New Citizens in the Making

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

New Citizens in the Making New citizens in the making A case study on citizenship education in a public secondary school in Sucre, Bolivia Anna Katalin Forgács Master International Development Studies August 2014 Wageningen University New citizens in the making A case study on citizenship education in a public secondary school in Sucre, Bolivia Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of: Master of Science Name of the student: Anna Katalin Forgács Registration number: 851124-243-190 MSc student International Development Studies Chair Group of Sociology of Development and Change Specialisation Rural Development Sociology Thesis code: RDS-80433 Supervisor: dr. Elisabet Rasch Examiner: dr. ir Monique Nuijten August, 2014 Wageningen University, the Netherlands i ACKNOWLEDGMENT In April 2013, for the first time I entered the room of dr. Elisabeth Rasch, presenting some ideals of what I desired to research. I clearly remember telling her that I was really interested about the latest developments in Bolivia, the educational setting and how children are being educated about their rights. I also told her that in the literature the term citizenship came across multiple times, but I wished to leave it out, as I just didn’t have a feel for this concept. Now, more than a year later, I have just finished my master thesis exactly on this term, researching how citizenship has been constructed through the educational setting in a public secondary school in Sucre, Bolivia. Writing my thesis was a process of Pachakuti. By reading literatures about Bolivia, I learned about this Andean word, referring to the traditional Andean notions of time, where time elapses between catastrophes and renovations (Rivera Cusicanqui, cited in Thomson, 2011). This is exactly how I feel about writing my thesis. I believe my field research went smooth, I came home confidently, saying that I know how citizenship is being constructed, but in reality, when I had to put citizenship education into words, it proved to be a catastrophe. But rethinking and rewriting my data over and over, I believe that I found renovations to understand how citizenship is constructed in a public secondary school in Sucre. Therefore writing my thesis proved to be a great learning experience both in terms of developing my scientific knowledge and skills and also in a personal level as my world extended through this journey. I could not have done this without the guidance and support of a number of people to whom I own my sincere gratitude. First and foremost, I could not have realized what lies in front of you without the scientific input, encouragement and patient of my supervisor dr. Elisabet Rasch. Her guidance not just helped me to rethink and develop my understanding over citizenship, but her feedbacks also motivated me to develop my scientific writing skills. Special thanks go out to my friends in Bolivia. Thinking of you with love and gratitude that I lived with and I worked with during my 3-months stay in Sucre. Their precious time, effort and friendship supported me and my thesis process. Last, but not least I would like to express my thankfulness to my family and friends for supporting me in my catastrophes and sharing their personal experiences, assuring that it is part of the process. Anna Katalin Forgács August 2014 i Abstract Social movements in Bolivia brought forward a new citizenship understanding with a new meaning and practice by raising attention that citizenship is cultural and citizenry is not a legal status, rather a social process. Social movements brought Evo Morales to the presidency, who also acknowledged these new insides of citizenship within legal frameworks, namely in the new constitution of Bolivia. The thesis researches these new understandings of citizenship through the educational setting by taking the argument that schools are practice grounds of implementing nation-led citizenship projects. To tackle down these new insides qualitative research approach was adopted, applying methods as participant observation, fieldnotes, fieldjournal, desk research and informal and semi-structured interviews during a 3-month-long field work in Sucre, Bolivia. In this thesis I argue that schooling constructs the meaning of citizenship by making students feels to belong to cultural and social entities. While in reflection to the new practice the term active citizenship emerges, however I point out, that schools are both sites of passive and active form of citizenship. By reflecting on students’ responses, the thesis brings forward that students do not fully feel interconnected with these narrations and practices of citizenship, which can be rooted that the Bolivian schooling has a quite traditional outlook and the youth in their everyday practice is more assimilated with modernity. Keywords: citizenship education, Bolivia, cultural and social belonging and active citizenship ii 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Analytical framework.................................................................................................................... 2 1.1.1 Rise of globalization challenging citizenship understanding ................................................. 2 1.1.2 Conceptualizing citizenship.................................................................................................... 3 1.1.3 Citizenship education............................................................................................................. 5 1.2 Citizenship and educational projects in Bolivia ............................................................................ 6 1.3 Methodology................................................................................................................................. 9 2. Zooming on ....................................................................................................................................... 13 2.1 The plurinational context of Bolivia............................................................................................ 14 2.2 The socio-cultural context of Sucre ............................................................................................ 15 2.3 Liceo Julio Quezada Rendón as a public female school.............................................................. 16 3. Who are we? – Who we are not? Narration of cultural identities in the curriculum...................... 19 3.1 The narrations of cultural identities ........................................................................................... 19 3.1.1 Local identity........................................................................................................................ 20 3.1.2 Regional identity.................................................................................................................. 22 3.1.3 National identity .................................................................................................................. 23 3.1.4 Global identity...................................................................................................................... 27 3.2 The performance of cultural identities....................................................................................... 29 3.2.1 The Day of Independence – as hora civica........................................................................... 30 3.2.2 The Day of Independence – as parade ................................................................................ 35 3.3 Gap in cultural interest ............................................................................................................... 36 4. Building our community.................................................................................................................... 38 4.1 The sense of community and networks...................................................................................... 40 4.2 Common principals of the communal life................................................................................... 42 4.3 Escaping from the control........................................................................................................... 50 5. Active citizenship .............................................................................................................................. 53 5.1 Engagement and betterment ..................................................................................................... 54 5.2 Pedagogy and critical thinking.................................................................................................... 57 6. Conclusion......................................................................................................................................... 59 References ............................................................................................................................................ 61 Appendix............................................................................................................................................... 65 iii 1. Introduction Social movements arose across Latin America from the 1980s. Bolivia got in the spotlight from the mid-1990s, when social movements rebelled against the neoliberal structural adjustment development programs as these reforms just deepened the struggle of poor indigenous Bolivians, who contested the majority of the society. Not just these neoliberal reforms failed,
Recommended publications
  • Captive Communities: Situation of the Guaraní Indigenous People and Contemporary Forms of Slavery in the Bolivian Chaco
    INTER‐AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS OEA/Ser.L/V/II. Doc. 58 24 December 2009 Original: Spanish CAPTIVE COMMUNITIES: SITUATION OF THE GUARANÍ INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF SLAVERY IN THE BOLIVIAN CHACO 2009 Internet: http://www.cidh.org E‐mail: [email protected] OAS Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data Inter‐American Commission on Human Rights. Comunidades cautivas : situación del pueblo indígena guaraní y formas contemporáneas de esclavitud en el Chaco de Bolivia = Captive communities : situation of the Guaraní indigenous people and contemporary forms of slavery in the Bolivian Chaco / Inter‐American Commission on Human Rights. p. ; cm. (OEA documentos oficiales ; OEA/Ser.L)(OAS official records ; OEA/Ser.L) ISBN 978‐0‐8270‐5433‐2 1. Guarani Indians‐‐Human rights‐‐Bolivia‐‐Chaco region. 2. Guarani Indians‐‐Slavery‐‐ Bolivia‐‐Chaco region. 3. Indigenous peoples‐‐Slavery‐‐Bolivia‐‐Chaco region. 4. Indigenous peoples‐‐Human rights‐‐Bolivia. 5. Indigenous peoples‐‐Civil rights‐‐ Bolivia. I. Title. II Series. III. Series. OAS official records ; OEA/Ser.L. OEA/Ser.L/V/II. Doc. 58 Approved by the Inter‐American Commission on Human Rights on December 24, 2009 INTER‐AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS MEMBERS Luz Patricia Mejía Guerrero Víctor E. Abramovich Felipe González Sir Clare Kamau Roberts Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro Florentín Meléndez Paolo G. Carozza ****** Executive Secretary: Santiago A. Canton Assistant Executive Secretary: Elizabeth Abi‐Mershed The IACHR thanks the Governments of Denmark and Spain for the financial support that made it possible to carry out the working and supervisory visit to Bolivia from June 9 to 13, 2008, as well as the preparation of this report.
    [Show full text]
  • Assessment Report – Complaint Regarding the Don Mario Mine, Bolivia
    Assessment Report Complaint regarding COMSUR/Don Mario Mine Bolivia (November 2003) Office of the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman of the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................3 The CAO and its mandate.............................................................................................3 The CAO as Ombudsman .............................................................................................3 The assessment report..................................................................................................4 Use of terms ..................................................................................................................4 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................4 2. The Complaint............................................................................................................5 The substance of the complaint.....................................................................................5 The complainants ..........................................................................................................5 The limits of the CAO’s jurisdiction in relation to this complaint ....................................6 3. The Complaint Assessment Process.........................................................................6 4. The
    [Show full text]
  • United States District Court Southern District of Florida Miami Division
    Case 1:07-cv-22459-AJ Document 88 Entered on FLSD Docket 06/23/2008 Page 1 of 65 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA MIAMI DIVISION ) ELOY ROJAS MAMANI, et al., Case No. 08-21063-Civ-(JORDAN) ) Plaintiffs, ) ) vs. ) ) ) GONZALO DANIEL SÁNCHEZ DE ) LOZADA SÁNCHEZ BUSTAMANTE, ) ) Defendant. ) ELOY ROJAS MAMANI, et al., ) Case No. 07-22459-Civ-(JORDAN/MCALILEY) ) Plaintiffs, ) ) vs. ) ) ) JOSÉ CARLOS SÁNCHEZ BERZAÍN, ) ) Defendant. ) PLAINTIFFS’ OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANTS’ JOINT MOTION TO DISMISS Case 1:07-cv-22459-AJ Document 88 Entered on FLSD Docket 06/23/2008 Page 2 of 65 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page No. I. COUNTERSTATEMENT OF FACTS ................................................................................2 II. LEGAL STANDARDS........................................................................................................6 III. ARGUMENT.......................................................................................................................8 A. Plaintiffs’ Claims Are Not Barred by the Political Question Doctrine or the Act of State Doctrine ...............................................................................................8 1. Plaintiffs’ Claims Do Not Present Non-Justiciable Political Questions......................................................................................................8 2. The Act of State Doctrine Does Not Bar Consideration of Plaintiffs’ Claims........................................................................................14 B. Defendants Are Not
    [Show full text]
  • A Comparative Case Study of Female Literacy and Development in Guatemala and Bolivia
    DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences 8-2012 A comparative case study of female literacy and development in Guatemala and Bolivia Anavelia Mauricio DePaul University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd Recommended Citation Mauricio, Anavelia, "A comparative case study of female literacy and development in Guatemala and Bolivia" (2012). College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 132. https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd/132 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Comparative Case Study of Female Literacy and Development in Guatemala and Bolivia A Thesis Presented in In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of M.A. International Studies August, 2012 BY Anavelia Mauricio Department of International Studies College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences DePaul University Chicago, Illinois A Comparative Case Study of Female Literacy and Development in Guatemala and Bolivia by Anavelia Mauricio, M.A. International Studies Candidate Committee: Dr. Susana Martinez, Thesis Advisor Dr. Rose Spalding, Reader Dr. Antonio Morales-Pita, Reader Abstract This comparative case study will analyze the education reform policies pursued by Guatemala and Bolivia from the 1980s to the present. Education reform projects and international aid were provided as development strategies in Latin America to improve gender equality in education and literacy rates during the 1990s.
    [Show full text]
  • “Living Well” in the Constitution of Bolivia and the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Reflections on Well-Being and the Right to Development
    International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health Article “Living Well” in the Constitution of Bolivia and the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Reflections on Well-Being and the Right to Development Karen Giovanna Añaños Bedriñana 1, Bernardo Alfredo Hernández Umaña 2 and José Antonio Rodríguez Martín 3,* 1 Department of Constitutional Law and the Institute of Peace and Conflicts (IPAZ), University of Granada, 18001 Granada, Spain; [email protected] 2 Faculty of Sociology and the Institute of Peace and Development (IPAZDE), Santo Tomas University, Bogota 110231, Colombia; [email protected] 3 Department of Applied Economics, University of Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain * Correspondence: [email protected] Received: 1 February 2020; Accepted: 18 April 2020; Published: 21 April 2020 Abstract: The article analyzes how approaches to “Living Well” as reflected in the Constitution of the State of Bolivia, the Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, and the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the Organization of American States (OAS) contribute to understanding the Andean cosmovision of indigenous peoples of the American continent. To do so, it first studied the most immediate precedents that led to incorporation of the notion of Living Well into Bolivian law. Second, it approached the right to development from the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which has as its source the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The paper thus proposes reflections on the Bolivian State and the American Declaration that advance understanding of Living Well, a notion comparable in the West to the right to development (political, social, economic, environmental, and cultural) that enables the individual and collective realization of the individual.
    [Show full text]
  • United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
    Translated from Spanish UNITED NATIONS PERMANENT FORUM ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES MISSION TO BOLIVIA REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS Acronyms APG Assembly of the Guaraní People FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations FEGASACRUZ Federación de Ganaderos de Santa Cruz [Santa Cruz Federation of Livestock Breeders] IDH Direct Tax on Hydrocarbons IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development ILO International Labour Organization INRA National Institute for Agrarian Reform NGO Non-governmental organization OAS Organization of American States OHCHR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights OTB Organizaciones Territoriales de Base [Grassroots territorial organizations] PIT Inter-ministerial Transition Plan for the Guaraní People SDC Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation TCO Original community lands UNDP United Nations Development Programme Note : Investigations into human rights violations, particularly when the events are recent, can carry a great deal of risk for the researchers as well as for those who provide information and can result in violence, imprisonment or disappearance for individuals and institutions that defend basic human rights. For this reason, the witnesses in this report have been kept anonymous. The United Nations wishes to express its appreciation of the efforts made by individuals and institutions who, by providing information, contributed to the Mission. 2 Contents Page Executive summary ................................................................ 4 I. Introduction .....................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Checklist on Agency Agreements in Latin America Henry T
    Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law Volume 13 | Issue 1 1981 Checklist On Agency Agreements in Latin America Henry T. King Jr. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil Part of the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Henry T. King Jr., Checklist On Agency Agreements in Latin America, 13 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 153 (1981) Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil/vol13/iss1/14 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. Checklist On Agency Agreements In Latin America by Henry T. King, Jr.* I. INTRODUCTION F ACED WITH A substantial trade deficit, the United States is presently increasing its exports to many areas of the world, particu- larly Latin America. Incident to this export drive by American firms is an increase in agreements with agents and distributors in Latin America. In Latin America this is tricky ground and it is better to review matters thoroughly beforehand in light of that area's legal framework covering principal-agent relationships than to enter into agreements and review le- gal matters afterwards. Of all regions in the world, Latin America is one of the most protective of local interests in the context of agency agree- ments. With this in mind, it seems best to establish a checklist of points which should be kept in mind before entry into such agreements: II.
    [Show full text]
  • Bolivia's Popular Participation Law: an Undemocratic Democratisation Process?
    63 Bolivia's Popular Participation Law: An Undemocratic Democratisation Process? David Altman with Rickard Lalander1 1. Introduction Bolivia, one of the poorest and most socially diverse countries in the Western Hemisphere, began in the mid-1990s the most comprehensive political reforms in the field of decentralisation in Latin America in the last twenty years. The Popular Participation Law, Ley de Participación Popular (LPP), approved in Congress on 20 April 1994, subdivided Bolivian terri- tory into 314 municipalities, which were each given a per capita share of national resources. Known as the principle of coparticipación (co-participa- tion), twenty per cent of national state expenditure is now disbursed among the local governments (municipalities) on a per capita basis. Indigenous, peasant communities (campesinos) and neighbourhood organi- sations gained legal status as formal representatives of their constituent populations through Grassroots Territorial Organisations (OTB). The OTBs from a single canton elect representatives for a municipal Vigilance Committee (Comité de Vigilancia, CV), whose role is to oversee municipal expenditures and budgets. Citizens directly elect their alcalde (mayor) and consejales (councillors) who sit on the municipal council and run the day-to-day operations of the municipality with the responsibility of coordinating most local needs, such as education, sanitation, infrastructure, irrigation and sports facilities (Centellas, 2000). Each municipal government must prepare a five-year Municipal Development Plan (PDM) based on the Manual of Participa- tory Municipal Planning developed by the Vice Ministry of Popular Partic- ipation, and must also draw up an Annual Operative Plan (POA). In short, these reforms have been so radical that they have hardly left anyone indif- ferent: for their promoters, the reforms have been “revolutionary”, for their critics the reforms are almost the work of the devil and they have been reviled as “damned” (Blanes, 1999).
    [Show full text]
  • 1 United States District Court Southern District Of
    Case 1:19-cv-21725-JLK Document 57 Entered on FLSD Docket 11/15/2019 Page 1 of 15 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA MIAMI DIVISION CASE NO.: 19-cv-21725-KING JAVIER GARCIA-BENGOCHEA, Plaintiff, v. CARNIVAL CORPORATION d/b/a CARNIVAL CRUISE LINE, a foreign corporation, Defendant. ______________________________________/ DECLARATION OF KEITH S. ROSENN WITH RESPECT TO COSTA RICAN LAW I, Professor Emeritus KEITH S. ROSENN, hereby declare as follows: 1. I received my law degree from Yale University in 1963 and served as a law clerk to the Honorable J. Joseph Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1963-1964. I am a lawyer duly licensed by the State of Florida to practice law under License No. 335967 and am an active member in good standing of the Florida Bar, the American Bar Association, and the Inter-American Bar Association. 2. I am also Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Miami. I have taught courses in Latin American Law and Comparative 1 Case 1:19-cv-21725-JLK Document 57 Entered on FLSD Docket 11/15/2019 Page 2 of 15 Law since 1965, first at the Ohio State College of Law, and from 1980 until June 2016, at the University of Miami School of Law. 3. In addition to my teaching responsibilities at the University of Miami School of Law, I served as Chairperson of Foreign Graduate Law Program and the Masters Program in Inter-American Law, and as Faculty Advisor for the University of Miami Inter-American Law Review.
    [Show full text]