Reinventing Educational Spaces, Building Active Citizenship: Two Brazilian Experiences

Abstract

When Leslie Bethell (2000) states that, “Brazil is a democracy of voters, not yet a democracy of citizens”, he is highlighting two signifi cant aspects of the country. Firstly, the fact that all people can vote in Brazil, and nearly all do (it is obligatory for those aged 18–70), is indicative of a range of advances in the twentieth-century that ensured universal formal rights. The Constitution of 1988 and the Statute of the Child and the Adolescent of 1990 form part of an edifi ce of offi cial guarantees to the people, including that of compulsory education from 7 to 14 years. Yet the progressive and enlightened nature of much Brazilian legislation and institutional structures is matched by the ineffectiveness and incompleteness of their implementation. Civil rights are generally upheld only in proportion to the wealth of the individuals involved, and the poorest have next to no social rights. In the political sphere, there is formal, but not effective, participation. In general terms, it is possible to see citizenship as consisting of two strands: the passive, relating to the set of rights that the State guarantees to uphold for the individual, and the active, relating to the participation of the individual in the functioning of the State. The two major paradigms of citizenship – liberal and civic republican – each focus principally on one of these two elements, the former on rights and the latter on active participation (Heater, 1999; Kymlicka, 2002). Yet it can be argued that citizenship will only be effective if attention is paid to both, with citizens ensured of their civil, political and social rights (in T. H. Marshall’s [1950] conception) and taking an active part in decision-making, whether at the local or national level. Education is related to both these strands of citizenship. Firstly, it is itself a right (though the nature and extent of that right may be strongly contested) and as such, citizenship makes necessary the provision of at least basic education for all. Yet education is also a means to ensuring the second strand. Effective participation cannot be ‘granted’ to citizens (even though the State can make efforts to remove formal barriers). It depends on knowledge, skills and dispositions that must be developed internally and thus will occur largely through formal or informal education. Importantly, therefore, effective citizenship raises questions over the quantity and quality of schooling, the access to educational provision and its nature or orientation.