Authors: Fernando Manuel Seixas Guimarães, José Carlos Bernardino Carvalho Morgado, José Augusto Brito Pacheco
Site of publication: IJHSR
Type of publication: Article
Date of publication: 2022
Introduction
The intense and rapid political, scientific, technological and economic changes that have permeated contemporary society have generated new challenges whose answers, more complex and demanding, demand a different attitude from citizens, only possible to achieve in a dimension that reconciles the individual with the community.
Furthermore, the fact that the challenges we face today have heightened the need for each context to be structured around axes considered fundamental in any democratic society, such as, for example, culture, citizenship, equity, human rights, sustainability, justice and peace.It is in this sense that education and, in particular, the school curriculum can make a difference, especially if they are conceived [and implemented] as essential nutrients for basic education for all citizens.In this order of ideas, the school, as an artefact that stimulates sharing, mutual assistance and learning, is configured as a space and a time conducive to the achievement of the enumerated purposes. The democratization of the school fell short of expectations, restricting itself to guaranteeing only equal access, this fact cannot lessen the opportunity to adopt educational policies and practices that create conditions for reorganize the school and make it a true mainstay of curricular diversification and pedagogical differentiation, after all, essential elements for an effective equality of success.
The intense and rapid political, scientific, technological and economic changes that have permeated contemporary society have generated new challenges whose answers, more complex and demanding, demand a different attitude from citizens, only possible to achieve in a dimension that reconciles the individual with the community
This situation is particularly sensitive in the Global South Countries, as is the case of Guinea-Bissau, where human development, the fight against poverty, the country’s growth in economic terms, the improvement of living conditions and the development of priority areas these are aspirations that have yet to be achieved and that continue to preoccupy decision-makers both domestically and internationally.
The concept of citizenship
The fact that in certain regions of the world citizenship is an emerging issue that has achieved effective political and social centrality seems not to be controversial, especially in contexts where the low standard of living of the populations is a matter of concern with evident repercussions on the most vulnerable strata, in particular, women and children.
Although this situation is transversal to several social quadrants, as shown by the development indicators published in 2013, 2014 and 2015, in the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Reports, it is particularly visible in the area of education, where effects are felt in a more intense and prolonged way. But what do we mean when we talk about citizenship? Citizenship is now recognized as an attribute of any citizen, which involves attitudes and behaviors related to the enjoyment of rights and the obligation to fulfill civil, political and social duties established in the Basic Law (Constitution) of a country.
However, the concept of citizenship has evolved over time, since, historically, it was not extended to all citizens. Only men or landowners were eligible to be considered citizens. In fact, if we analyze the evolution of the concept in a diachronic perspective, we find that citizenship began by being, in a certain sense, much more a product of exclusion than of inclusion. In many cases, the maintenance of discrimination based on gender, age, race, social status or class, education, property, religion.
Although this situation is transversal to several social quadrants, as shown by the development indicators published in 2013, 2014 and 2015, in the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Reports, it is particularly visible in the area of education, where effects are felt in a more intense and prolonged way
Nowadays, the situation is quite different. During much of the last century, an intensive set of changes and transformations gradually contributed to a more inclusive understanding of citizenship, moving from a more restricted approach to a broader understanding of the concept itself. More current perspectives on the concept of citizenship limit it, in several countries, to a register of legal equality of all citizens who live in common national times and spaces.
Hence the importance that has been recognized to Education for Citizenship, since it aims to train people to make decisions and assume individual, community and social responsibilities. This training finds in the school a privileged place, since it “constitutes an important context for the learning of the exercise of citizenship”, mainly because in its f low a large part of the “transversal concerns to society” that, more or less explicitly, constitute structuring axes. of the concept of citizenship itself.
Basically, a set of aspects that demand the formation of individuals capable of claiming their rights while scrupulously fulfilling their duties, in dialogue and respect for others, regardless of their social, economic or religious origin.
Curriculum and cultural citizenship
Starting with the notion of curriculum, it is important to remember that, regardless of whether it is a polysemic concept, an attribute that justifies the profusion of definitions that have been engendered over time, the curriculum is a political and cultural artifact.
Basically, a desideratum that can only be achieved if the curriculum is no longer seen as a plan prepared by specialists for teachers to apply at school, but is understood as a cultural artifact and an educational proposal, that is, a training project that, associating the plan of intentions with the terrain of practices, it conveys a certain social and cultural background.
A final note to mention that, as it can function as a control mechanism culture is one of the structuring axes of both cultural policy and political culture itself, and is therefore decisive in the inclusion or exclusion of individuals in social terms. Moving on to the third concept and taking into account that citizenship refers to the belonging of an individual to a group/society and to the rights and duties – social, political and civil – that he has, the Agency for the Knowledge Society (UMIC) considers that cultural citizenship is the right to knowledge and cultural representation of that individual – rights related to cultural production, linguistic diversity, diversity of manifestations, among others.
The fact that culture is not being considered in all its fullness, especially because certain cultural projects, managed by companies to the detriment of the State, limit its field of action, limiting it to the domain of the arts because they are easier to get a commonsense notion of culture, because they become more visible in society and because they generate a faster return.
A notion of culture that has changed and expanded significantly (tourism, art, fashion, urbanism, advertising, among others, are now part of this culture), has transcended borders (fruit of the globalizing torrent that has been devastating us in recent years ), diluted dichotomies, faced the ideas of hierarchy, authority and wealth, revalued the economic sector (already in full expansion) and pulverized and intensified the supply of commercial and symbolic goods (books, music, fashion, design, technological innovations, gastronomy… ). Basically, a cultural change that is significantly transforming the current world.
The fact that culture is not being considered in all its fullness, especially because certain cultural projects, managed by companies to the detriment of the State, limit its field of action, limiting it to the domain of the arts because they are easier to get a commonsense notion of culture, because they become more visible in society and because they generate a faster return
As it can easily be seen, this cultural transformation is reflected in the school, in particular in the curriculum that is developed there, forcing school actors to reposition themselves and to find ways to respond to the new social and cultural challenges they face.
This is an important challenge, given that, due to various contingencies, people continue in many cases to favor a more instrumental and more utilitarian dimension of education and curriculum to the detriment of the affirmation of values inherent to human development and the construction of full citizenship, namely a true cultural citizenship.
Now, since the curriculum is a social and cultural artifact, it is at this level that changes can be initiated that allow the aforementioned aspects to be implemented, and it is up to the teachers, as professionals of the curriculum, to assume another role in this process.
Thus, it is essential to adopt a concept of curriculum that is substantially different from what has prevailed until now, which implies the “passage from a technical curriculum, supposedly aseptic, because it is hermetically closed and therefore decontextualized, to a curriculum that becomes aware of criticism of its territory as a subsystem of a broader system where multiple pressures of a political, economic, social and cultural nature play”.
The Specific case of Guinea-Bissau
The Republic of Guinea-Bissau, an independent country since 1974, is among the poorest countries with the greatest external dependence (Salgado, 2013). Indeed, according to the 2015 Human Development Report, Guinea-Bissau occupied, in 2015, the 178th position in the ranking of the 188 nations present in the Human Development Index and its components.
The population is mostly young, living mostly in rural areas, with an annual growth of around 3%, and in the age group from 7 to 17 years, this growth has been around 39% in recent years. According to the Ministry of National Education (MEN), access to school, namely to basic education, is not yet universal, with a large dropout rate and huge regional and gender disparities in terms of passing rates.
The political instability experienced in the country since its independence, where there were 18 coups, coup attempts and alleged military coups and the economic and financial difficulties that have plagued the Guinean population and the marked lack of qualified training of the teaching staff have contributed to perpetuating some educational problems, namely in terms of school performance, early dropout and gender inequalities.
Guinea-Bissau’s education system, which is heavily dependent on external aid, still does not have the conditions to create positive expectations regarding the evolution of the school situation.
Statistical data indicate an evolution in access to basic and secondary education levels and in recent years there has been an enormous effort of intervention, translated into a plurality of diagnostic studies, in the elaboration of norms and in the accomplishment of tasks that point to the reform of the educational system in the sense of a greater adaptation to the Guinean context and of the scientific and pedagogical updating.
The current Guinean government has started an ambitious reform agenda to face the country’s development challenges. To this end, it adopted a Strategic Plan aimed at “consolidating previous progress, boosting socio-economic development in 2014-2018, and launching Guinea-Bissau into a virtuous circle of progress by 2025”.
The MEN published a Guiding Document (DO) for the Curricular Reform of Basic Education – RECEB, the result of the work of collecting, consulting and analyzing existing information in documents prepared by the National Institute for the Development of Education (INDE). This document aims to guide the methodology to be adopted in the implementation of the Guinean curriculum reform (MEN, 2015).
The MEN justifies the commitment to education as one of the priority sectors in Guinea-Bissau, since, in addition to two other justifications (relationship with natural, social and cultural potential; levels of human development), there is the fact that there is a “fragile citizenship”. As a consequence of these premises, the Guinean government’s measures in terms of public education policies will contemplate the emancipatory training of citizens; the valorization of human resources; and, the promotion of equal access and opportunities for all.
Thus, the relevance of Education for Citizenship (EC) is understood, especially if it focuses on dimensions such as learning to be, to be, to relate, to participate and to decide, thus contributing to the formation of knowledgeable, responsible citizens. and intervening in individual, relational and community terms. In this undertaking, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) will certainly contribute to facilitating the development of these goals.
Thus, the relevance of Education for Citizenship (EC) is understood, especially if it focuses on dimensions such as learning to be, to be, to relate, to participate and to decide, thus contributing to the formation of knowledgeable, responsible citizens. and intervening in individual, relational and community terms. In this undertaking, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) will certainly contribute to facilitating the development of these goals.
The subject of Education for Citizenship/ Education for Life must, therefore, be developed on the basis of a program that, without neglecting the assumptions set out in the Basic Law of the Educational System of Guinea-Bissau, is structured around three main axes – the individual; the relational; and, the community – and is dimensioned through values, attitudes and behaviors that contribute to the construction and consolidation of a modern and inclusive society, only possible through the exploration of different dimensions such as the valorization of Human Rights, the culture of peace, gender equality, education for development, environmental preservation, and health education, media education, curricular justice, among others.
Thus, the relevance of Education for Citizenship (EC) is understood, especially if it focuses on dimensions such as learning to be, to be, to relate, to participate and to decide, thus contributing to the formation of knowledgeable, responsible citizens. and intervening in individual, relational and community terms. In this undertaking, the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) will certainly contribute to facilitating the development of these goals
Final considerations
Citizenship is today a key issue in countries where populations have low standards of living, particularly in the most vulnerable social strata. Guinea-Bissau thus emerges as a country in which this concept deserves centrality in teaching programs in compulsory education. The curriculum constitutes a relevant instrument for the promotion of social inclusion and cultural citizenship. It is therefore intended that teaching encourages critical thinking, communicative skills and the ability to live in community, highlighting the individual, relational and community dimensions.
Basically, operationalize the emerging relations between curriculum and cultural citizenship and foster a set of aspects inherent to a democratic, plural and inclusive society that the current Guinean government aims to build.