History, Geography and Social Sciences teachers’ thinking on citizenship education in Chile.

Abstract

The investigation arises within the framework of a series of curricular changes occurred in Chile, due to the incorporation of citizenship education as a core axis in the subject of History, Geography and Social Sciences, of the Citizen Education Plan for schools subsidized by the state and the creation of the Citizen Training subject. It is investigated the thinking of teachers of history, geography and social sciences on citizenship education. The goal is to interpret their beliefs, approaches, academic training and teaching strategies declared by themselves. Basing on a mixed methodology and a phenomenological design, a survey was applied to 82 teachers and 20 of them were interviewed. The results show that, in the absence of academic training and a study program, teachers have opted to incorporate citizenship based on their own approach, this is closer to civic education than to citizen education, which is evidenced in a thought that puts as central themes of learning: the rights and duties of the citizen, political participation and institutionality.