Impuesto Predial

The discussion about understandings of CE also considers findings from the analysis of the set of questions about students' opinions on the subject HGSC, which is the one that contains topics on citizenship.

As said before, HGSC has an emphasis on promoting CE; thus a reflection is needed on whether students link both concepts. A majority of them from both schools agreed on HGSC as the subject that includes some topics on citizenship but that it is not enough to cover all the contents they need to learn before graduating from secondary school.

Students from the PFBS agree they have learned some topics on citizenship during the current year, such as labour rights of women, rights to protest and give opinions, some rights and duties of citizens, international politics. The evidence suggests that a significant topic absent from the contents being taught was voting, not only during the current year but in the previous one as well.

I remember the teacher talked about the presidential election, but that was when I was in grade 9th _{or 10}th_{…I think…I don’t} remember much of what he said. (Ester, PFBS)

We should learn more about politics, and voting; we exercise here in the school because we elect our student president. We have polling stations within the school and we do as it’s done in formal voting in the country, that it’s what we understand. But we need more knowledge on how to vote outside the school. (Guillermo, PFBS)

As it has been mentioned, the right to vote and the active participation in elections is in the views of participants a main issue to define who a citizen is. Also, the presidential election in Chile was planned for October 2013, in which several students were entitled to vote, as they would be of full age. Therefore, I was expecting them to have received contents on voting and to mention the coming election in the FGD and in-depth

interviews; this did not happen. From the interviews with teachers, I did not find evidence that this topic was to be taught in the following months.

As both teachers interviewed mentioned, next topics to be covered were contemporary Latin-America and Latin-America and Chile today. From the analysis of the HGSC textbooks, other topics covered in grade 12 were the current world context, Chile in a globalised world with emphases on international economic treaties and in human rights. In the previous chapter, it was discussed the contradictions between what the curriculum of HGSC states regarding focus on CE from 2009 and the textbook in which topics are not directly linked to this emphasis. The interviews with students are consistent with the analysis of documents that shows these contradictions; students do not recognise to have received several contents on citizenship.

About the PSS, most students do not identify topics on citizenship being covered by the subject HGSC during the current year. A few students said to remember lessons in which some topics were addressed, but they could not mention specific contents.

Ehhh… I don’t know if we have learnt anything about citizenship in History. (Catalina, PSS)

The only thing I remember the teacher explained about citizenship was the presidents in Chile, who they were and years in government; we had to memorise it, nothing else. (Juanita, PSS) Even when PSS students expressed the lack of contents of citizenship in HGSC, they agreed that the subject is crucial to have knowledge of the nation and voting.

One should learn why Chile is a country with these characteristics; we need to know our history not to repeat same mistakes, for example, to not discriminate indigenous people. There are so many things we need to learn, why one political party is in government and why the other one is not. (Jorge, PSS).

In this example, the student links past and future, which is one of the goals of the curriculum. This student shared more than once in the interview, how his family, grandparents and parents, have been involved in demands of indigenous groups in Chile. It might be that this lived experience influences the way he establishes relationships between past and future and with political decisions that benefit or not aboriginal people in the country.

One of the topics discussed with students and teachers was the opinions on the text of HGSC for grade 12. As already said in the previous chapter, there were three different editorials authorised to publish this textbook to be used in 2013. They are similar in contents and sequence of contents and differ basically in layouts. Main contents related to citizenship are The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, women’s rights, indigenous people’s rights, social movements and democratic societies, among others. All interviewees recognise to use the textbook very often.

In the case of the PFBS, views are diverse, from students that think it is very useful to others who describe it as a resource with ‘too much text and lack of images’ (Daniel, PFBS). Some students highly value the textbook because he has learned how to work with one of its tools which are conceptual maps.

I have learnt how to summarise long texts for example. I summarise everything by making conceptual maps, so I can find out more. We are required to make conceptual maps in assessments to compile contents. (Daniel, PFBS)

Mostly all PFBS students opined that the textbook is very useful before assessments because it contains summaries of each unit of contents (Marcela, PFBS). Some students whose areas of interest are politics and social sciences think the textbook should include more content and fewer images, the opposite opinion shares the rest of students. All of them recognise it as the leading guide teachers use in the development of lessons. Even though they agree on the importance of this material, almost none of them could identify more than one specific content on CE embedded in the textbook.

Students from the PSS also identified the textbook as the primary tool used by teachers in each lesson. Opinions differ between interviewees, some of them expressed: ‘we use it in each class but only to complete guidelines the teacher provides for us’ (Juanita, PSS); ‘it contains just a little about Chile, too much about other countries’ (Eleonor, PSS). Other students valued it highlighting the contribution the textbook represents to the learning process: ‘it’s a very useful tool’ (Jaime, PSS); ‘it is a good summary of important historical issues, especially of indigenous organisations’ (Jorge, PSS); ‘I like the book, it has a lot of information…. But I haven’t read it much’ (Mariana, PSS). Part of the topics students identified as related to CE are the history of wars, indigenous rights and organisations and human rights.

In summary, students and teachers from both schools value the textbook for grade 12 as an important tool that helps the teaching and learning of contents on HGSC and CE.

The following section is focused on students’ perceptions of participation in relation to the exercise of citizenship beyond what occurs in the classroom through defined subjects.