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Civic engagement and the
depoliticization of CivicED
Leonel Pérez Expósito

MA
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico City
Civic engagement and the depolitization
of CivicED
1. The context of citizenship:

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 Growing global inequality

42nd Association for Moral Education Conference

 The vicious circle of economic and political education

2. The need of politically efficacious and effective citizens

3. The demotion of political participation; the rise of civic engagement

4. The depoliticization of civic education: The Mexican case

5. How to respond to the demands posed to civic education by the context of rampant
inequality?

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 1. Growing inequality: a global problem

42nd Association for Moral Education Conference

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Growing inequality: a global problem
• The richest 1% now have more wealth than the rest of the world combined.
• Power and privilege is being used to skew the economic system to increase the gap between
the richest and the rest. A global network of tax havens further enables the richest

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individuals to hide $7.6 trillion.

42nd Association for Moral Education Conference

• In 2015, just 62 individuals had the same wealth as 3.6 billion people – the bottom half
of humanity. This figure is down from 388 individuals as recently as 2010.
• The wealth of the richest 62 people has risen by 44% in the five years since2010. The
wealth of the bottom half fell by just over a trillion dollars in the same period – a drop of
41%.
•  Since the turn of the century, the poorest half of the world’s population has received just
1% of the total increase in global wealth, while half of that increase has gone to the top 1%.
(OXFAM, 2016)

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The (lack of) impact of education in
reducing inequality
• In countries like the US, where education has patently shown its positive effects in
the economy (OECD, 2014), its impact in reducing income inequality is no longer
evident, at least since 2000

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(Autor, 2014; Bivens, Gould, Mishel, y Shierholz, 2014).

• In Mexico, increasing levels of educational attainment account for the rise of

income inequality from 1984 to 1996, but not for its decline from 1996 to 2010
(Campos, Esquivel, y Lustig, 2014; Esquivel, Lustig, y Scott, 2010; Legovini,
Bouillon, y Lustig, 2005)

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Reducing inequality: redistributive policies

• It’s not a problem of education; it’s a problem of regulation

• Labor, taxation, trade, and social security policies, which prioritize

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redistribution and equality over stimulus for profit to those who

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already concentrate an enormous amount of wealth
(Atkinson, 2015; Reich, 2010; Stiglitz, 2013).
• But, how to advance these policies when the beneficiaries of
economic inequality dominate the political arena?

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The vicious circle between economic and
political inequality: US
 The privileged participate more than others and are increasingly organized to press their
demands on government

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 Disturbing inequalities in the political voice expressed through elections and other avenues
of participation
 The privileged (income, occupation and education) are the most likely to participate in
politics and make their needs and values known to government officials
 Governing institutions are much more responsive to the privileged than to other citizens
 While the number of interest groups has grown and become more diverse, the dominance of
the advantaged has solidified and their capacities to speak loud and clear to government
officials have been enhanced
(APSA-TaskForce, 2004)
The vicious circle between economic and
political inequality: Mexico
• The growing concentration of wealth in fewer hands is to a great extent the
result of political decisions that have favoured the wealthy.

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• As they get wealthier, their capacity of influencing politics and policies for
acquiring more benefits also increases.
• The liberal narrative of democracy appears to serve this scenario and,
therefore, democracy is losing credibility among citizens as a political path to
general well-being.
• According to Latinobarómetro 2015, in Mexico only 19% are satisfied with the
functioning of democracy, which places the nation in the last position
compared to other Latin American countries included in the survey.

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Education and inequality:
The need of politically efficacious and effective citizens

• Redistribution is not likely to be promoted by those who take advantage of inequality,

but by citizens who –despite the lack of economic resources– feel capable of
making a change in the political realm (self-efficacious), and are able to

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successfully influence the decisions from which redistributive policies may result

42nd Association for Moral Education Conference

(politically effective) (Pérez, 2016)
• “Participatory readiness”
 Verbal empowerment
 Democratic knowledge
 Tactical and strategical understanding of the mechanics of political action
(Allen, 2016)

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 rise of civic engagement
The demotion of political participation; the

42nd Association for Moral Education Conference

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The demotion of political participation; the
rise of civic engagement in CE
• CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
 Positive connotation
 Non-controversial

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 Broader: inclusive of political participation

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 Ambiguous: ‘umbrella term’ (Berger, 2011)
 Weak pedagogical efficacy

• POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
 Negative connotation
 Controversial
 Better theoretically grounded
 Stronger pedagogical efficacy

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(Pérez, 2014)
The depoliticization of children through
Civic Education: Two ways
1. By using a notion of political participation that circumscribes it within the
domain of politics and government, a future oriented view of students’
politicity is reinforced. Students will be truly politically active only in this

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domain. The role of CE is to prepare students for that future. In the present,

42nd Association for Moral Education Conference

their politicity is denied. At best, they are becoming political (Hahn, 1998)
2. By promoting a wide range of practices of participation, which are displaced
from their political meaning. , students’ participation relies strongly on moral
and altruistic motivation (Van Goethem et al., 2012), rather than being a
consequence of the awareness of their position within a political relationship

MA
The depoliticization of CE:
The Mexican case
• Among different potential characterisations of PP, the curriculum of CE circumscribes it
within the arena of formal politics. In it, students will only be included in the future,
because they are not entitled yet with the political rights that are necessary for an

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efficacious and full participation in this domain.

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• Students’ representations of PP resemble the curricular conception, and reveal their
exclusion from this type of participation.
• CE promotes a wide range of practices of participation, which are displaced from their
potential political meaning. Students, teachers and principals appropriate these practices
discursively, but perceive a lack of opportunities for carrying them out, especially in the
school.
• Through CE adolescents mostly learn that PP is a promise of inclusion in the future,
while the idea of active citizenship is reduced to a correct depoliticised discourse about
largely imperceptible practices in students’ everyday life.

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The need of education for political participation in
times of rampant inequality

• To form students to successfully influence the arena of politics without

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restricting the political to it

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• Developing students’ politicity: bringing the political to children’s everyday
lives
• Political participation as actions oriented to the compensation of asymmetrical
power relations: resistance, reciprocity, legitimation and persuasion
• Escalating: from school to the political-governmental arena

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Statements in the questionnaire representing different forms of PP according to the factors public/private and
reference to government/ no reference to government

a) A group of people are gathered in a demonstration outside the central offices of Coca-Cola Inc. in Atlanta, US. They are
demanding fair conditions for its workers in Colombia.
 
b) A girl in London decides not to buy a bottle of Coca cola light in her local store, as a protest against the bad work
conditions of Coca Cola´s workers in Colombia.
 
c) An Argentinian family discusses the consequences of consuming Coca-Cola products at home. One of the children
claims that drinking them promotes the terrible working conditions of Colombian workers in that company.

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d) Members of an international NGO are gathered at the Zócalo square in Mexico City. They are launching a campaign
against the consumption of Coca-Coca products around the world, until the company improves the conditions of its workers
in Colombia.
 
e) A group of farmers are in a demonstration outside the Ministry of Government (Mexico). They demand more support
from the government for agricultural production.
 
f) A young man in the supermarket choose to buy fruits and vegetables made in Mexico to support the government's
initiative to solve the poverty in the countryside.
 
g) At dinner, one couple discusses about Mexican government's proposal to solve the problems of agricultural production
in the countryside
 
h) The Mexican representatives in the Congress present their proposals to minimising the problems of agricultural
production in the countryside

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 Table 1. Statements considered as political participation (Percentage of students with YES
answers)

   
DIMENSION 1
     
Statements with government Statements without
presence an explicit reference

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  to government

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Statements with a public character
E) 65.8 A) 37.4
DIMENSION 2

H) 63.0 D) 54.6
 
 
Statements with a private G) 41.6
connotation B) 21.6
  F) 45.5 C) 28.3

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Table 4. Students’ participation in political action according to their own representation of PP

Yes, I’ve done this Yes, I've done this, No, I’ve never
Have you ever participated in the within the last twelve but over a year ago done this
following activities or organisations? months
   
 
A youth organization linked to a
12.4% 11.9% 75.6% n= 804

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political party or union
 

42nd Association for Moral Education Conference

To write a letter to a newspaper or news
program about any public affair
12.5 12.9 74.7 n= 801
 

To contact a representative, senator or a

municipal authority 7.4 13.6 79.0 n= 795
 
To contact a community authority 12.6 20.8 66.7 n= 795
 
Occupy public buildings as a form of
protest 6.5 7.9 85.6 n= 798
 

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To contribute to a discussion in the
Internet or social network about public 13.6 20 66.4 n= 794
affairs or social problems