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Citizenship for the post-conflict? Citizenship education in Colombia

Citizenship
Conflict Resolution
Social Justice
Education
Maria Lucia Guerrero Farias
University of Bristol
Maria Lucia Guerrero Farias
University of Bristol

Abstract

As a contested concept citizenship is constantly mutating, changing, and reinventing itself. Education, as a pillar of society, has had a crucial role in its construction. Because of this, there is an urgent need to study the political, economic, cultural and social specificities of education and citizenship. Colombia has a complex past, which unfortunately has been marked by a close relation with violence in its two hundred year history (Jaramillo & Mesa, 2009). With the promise of an end to the conflict Colombia could radically change but questions remain: How would we, Colombians, imagine a country without conflict? How should we educate children for whom violence is common? How do we change from being enemies to being fellow countrymen? What kind of skills and competencies shall we develop to encourage the healing and construction of a fairer and more just society? How do we prevent the conflict from ever happening again? This paper addresses the importance of education in the making of citizens and citizenship with particular emphasis on its role in a post-conflict society. Long-standing peace will only come when social injustices are addressed and the recognition, representation, and reconciliation with the other is a given in the construction of a new democratic, fair, just and peaceful nation. One of the key institutions in the building of a new society is the school: it nurtures new kind of citizens who solve conflict in a peaceful way, who feel empathy for the other, and who are willing to challenge the status quo when injustices arise. Educational institutions are the place where students spend most of their day, it is where they build friendships, and it’s where they encounter others from different backgrounds, with diverse personal life-stories. Educational institutions have an influence over how we become citizens, and what kind of citizen we become (Robertson, 2011, p. 289). This paper seeks to understand how schools in Bogotá, Colombia enact particular citizenships and whether these are aligned with official discourses for a post-conflict country. My aim is to materialize attitudes and discourses around citizenship that permeate daily life in schools and reproduce discourses of citizenship. It will draw on empirical data from ethnographic observations and interviews conducted in schools from Bogotá, Colombia’s capital city. In a well-connected world the way Colombia overcomes the conflict will have consequences not only over Latin America but also all over the world. Studying the importance of citizenship and education in this crucial moment of the country’s history will contribute to the building of a peaceful nation that will impact our global identity. References Jaramillo, R. & José, A. M., 2009. Citizenship education as a response to Colombia's social and political context. Journal of Moral Education, 38(4), pp. 467-487. Robertson, S. L., 2011. The new spatioal politics of (re)bordering and (re)ordering. International Review of Education, 3-4(57), pp. 277-297.