Political Socialization and Citizenship Education in Chile: An Analysis from a Gender Perspective

Abstract

Facing a socio-political scenario of increasing disaffection with politics, systematic decline of the credibility of institutions and diversification of the forms of political participation, the issue of citizenship education emerges with special interest in recent years. Nevertheless, the analysis of political socialization processes and citizenship education in Chilean school contexts has not been addressed looking at the gender differences that may exist in beliefs and forms of participation, nor at the education that, in this regard, students receive at school.This research seeks to identify and to characterize gender differences and biases existing in political socialization and citizenship education of Chilean secondary school students. Using quantitative and qualitative evidence, the results suggest a cultural transition towards strengthening the relationship between female students and the socio-political domain. However, at the same time, in their school education, traits of the cultural pattern that identify politics mainly as a masculine domain remain.