Abstract

MEJIA, Andrés  and  PERAFAN, Betsy. Para acercarse al dragón, para amansarlo, es necesario haberlo amansado primero: una mirada crítica a las competencias ciudadanas. rev.estud.soc. [online]. 2006, n.23, pp.23-35. ISSN 0123-885X.

More that being a technical description written by experts, on the requirements to exert a good citizenship exercise, the citizenship competencies recently proposed by the Ministry of Education represent a specific understanding of citizenship and democracy. Basing on a critical revision of the documents related to the Ministry’s citizenship competencies (standards, tests, and texts that provide a theoretical framework), we conclude that the citizenship exercise is understood as the performance of a set of competencies apt to uphold a democratic society in its ideal state. In such environment there will always be space for mutual comprehension, conflicts may be solved by means of open and rational dialogue, genuine participation mechanisms exist, and distortions of democracy are transparent and easily identified. However, on one side this vision of ideal democracy does not match the current society, and, on the other, it is a utopia, for it is an unreachable ideal; and, although it must be pursued, goals must also be achieved within a fallible society. All the same, if defined again from a critical perspective, such deficiency present within the current frame of the citizenship competencies may still be mended.

Keywords : Citizenship competencies; critical pedagogy; democracy.

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