of respect is taken from social prescription, and consists of not damaging the interests of others. By eluding conflicts associated with politics, the students adhere to a type of democracy that blocks the appearance of conflict and favors “subjection for peace”. Although democracy is desirable, the students do not conceive of the possibility of design; they disassociate democracy from the political exercise of citizenship. Their discourse reveals the representation of a prescriptive or ideal democracy that, far from contrasting what it is with what it should be, appears as an unreachable horizon: the idea contributes to desperation and fatalism, thus opening dangerously the possibility of the acceptance of totalitarianism.

Keywords : values; secondary education; education and society; education and politics; citizenship; Mexico.

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