Citizenship Education in Mexico The Depoliticisation of Adolescence Through Secondary School

International Studies in Sociology of Education
ISSN: 0962-0214 (Print) 1747-5066 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/riss20
Citizenship education in Mexico: the

depoliticisation of adolescence through secondary
school
Leonel Prez-Expsito
To cite this article: Leonel Prez-Expsito (2015) Citizenship education in Mexico: the
depoliticisation of adolescence through secondary school, International Studies in Sociology of
Education, 25:3, 225-257, DOI: 10.1080/09620214.2015.1076705
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2015.1076705
Published online: 24 Aug 2015.
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Date: 05 May 2016, At: 11:46
International Studies in Sociology of Education, 2015

Vol. 25, No. 3, 225257, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2015.1076705
Citizenship education in Mexico: the depoliticisation of

adolescence through secondary school
Leonel Prez-Expsito*
Departamento de Relaciones Sociales, Universidad Autnoma Metropolitana,
Unidad Xochimilco, D.F., Mxico
Downloaded by [Harvard Library] at 11:46 05 May 2016
(Received 3 October 2014; nal version received 23 July 2015)

Recent contributions have argued about the depoliticisation of
citizenship education (CE), mainly through theoretical and documentary
analyses, and based on the European context. Nonetheless, there is a
lack of eld studies which can provide empirical evidence about how
does the depoliticisation of CE actually operate. Based on a mixedmethod research in Mexico Citys secondary schools, this paper shows
how the contemporary approach to CE, instead of looking at nurturing
childrens and adolescents politicity, contributes to pupils depoliticisation. Among different potential characterisations of political participation
(PP), the curriculum of CE circumscribes it within the arena of formal
politics, from which students are largely excluded in the present. Additionally, CE promotes a range of practices of participation which are
deprived from a political meaning. Students appropriate them discursively, but perceive limited opportunities for perform them, especially in
school. Through the depoliticisation of CE, adolescents mostly learn that
PP is a promise of inclusion in the future, while the idea of active citizenship becomes reduced to a correct discourse about largely imperceptible practices in students everyday life. The article stresses the need
of shifting the priority of CE in Mexico from the formal curriculum to
the transformation of school practices, in order to develop students
politicity through participation.
Keywords: citizenship education; depoliticisation; secondary schools;
adolescence
Introduction
In England, during the late 1960s and the 1970s, authors like Crick, Lister
and Heater, argued for the need of political education (Crick, 2000; Crick &
Heater, 1977), and what they called political literacy. In their view, the
political was understood as a dimension of human experience, which
*Emails: leperez@correo.xoc.uam.mx, leonmpe@gmail.com
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA.
2015 Taylor & Francis
226
L. Prez-Expsito
realises whenever there is conict of interests and ideals and a differential

distribution of power and resources. These politics of everyday life allows
to nd the political in the family, the locality, educational institutions, clubs
and societies and in informal groups of all kind (Crick, 2000, p. 65).
Accordingly, the type of participation that this perspective aimed to promote
in students was clearly political. Political participation (PP) becomes inclusive of children and adolescents, and it is not restricted into the distant
arena of the formal political system.
Conversely, during the 1990s and early 2000s, we observed a new wave
of citizenship education (CE) programmes across different countries, England included, in which the political was demoted in importance. PP was
either replaced by, or ambiguously combined with less controversial categories (Berger, 2011; Prez Expsito, 2014b), such as civic engagement;
civic, citizenship, social or democratic participation; active citizenship;
community involvement or community service (Education Commission of
the States [ECS], 2000; Great Britain, 1998; Ministerio de Educacin
Nacional [MEN], 2004; Prez Expsito & McCowan, 2013; SEP, 2007,
2011a). Certainly, as Crick acknowledges, political education and political
literacy [] might now seem too narrow a term to catch our meaning
compared to CE (Great Britain, 1998, p. 11). CE has suffered an expansion in its content and purposes, many of which are sufciently justied.
However, as Frazer (2007) points out, this path has entailed a looseness in
the denition of citizenship, and particularly a distancing from its political
character.
Different authors have made important contributions to the analysis of
this process of depoliticisation of CE (e.g. Biesta, 2011; Frazer, 2007; Prez
Expsito, 2014b; Straume, 2015), but mainly through theoretical and documentary analyses, and based on the European context. There is a lack of
eld research, which can provide empirical evidence about how does the
depoliticisation of CE actually operate. This article is a product of a mixedmethod research that included qualitative work in two schools from contrasting delegaciones (municipalities) of Mexico City, and a representative
survey (n = 828) of third-grade students from all the general secondary
schools in these two areas.1 Based on these data, the article analyses the
process of depoliticisation of CE in Mexico, especially in the secondary
schools of these two territorial demarcations.
Elsewhere, I have theoretically formulated two ways of depoliticisation
of CE (Prez Expsito, 2014b). In the following, I develop them through an
empirical analysis, in order to argue that while CE aims to form active citizens involved in PP, it rather contributes to adolescents exclusion from
political action. On the one hand, the article shows how 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
227
necessary for an efcacious and full participation in this domain. Students

representations of PP resemble the curricular conception, and reveal their
exclusion from this type of participation. On the other hand, the article sustains that 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 perform them, especially in the school. Through CE, I will
argue, adolescents mostly learn that PP is a promise of inclusion in the
future, while the idea of active citizenship becomes reduced to a correct
discourse about largely imperceptible practices in students everyday life.
The political meaning of participation: diversity and change
The analysis of the depoliticisation of CE in Mexico requires a previous
conceptual analysis about the variety of potential meanings of the political.
As noticed in the introduction, what allowed the centrality of the political in
the English proposal from the 1970s was a particular conception of it,
which permitted to locate the political in students everyday lives. Within
this framework, pupils participation in practices that involve conict of
interests and ideals and a differential distribution of power and resources
(Crick, 2000, p. 65) become forms of PP. Therefore, the way in which the
political character of participation is understood in CEs programmes is crucial to determine whether the curriculum advances a political or apolitical
proposal, and more importantly whether it promotes the politicisation or
depoliticisation of children and adolescents lives. Thus, a depoliticised CE
does not necessarily entail the removal of the political, but rather to
appropriate a particular meaning of it.
The forms of getting politically involved change according to different
times, places and cultures (Norris, 2002, 2007; Prez Expsito, 2014b).
Among this diversity, it is difcult to identify the distinctiveness of PP in
relation to other forms of participation. Commonly, PP is dened as actions
that citizens undertake in order to inuence the structure and composition of
government, as well as its policies (Conway, 2000; Verba & Nie, 1987).
Yet, this conception is based on a particular meaning of the political, which
denes it as a domain characterised by the presence of government, and the
relation of inuence that citizens establish with it. In this view, the government represents the entity where truly political decisions are made: those
which are collective and sovereign, from which it is not possible to be
exempt due to their territorial inclusion and coercive force (Sartori, 1973,
1992).
Nonetheless, to dene the political character of participation by the presence of government overlooks what Norris (2002) understands as contemporary diversications in the targets of PP, like actions against transnational
corporations without seeing the government as an intermediary (Lam, 2003;
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L. Prez-Expsito
Prez Expsito, 2014b; Prez Expsito, Ortiz-Tirado, Gonzlez, & Gordillo,

2012). It also usually restricts PP within the national domain and disregards
a transnational arena for political action (Ruggiero & Montagna, 2008).
One way of avoiding the previous limitations is to dene the political by
its public character. According to Arendt (1958/1998), for instance, the
political emerges between humans; both beyond the human being as a metaphysical idea, and as an isolated individual. Politics transforms those who
are absolutely diverse in isolation into relatively diverse through an encounter based on a relative equality. This can only be achieved beyond the private realm: the distinctive nature of the political or public realm was
developed by the contrasts which Arendt drew between it and the concept
of the social. The latter signied all of the activities and relationships
which, by nature, were private (Wolin, 1983, p. 9).
To characterise the political by its public character or by the presence of
government, illustrates what Leftwich (2004) categorises as approaches to
the political as a particular arena (the public realm or the governmental
domain). Conversely, the author nds that from other perspectives the
political is mainly understood as a process. An example of it is the view of
the political as a deliberative procedure of decision-making, characterised
by rational argumentation among participants with an equal status, but
with competing views about the common good, and oriented by the possibility of consensus (Cohen, 2003; Gutmann & Thompson, 2004; Habermas,
1996; Rawls, 1993, 2001; Thompson, 2008). While Rawls (1993) still
restricts this process into a public-governmental arena (McCarthy, 1994),
others like Cohen (2003) argue that, in a democratic society, deliberative
politics should be a procedure to be found in every institutionalised
context.2
In addition to Leftwichs classication, Franz (2004), in his analysis of
the concept of the political in Aristotle, Weber and Schmitt, suggests three
more standpoints: to dene the political by its ends, means or as a particular
type of relation. The rst approach means, for instance, to understand the
political as an activity whose end is the achievement of a just society (e.g.
Aristotle, 1946; Rawls, 2001). The second can be illustrated by the conception of violence or the potential use of force as the distinctive means of
political activity (e.g. Nicholson, 2004; Weber, 1920/1972, 1922/1978).
Lastly, the third approach identies the political with a particular relation
between persons and groups. For instance, when these are arranged as
friends/enemies (Schmitt, 1932/1996) or adversaries (Mouffe, 2005), or as
power relations between men and women that transcend the publicprivate
distinction (Evans, 1979; Hanisch, 1969; Squires, 2004).
At least, then, the political can be dened (a) by its ends, (b) by its
means, (c) as a specic arena, (d) as a process and (e) as a type of relation
(Prez Expsito, 2014b). This wide range of meanings explains why the
observer, or the participants involved in political action, can classify very
229
contrasting practices as forms of PP. To select one or another implies subtle

or radical differences in terms of the who (agencies or collective organisations), what (repertoires of actions commonly used for political expressions)
and where (the targets that participants seek to inuence) (Norris, 2002,
p. 4). It means that the conception of PP in programmes of CE unavoidably
includes certain actors and excludes other, validates specic agencies,
accepts some practices and disregard other and privileges particular targets.
As I will show, in the contemporary approach to CE in Mexicos secondary
schools, those excluded from PP are precisely the children and adolescents
to which such education is directed.
The depoliticisation of CE in Mexico
Once I have analysed how the political meaning of participation is far from
being homogenous and consensual, and the relevance of the way in which
the political is understood in CE, in this section I present an empirical
analysis of the depoliticisation of CE in Mexico, and particularly, in secondary schools from two different areas of Mexico City. The empirical
analysis relates an examination of the meaning of PP in the Mexican program of Civic and Ethical Formation (CEF), with students representations
of PP, their involvement in practices that exemplify such characterisation,
and pupils participation in school and broader communities.
Methods
The data are derived from a research with students, teachers and principals
from secondary schools located within two contrasting municipalities (delegaciones) of Mexico City. One of them is the municipality with the highest
level of human development (HD) in the city,3 and highly urbanised. The
latter is among the municipalities with the lowest levels of HD in the city
and it is considered as mostly rural.4
The research followed a sequential mixed-method strategy (Greene,
Caracelli, & Graham, 1989; Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009), with three stages.
The rst was based on a concurrent embedded strategy (Creswell, 2009) in
which a documentary analysis of the legal framework for Mexico Citys
secondary schools and the curriculum of CEF from 2007, was treated from
both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The second was a qualitative
stage comprising three workshops with a group of third-grade students in
two schools (one per municipality)5; four semi-structured interviews with
teachers of CEF (two per school); and two semi-structured interviews with
schools principals (one per school). The third stage was a quantitative
phase in which a self-administrated questionnaire was applied to a representative sample of third-grade students from all the general secondary
schools in these two areas (n = 828).6 The sampling frame for the survey
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L. Prez-Expsito
comprised 2984 students in 17 schools: 1964 pupils in 12 schools in the

urban area, and 1020 in 5 schools within the rural one (SEP, 2012). It was
a probabilistic, stratied and clustered sample with unequal probabilities.7, 8
CE in Mexico: an overview of contemporary proposals for secondary

schools
CE in Mexico is one of the three formative axes in the curriculum of CEF
for basic education.9 The central purposes of CEF are that students:
Recognise themselves as subjects with dignity and rights, able to make
decisions and commitments that ensure the enjoyment and care of its
person, both in its quality of personal life and collective welfare,
towards the construction of their life project.
Understand that human rights and democracy are the frame of reference to make autonomous decisions that enrich coexistence, and to
question actions that violate the right of people and affect their natural
and social environment.
Recognise that the characteristics of democracy in a state of law allow
the regulation of their relations with the authority; people and groups,
while actively participate socially and politically in actions that ensure
more democratic, intercultural, solidarity-based and fairer ways of life
(SEP, 2011b).
These three principal goals summarise the dominant discourse in the
curriculum, and represent the culmination of a signicant change in the
orientation of CEF, which began in 1999 with its formal introduction in
secondary education. Nonetheless, civic and ethical/moral education in the
independent Mexico can be traced back to the rst half of nineteenth century. From that period to its latest reform in 2011, changes in the ofcial
content of CEF10 can be seen as a slow transition in the following directions: from a combination of Catholic morality and civic indoctrination11 to
secularism; from authoritarianism to a commitment with democracy; from
ideology to a procedural value education; from nationalism to a balance
between localism, nationalism and cosmopolitanism; from cultural homogeneity and male domination to the acknowledgement of cultural diversity and gender equity; and, in the case of secondary education, from
adultcentrism to an adolescent-centred orientation.12
Probably more than any other subject, transformations in the orientation
of CEF correspond to signicant discursive and practical changes in the
broader national political life. For instance, since the student movement of
1968, Mexico began a slow, painful, contradictory, diverse and sometimes
hopeful process of democratisation, which extends from the arena of social
movements and civil organisations, to its more formal political domain.13 In
231
1999, just one year before the rst election of a president from a different
political party than the ofcial PRI14 which governed the country from
1929 to 2000 , the subject CEF was introduced in all grades of secondary
education.15 CEF represented a major change in the history of civic and
moral education in Mexico (Latap, 2003; Levinson, 2004). Compared to
previous reforms in 1974 and 1992, the programme introduced an innovative perspective, which combined a radical redesign of the curricular content
with a signicant change in the pedagogical orientation. On the one hand,
the scope of the programme ranged from reection on students identity,
and adolescence and youths issues (sexuality, health, addictions and future
plans), to participation in society, and the study of rights, law and government within a democratic polity. On the other hand, the reform made a critique to previous approaches to civic and ethical education based on
prescription and indoctrination. It argued for a teaching style that would
lead to the development of practical skills, through which students would
relate the subjects themes with their interests and daily lives. This
pedagogical approach would also promote the practice of democratic values,
attitudes and forms of collective and collaborative participation (SEP, 2001).
The 1999 programme afrmed some tendencies from past proposals, like
secularism and commitment with democracy, a procedural value education
under the idea of values for living together, and a balance between nationalism and cosmopolitanism. But this curriculum introduced new elements to
be used in succeeding reforms, particularly a pedagogical approach centred
in adolescence and adolescents, and a discursive inclusion of gender equity
(Levinson, 2004).
In 2006, the curriculum of secondary education was substantially
renewed again. CEF would have 4 h per week in second and third grades.
The reform maintained some of the principles, purposes and orientation
from the previous programme, but established signicant changes. Now the
pedagogical approach would be based on the development of eight civic
competences, which seek to integrate the teaching and learning of abstract
knowledge, skills and attitudes, according to the way they should be jointly
displayed in specic real practices (SEP, 2006). These competences were
dened as (1) self-knowledge and self-care; (2) self-regulation and responsible exercise of freedom; (3) respect for, and appreciation of diversity; (4)
sense of belonging to the nation and humanity; (5) management and resolution of conicts; (6) social and PP; (7) adherence to legality and sense of
justice; and (8) understanding and appreciation for democracy. According to
the programme, the civic competences are classied in three formative axes
(personal, ethical and citizenship formation), and have to be developed
across three dimensions (a specic curricular content to be worked in classroom, cross-curricular content with other subjects and the school environment) (SEP, 2007).
232
L. Prez-Expsito
The last reform in 2011 was strongly based on the previous programme.
The curriculum keeps the eight civic competences and the three formative
axes, but adds the dimension of students daily life to the three already
established. The programme emphasises the importance of the relation
between school, family and community, especially for practising those
competences with a stronger social character. The new programme slightly
modied the denition of some competences, topics and learning outcomes,
but keeps the contents organisation as in the 2006 programme.
The programmes of 2006 and 2011 ratify previous advances in CEF,
some of which originated at the end of nineteenth century and between
1910 and 1946, and others of more recent development: secularisation, commitment with democracy, a procedural value education, a balance between
nationalism, cosmopolitanism and universal principles, an approach centred
in adolescence and adolescents, and gender equity. However, the current
curriculum incorporates an emphasis on the local scale, a commitment with
cultural diversity and the acknowledgement of Mexico as a pluricultural
nation with more than 15 million indigenous people from 62 ethnic groups
(CDI, 2012).
Students exclusion from participation in the arena of formal politics
The recent curricular reforms in Mexico reect and ination in the demands
to CEF. The wide scope of the programmes content shows how this subject
has to comply with a growing politically correct discourse about citizenship,
which includes a rhetorical commitment with democracy, cultural diversity,
inclusion, equity, adolescents rights, social and PP, etc. Thus, the programme embodies an expanded meaning of citizenship, which simultaneously reects a distancing from its political character. I understand this as a
process of depoliticisation of CE, which does not necessarily entail to
remove the political from the curriculum, but to employ a particular meaning of it, especially in relation to potential practices of participation. In the
following, I will show how this kind of depoliticisation means that, on the
one hand, the curricular conception of PP depoliticise adolescents lives in
the present and, on the other hand, the programme promotes students
involvement in different forms of participation that rely strongly on moral
and altruistic motivation, but are deprived of their potential political meaning. I contend that students perceive a wide gap between the idealisation of
such forms of participation, and the real opportunities they have to perform
them in their daily contexts, particularly in school.
PP in the curriculum of CEF: a future-oriented view
The Programme of Civic and Ethical Formation 2007 (PCEF) denes the
competence Social and PP as follows:
233
Participation refers to the activities orientated to pursuing the welfare of a

given collectivity through the mechanisms established in the law, in order to
inuence the decisions affecting all the members of society. This participation
is a necessary element for democratic life, and expresses itself in societys
organisations and in political entities such as the political parties.
In order to participate in the improvement of social life, students need to

develop dispositions to construct agreements with others, to collaborate in
collective actions in a responsible way, to efciently communicate their judgement and perspective on different problems affecting the collectivity, and to
formulate proposals and requests to persons or social and political institutions.
(SEP, 2007, p. 11)
This denition merges social and PP into one concept. Indeed, the whole
PCEF seems to evade the term PP. It appears only twice through the whole
document,16 and both times as social and PP, whereas the term social
participation emerges six times. Additionally, participation is often presented as democratic participation, which has the same frequency in the
PCEF as social participation. However, both terms are never dened with
clarity; rather, the programme presents them as synonyms.
In terms of explicit denitions, then, it is not clear what the curriculum
means by PP. Yet, according to how the PCEF describes social and PP as
a competence, social participation would express itself in the societys
organisations, whereas PP would show itself in the political entities as the
political parties. Similarly, through social participation students might
formulate proposals and requests to social institutions, while through PP
these would be directed to political institutions. Thus, the political character of participation lies on a separate arena from the social, characterised by
its own agencies for participation (Norris, 2002; Prez Expsito, 2014a,
2015): political entities, political institutions and political parties.
Further references in the PCEF with the adjective political, clarify that
these agencies channel participation within the states political organisation
or countrys political organisation. The programme then reinforces a conception of PP restricted within the arena of formal politics, where citizens
get involved in order to participate in the government, or having inuence
in its structure, composition and/or policies. Accordingly, the PCEF develops only the gure of the political party as the agency par excellence for
PP (the ideas of political entities and political institutions are never claried). However, Mexican political parties offer few possibilities for effective
student participation in the present. Although some develop an agenda for
children and adolescents, adult participants have a considerably more efcacious participation within them, because political rights are reserved in the
Mexican constitution for citizens over 18-year olds. For adolescents, it is
rather an agency for participation in the future. Thus, the curricular conception of PP depoliticises adolescents present. At best, PP is understood as
234
L. Prez-Expsito
actions within a domain where students can participate with restricted rights
(Batalln & Campanini, 2008).
Students segregation from their own representation of PP
Having analysed the meaning of PP in the curriculum, it is necessary to
examine the degree of correspondence with students representations of PP,
and the extent to which adolescents are involved in forms of participation
that can be regarded as political according to such characterisation.
In the qualitative stage of my research, the rst workshop with students
in both schools was structured in two sections. Section 2 was organised
around the use of pictures and videos as a trigger for generating reection
among students about the meaning of PP (Haw & Hadeld, 2011). I
selected a series of pictures and videos, which in my view represented different forms of PP, including different types of actors, practices, agencies
and targets, according to contrasting meanings of the political.
First, I presented these images with a brief description of their content
(Boxes 15), and asked students to look at them carefully. Then, participants formed two groups and observed the pictures and videos once more.
After each image, I asked students to what extent do they consider it an
example of PP, and why?
The analysis of students opinions led me to classify the images according
to the consensus or disagreement they provoked in each school, and between
the two of them. Table 1 shows this grouping and the criteria that I followed
for the classication. Each code within the brackets represents an image
described in Boxes 15; P designates pictures and V is used for videos.
The distribution in Table 1 shows how students characterisations are far
from being an homogeneous block; on the contrary, as any social representation, there are differences and discrepancies among the group of participants (Doise, Clmence, & Lorenzi-Cioldi, 1993). Variations in the
meaning and form of social representations between individuals have to do
with their differential social positioning, personal histories (Holland & Lave,
2001), their capacity of agency, and the situated conditions within which
representations are communicated (Van Leeuwen, 2008). Yet, their social
character enables the identication of common organising principles across
individual variations. An organising principle can be described as a virtual
or implicit idea, maxim or image, analytically perceptible through explicit
ideas or images in two ways: (1) The organising principle orders the explicit
ideas by giving them a meaning they had not previously had, or (2) introduces coherence between them by securing their common meaning through
a work of selection. Thus, the organising principle reduces the ambiguity
or polysemy inherent in ideas or images and makes them relevant in any
given social context (Moscovici & Vignaux, 1994/2000, p. 190). These
principles also present a generative characteristic; they can be seen as a
235
Table 1. Students classication of selected images according to whether they

represent or not PP.
Notes: P designates a picture and V is used for videos.

0 = All students said NO, or some students said NO and the rest consented tacit or
explicitly.
1 = The group is divided: some students said NO and some Might Be.
2 = The group is divided: some students said NO and some YES.
3 = All students said MIGHT BE or some students said MIGHT BE and the rest consented
tacit or explicitly.
4 = The group is divided: some students said MIGHT BE and some YES.
5 = All students said YES, or some students said YES and the rest consented tacit or
explicitly.
= Degree of agreement between the two schools in regard to an image representing PP.
= Degree of agreement between the two schools in regard to an image not representing PP.
matrix from which people construct specic images of an object. An

organising principle is an implicit idea that generates different explicit
representations.
The analysis of students classication of these images reveals the presence of government as a rst organising principle in their representations of
PP. When something is clearly understood as PP, government is always
there. This is more evident when people in government are the main participants, as in P12 and P15, two of the pictures representing PP (Box 1). But
within this group, as well as in the images described in Box 2, people out
of the government are also portrayed as protagonists, however related to it
through their actions. Participants involved in PP want to inuence governments composition (P07, V05 and V06 in Box 1) and governments policies
or laws initiatives (P02 in Box 2). The government is also represented as
opponent or adversary (P17 in Box 1), or as the actor from whom participants expect a response to their demands (P17 in Box 1 and P13, P16 and
V01 in Box 2).
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L. Prez-Expsito
Box 1. Description of pictures and videos regarded as clear examples of PP

by students in both schools.
P05 This picture shows a group of
P07 The photo depicts an aged woman
women in the front, holding
introducing her vote in a ballot box.
together a large banner which says:
At its top, one can read
All women, all the rights!
[DIPUTADOS FEDERALES]
following by a cartoon of a woman
federal representatives, even when
raising her right arm. Behind them
the rst word is uncompleted, and at
it seems to be a very large group of
the bottom the letters FE, which
people, mainly women, in what
are the two last initials of the
appears to be a street protest
Electoral Federal Institute (IFE in
Spanish), the institution in charge of
organising federal elections
P12 Here, a group of Mexican federal
P15 This picture was taken in a local
representatives is portrayed. Two of
council in Mexico. We can see at
them, the ones standing at the
the front ve people raising their
centre-right of the picture, seem to
hands and if one looks at it
be talking to each other, while one
carefully, almost every person in the
of them is signing with his right
table raises her/his hands too. The
hand. They also seem to call the
information add to the image in the
attention of some of their
website where it was taking from,
colleagues. On the bottom left side
says that they are approving the
there are two representatives
budget to be exercised in that
captured just before hugging each
municipality
other
P17 The photo was taken during a series V05 This video was made by the youth
of teachers protests in the city of
delegation from one of the main
Oaxaca, Mexico. Approximately,
political parties in Mexico (PRI) in
from the centre to the top of the
a municipality called Naucalpan. It
picture we can see the police forces.
shows differ types of young
From the centre to the bottom some
people, in terms of how they look
teachers, and in the left corner at
(trying to depict different juvenile
the bottom, there seems to be a
identities), all of them saying what
photographer, probably from the
is to be young, and at the end, the
media, who is being pushed away
video shows altogether inviting
during what appears to be an
young people to vote for their
intense discussion, almost a ght
partys candidate
V06 Action takes place in an assembly V08 This video captures the moment in
of the youth delegation of another
which a group of federal
important political party in Mexico
representatives from PRD (one of
(PAN). One sees a large group of
the three principal parties in
young people the majority looks
Mexico) occupy the main platform
over 18 years old gathered
of their chamber, holding different
together in a hall, singing a little
banners as in a street protest,
motto of their organisation: youth
manifesting their rejection to a
reform which allows, to some
action. After this, another one that
extent, foreign participation in oil
says: we won
industry
237
Box 2. Description of pictures and videos that almost create consensus

among students in both schools according to whether they represent a form
of PP.
P02 This image shows two men just
P13 The latter, who are seen from the
before kissing each other. One of
back, were a group of nursery
them is holding a ag in his back,
students is depicted in what seems
which usually is a symbol of
to be a dialogue to faculty members
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
of the Autonomous University of
transgender (LGBT) pride and
Queretaro (a Mexican estate). The
LGBT social movements. The
latter, who are seen from the back,
picture was taken during a protest in
were in a labour strike demanding a
Mexico City, supporting a local law
better salary. The former, within that
proposal on homosexual marriage
context, claimed for the continuation
and adoption
of their education. A group of
students at the back of the picture is
holding a banner that says: We
need preparation. We have lives in
our hands
P16 The photo shows a group of
V01 A Chilean TV channel made this
Argentinean university students
video. It is a report about a street
working outside the classroom, in
protest against violence suffered by
what appears to be a parking area. It
women in households. The reporter
is a symbolic protest in order to
interviews some of the participants
demand an improvement in the
about their reasons of protesting.
conditions of the universitys
One can see mainly women singing
equipment and facilities
mottos and holding banners with
claims like: Machista violence is
not allowed. Nor in the street,
neither at home. A sort of an
artistic installation lies on the street.
It is made of shoes with labels in
front of them, showing the names of
women killed by domestic violence.
They are arranged as a circle around
which protesters are gathered
Box 3. Description of two examples of images whose character is rather

undened because the groups in both schools were divided in their opinions.
P06 This picture shows a group of
V10 The video was made by Greenpeace
Indian women during a protest
and is called Have a break, just as
against Coca Cola in New Delhi.
the slogan of KitKat, a chocolate
They allege environmental damage
bar made by the transnational
caused by a bottling plant that
company Nestl. A man is working
belongs to the transnational
at his ofce and action is disrupted
company. One of them is holding a
by the slogan in full screen. He
banner: Coca Cola go back, go
opens up the chocolate and we see
back
in close up how it has the form of
(Continued)
238
L. Prez-Expsito
Box 3. (Continued).
an orang-utans ngers. People in
the ofce start to look at him
surprised. He bites the chocolate and
blood comes out of it. The blood
falls into his computers keyword
and he ends up with the chin
covered by it. Action is again
interrupted by a message in full
screen: Give the orang-utan a
break. After it, we see images of an
orang-utan in a deforested
landscape. The advert ends with a
last message: Stop Nestl buying
palm oil from companies that
destroy the rainforest
Table 2. Students judgement on images with a clear or unclear reference to
government.
Relation to
Image government
P17
Clear
P02
Clear
P13
Unclear
P16
Unclear
V01
Unclear
Students comments
[It is political participation] because theyre asking to the
GOVERNMENT for a better salary I guess. [Pedro:
urban school]
[It is political] because they work for the GOVERNMENT,
and they judge the GOVERNMENT in order to get more
jobs or a better salary. [Ana: rural school]
[T]hose are their rights, (in reference to marriage and
adoption), they want them as laws, and that, kind of goes
with GOVERNMENT and politics, and it would be political
participation. [Karina. Rural school]
They are making a demand to GOVERNMENT, they are
discussing about their salary, and students want to go back
to classes. [Moses: urban school]
They are demanding to GOVERNMENT better conditions,
isnt? Better classrooms [Mario: urban school]
Theyre doing that to be taken into account, in order to be
considered and that others see that the facilities are wrong.
[] It might be [a form of political participation] because
they are doing it in order to call GOVERNMENTs
attention. [Karina: rural school]
Well, it is [political participation] because it involves the
law, and then there is GOVERNMENT. [Pedro: urban school]
In Table 2, I present some examples of students judgement on images

with a clear or unclear reference to government, depending on either explicit and intrinsic elements in each picture or video, or explicit references in
the contextual information which was given to participants with each image
239
(see descriptions in Boxes 13). The quotations related to the images with
no clear reference to government, show how students construct a relationship to it, in order to be able to classify the video or picture as an example
of PP. In other words, they add this component to what is represented in
the image in order to anchor it (Moscovici, 1984/2000) in their own idea of
PP.
A second organising principle in students representation of PP is the
public character of participation. The images that students disregard as PP
(see Boxes 4 and 5) take place in a more private domain than the ones in
Boxes 1 and 2, which suggest a rather public sphere. On the one hand,
the meaning of public seems close to what Habermas presents as the most
common understanding of it: We call events and occasions public when
they are open to all, in contrast to closed or exclusive affairs (Habermas,
1967/1989, p. 1). In the images classied as PP (Boxes 1 and 2), most of
the actions are portrayed in settings that are relatively open to all: streets
(P05, P17, P02), national chambers of representation or local councils
(P12, P15, V08) and public universities (P13, P16). None of these places
are the property of a person or a particular group. In fact, they do not have
a single owner, but are usually presented as belonging to the state, the
nation, or the People. On the other hand, in the analysis of these images the
public character is given by the fact that participation does not only concern or affect the people directly involved, but also implicates a broader
group, or a whole society. In other words, the action is undertaken in the
name of others, represents them, its effects have direct implications on this
wider group, or exemplies an action carried out by them.
Box 4. Description of pictures and videos not representing forms of PP

according to students opinions in both schools.
P01 This picture shows a woman holding P14 We see a woman and a man
two yoghurt pots, probably taken
standing face to face. The gesture
from the fridge in her right side,
in the womans hand, the opened
which is full of products. The
mouths of both, along with the
depiction suggests that she is looking
connection they established through
at something in the labels, and maybe
their eyes, insinuate they are
comparing something between the
arguing, probably loud. They might
two
be a couple or just two people
quarrelling
V02 This video presents a group of young people gathered together in a natural
setting, surrounded by trees. Some of the boys have taken their shirts off, and
wear short pants, while the women also seem very relaxed in their clothing.
Many are singing: The holy spirit is here. Move inside me, take my mind
and my heart, ll my life with your love, oh Gods spirit, move inside me
240
L. Prez-Expsito
Box 5. Description of videos that almost create consensus among students

in the urban and rural schools, regarding how poorly they epitomise PP.
V03 The video was taken in an Argentinian school, presumably a private one.
Action takes place in the ofce of the schools counsellor. She receives two
young girls who have a problem between them: one of the girls lent her
notebook to the other, who, accidently she claims damaged and lost it.
The whole sequence presents us a mediation session, in which the counsellor
aims to solve the problem. There is dialogue between the three of them, and
there is also debate between the students. At the end, the parties in conict
solved the problem and agree a solution
V07 We see a strong discussion. One can imply that it is taking place among
members of a family. People involved are in a living room, some are sited,
and some stand up. Even when the argument begins between two persons,
immediately one hears many voices, and different persons intervening in the
discussion
Videos and photos classied as not representing PP (see Boxes 4 and 5)

lack of at least one of the previous two meanings of the public: they occur
in rather restricted settings, or the actions portrayed concern mainly or
exclusively to those presented in the images. For instance, in V07, we see a
strong discussion among individuals that seem to be members of a family.
This video only provoked one comment per school:
Mario17 (urban school):
Martha (rural school):
[its not PP] because theyre only

discussing their problems.
those are family problems nothing
more.
In contrast, when I presented a video of a street demonstration of Chilean women against domestic and sexual violence (V01), most students did
not hesitate in classifying it as a representation of PP. I asked them why it
was so, if the problem is also domestic and has to do with the private realm
as the one in V07. And Elias answered:
Well, its also a family problem, the difference is that theyre expressing it on
the street [OPEN SETTING], they are making demands. In the previous one
[V07] it remains there, in the family [IT ONLY CONCERNS TO THOSE
DIRECTLY INVOLVED], in the house [A CLOSED SETTING] [].
Both organising principles (a public character and the presence of

government) are interrelated. In addition to the sense of the public based
on the openness of the setting and the participants involved, for students
something becomes public when it establishes a connection to the
government.
The quantitative results of my research corroborate the identication of
these two organising principles in students representations. One of the
241
requests for an answer (Saris & Gallhofer, 2007) in the survey questionnaire was especially designed for researching this issue. It comprises a
battery with eight statements representing different forms of PP (See
Box 6). Statements (a)(d) represent actions in which no explicit reference
to government is made, whereas statements (e)(h) include the government
as the main actor [(h)], interlocutor [(e)] or show an explicit reference to
its policy [(f) and (g)]. Simultaneously, statements (a), (d), (e) and (h)
represent actions with a public character, according to the two meanings
previously analysed. In contrast, statements (b), (c), (f) and (g) represent
actions with a private connotation, understood as the lack of those two
meanings. Students were asked to respond whether each of these statements represents a form of PP by answering one of the options YES,
UNDECIDED or NO.
Box 6. Statements in the questionnaire representing different forms of PP
according to the factors publicprivate and reference to government/no
reference to government.
(a) A group of people are gathered in a demonstration outside the central ofces
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 Colas workers in
Colombia
(c) An Argentinean 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
(d) Members of an international NGO are gathered at the Zcalo 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 governments initiative to solve the poverty in the
countryside
(g) At dinner, one couple discusses about Mexican governments 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
I designed the statements based on two overlapped dimensions: (1) The

presence or absence of government, and (2) The public or private character.
Accordingly, each dimension comprises two factors: government vs. no
government, and public vs. private, respectively. In order to test the validity
of these constructs (Bryant, 2000) a conrmatory factor analysis (CFA) was
242
L. Prez-Expsito
carried out. It allowed testing whether the distribution of students responses

across the eight items was not random, but driven by these latent variables
(Factors).
The results of CFA (Figures 1 and 2) suggest that the factors Public,
Private, Government and No Government are clearly identied in students
MODEL A
MODEL B (FINAL)
GOODNESS-OFFIT STATISTICS
GOODNESS-OFFIT STATISTICS
CMIN= 46.430
DF= 19
p= .000
CMIN= 10.197
DF= 8
p= .251
NFI= .802
NFI= .935
IFI= .873
IFI= .985
TLI= .739
TLI= .957
CFI= .862
CFI= .984
RMSEA= .042
RMSEA= .018
ECVI= .117
LO=.097
HI=0.146
Saturated
Model = .106
ECVI= .058
LO= .053 HI=0.73
Saturated
Model =.065
HOLTER .01
= 645
HOLTER .01
= 1630
Figure 1. A conrmatory model generation of the public and private as factors in

students responses to eight statements representing PP.
MODEL A
Goodness-of- CMIN= 96.772 NFI=.588

Fit Statistics: DF=19p= .000 IFI=.640
TLI= .259
CFI= .609
MODEL B
RMSEA ECVI=.177 SM= .106 HOLTER

= .070
LO=.145 HI=.219 .05= 258
CMIN=2.678 NFI= .918 TLI= .259

DF=1 p= .110 IFI= .947 CFI= .926
RMSEA ECVI=.035 SM=.034 HOLTER

= .045
LO=.033 HI=.046 .05= 1187
MODEL C (FINAL)
Goodness
-of-fit Statistics:
CMIN=4.520 DF= 4 p=
.340
NFI=.943 IFI= .993
TLI= .970 CFI=.992
RMSEA = .013
ECVI=.044 SM= .048
LO=.044 HI=.056
HOLTER .05= 1736
Figure 2. A conrmatory model generation of government and no government

presence as factors in students responses to eight statements representing PP.
243
responses through the statements (observable variables) associated to them

in the nal models. These improve all the goodness-of-t statistics to a level
of very good tting (Byrne, 2010), which means that the models represent
the data very well. Likewise, the feasibility and statistical signicance of all
parameter estimates is achieved, and the correlation between the factors
(latent variables) decreases signicantly in the last model, suggesting an
acceptable degree of independence (Byrne, 2010).
Based on these results, in Figure 3 I present a model with the factors
Public and Government, which graphically shows how a public character
and the presence of government act as organising principles of students
representations of PP.18 Furthermore, the factors Government and Public are
derived from the ve statements with the highest percentages of students
answers YES [(E), (H), (D), (F) and (H)] (see Table 3).
GOODNESS-OF-FIT
STATISTICS
CMIN= 4.723
DF= 4
p= .317
NFI= .956
IFI= .993
TLI= .971
CFI= .992
RMSEA= .015
ECVI=.044
LO= .044 HI= 0.056
SM = .048
HOLTER .05 = 1662
Figure 3. A conrmatory model of public and government as factors in students

responses to eight statements representing PP.
Table 3. Statements considered as PP (percentage of students with YES answers).

Dimension
Statements with
government
presence
Dimension Statements with a
2
public character
Statements with a
private connotation
(E) 65.8
(H) 63.0
(G) 41.6
(F) 45.5
1
Statements without an
explicit reference to
government
(A)
(D)
(B)
(C)
37.4
54.6
21.6
28.3
244
L. Prez-Expsito
The ndings from CFA correspond to the results in Table 3, which

shows that students classied as PP the statements with an explicit reference
to government, in a higher proportion than statements without it. Likewise,
the percentage of students who considered that the statements with a public
character represent PP is higher than the proportion in statements with a private connotation. Additionally, Table 3 presents in bold letters how the two
statements with the highest percentage of YES responses are the ones with a
public character and the presence of government [(E) and (H)], whereas
statements with a private connotation and without a reference to government
have the lowest percentage.
The qualitative and quantitative results, then, concur in the identication
of the public character of participation and the presence of government as
two basic organising principles of students representations of PP. This
characterisation resembles the curricular representation of PP, and therefore,
it also allocates the political into a distant scenario from adolescents lives.
It is very unlikely that students nd themselves in participatory experiences
that comply with both principles (the public character of participation and
the presence of government). Students responses in regard to their involvement in activities that were explicitly presented in the survey questionnaire
as public and/or with a clear reference to government are an indicator of it
(see Table 4). Participants were asked to respond in one of the following
options: (1) Yes, Ive done this within the last 12 months, (2) Yes Ive done
Table 4. Students participation in political action according to their own

representation of PP.
Have you ever participated in
the following activities or
organisations?
A youth organisation linked to
a political party or union
To write a letter to a
newspaper or news program
about any public affair
To contact a representative,
senator or a municipal
authority
To contact a community
authority
Occupy public buildings as a
form of protest
To contribute to a discussion in
the Internet or social network
about public affairs or social
problems
Yes, Ive done

this within the
last 12 months
Yes, Ive done No, Ive

this, but over a never
year ago
done this
12.4%
11.9%
75.6% n = 804
12.5
12.9
74.7
n = 801
7.4
13.6
79.0
n = 795
12.6
20.8
66.7
n = 795
6.5
7.9
85.6
n = 798
66.4
n = 794
13.6
20
245
this, but more than a year ago and (3) Ive never done this before. Table 3
shows the distribution of pupils answers.
In order to present an overview of the frequency of students involvement in all the activities in Table 3, I constructed a variable (score of participation) that counts the number of responses Yes, Ive done this within the
last 12 months per student. The results showed that 542 respondents
(65.5%) had not participated in any of these activities within the last year,
and only 65 students (7.9%) had been involved in more than two of them.
These results are an indicator of the rare involvement of students in activities that exemplify their own representation of PP.
In short, students representations of PP are organised under two main
principles: the presence of government and the public character of participation. This characterisation concurs with the meaning of PP in the curriculum
of CEF, and both represent a view that signicantly excludes students from
political action. Instead of advancing an inclusive conception of PP, CE
depoliticise adolescents potential forms of participation in the present. This
is how the depoliticisation of CE operates without removing the political,
but by fostering a particular meaning of it.
Students exclusion from alternative practices of PP
It might be argued that students appear as a marginal actor in their own
understanding of PP, because in their daily contexts, the political as actions
with a public character and explicitly related to government is rarely visible.
As I showed in the rst section, the political can be understood in different
and contrasting ways, but even from these alternative meanings, students
seem to be excluded from PP in the school, family and broader communities. This is so, even when the PCEF encourages student participation in
these contexts.
The curriculum aims to promote student participation in decision-making
at school and other contexts of pupils daily life. The PCEF also encourages
pupils involvement in conict resolution and participation in the resolution
of common problems within different communities. While this type of participation is not presented as political, from alternative approaches to the
political it certainly might be assumed as such.
In relation to participation in the decision-making processes, the PCEF
establishes, for instance, that students will participate in the denition and
modication of rules and agreements in their contexts of development
(SEP, 2007, p. 33). Regarding students involvement in conict resolution,
the PECEF aims that students understand that conict is an inherent part of
human relations, because between persons and groups there are relations of
authority, power and inuence. It is also an intrinsic element of a democratic life, because participants have different arguments and positions in
regard to issues of common interest (SEP, 2007). Especially, the curriculum
246
L. Prez-Expsito
seeks to foster student involvement in the denition of strategies and actions

for solving conicts in a non-violent way (SEP, 2007, p. 40). Lastly, participation in the resolution of common problems is developed in the rationale
of the PCEF, as well as through different blocks of content both in second
and third grades.
Because the curriculum acknowledges that students belong to different
communities, from school to the global human community, the programme
aims to promote student participation oriented to solve different problems
across this range. Alongside, the curricular content encourages active
involvement in different stages: denition of relevant problems, design of
strategies and courses of action, and their implementation. Table 5 shows
excerpts from the PCEF and from an auxiliary document for teachers of
CEF called Guide to Work, which illustrate how the curriculum aims to
Table 5. Stages for student participation in the resolution of common problems
within different communities.
Stages
Denition of
Design of strategies and
common problems
courses of action
The school
I [the student]
I [the
search and analyse student]
information in
develop
order to
requests
participate in
and
public affairs in a proposals
free and informed about
way (SEP, 2007a, problems
p. 25)
of
I [the student]
collective
investigate []
interest, to
problems
related
be
The locality
to the attention to presented
basic needs in the to school
locality, the
and local
authorities
The country country and the
world
(SEP,
The world
[To analyse]
2007a,
conicts in the
p. 25)
regional, national
or international
scale, which
demand a
collective
participation []
(SEP, 2007b,
p. 59)
To intervene
in the
elaboration
of proposals
and in the
organisation
of collective
activities in
order to
improve the
democratic
life in
[students]
milieu
Implementation
I [the
student] take
part in local
and school
organisations
in order to
intervene in
problems of
collective
interest (SEP,
2007a, p. 26)
I value my
right to
participate
in affairs
that
contribute
to the
collective
welfare
(SEP,
2007a,
p. 25)
247
involve students in these stages of participation oriented to solving problems

across different communities.
The curriculum, then, envisions an active student, engaged in decisionmaking processes, involved in the resolutions of conicts and the denition of
common problems. This active adolescent also designs strategies and courses
of action to be enacted in the school, in the local, national and global
communities. All these forms of participation can be understood as political
even when the curriculum does not present them as such , for instance, from
those approaches that dene the political by its ends or as a particular process.
But, to what extent pupils are involved in this sort of participation?
In the case of school, a rst indicator of pupils participation in decisionmaking is the distribution of students scores across a summative average
index (Langbein, 2012) based on their responses to the following request in
the questionnaire: In your school, to what extent students opinion is considered in decision-making on the following issues? (a) The way in which
courses are taught, (b) Courses content, (c) Learning materials and
resources, (d) Courses timetable, (e) Classroom rules, (f) School rules and
(g) Extracurricular activities (for instance, visiting a museum).19
Participants were asked to respond to every option in a four-point Likert
scale: Very Much, Somewhat, Not Really and Not at All. The index ranges
from 0 to 3, and the individual respondents scores can be interpreted using
the original response categories (Langbein, 2012): 0 = Not at All, 1 = Not
Really, 2 = Somewhat and 3 = Much.20 The Mean of students score across
the index is 1.17 (SD = .68) the Mode is .86, the maximum score was 2.57,
but only 12% of respondents score between 2 and 2.57; whereas 46% score
1 or less.21 According to this distribution and the value of the mean, it is
possible to say that students perceive that their opinion is not really considered in decision-making at school, at least in regard to the aspects presented
in the seven items above.22
In relation to participation in conict resolution, what prevails in
students, teachers and principals testimonies is a hierarchised process of
resolution, where pupils usually have a passive role. Depending on the conicts magnitude, few of them are solved among students, and normally the
rst instance of resolution is the teacher. The teacher either solves it, or
takes the students to the prefects or school counsellors. From there, they
can be channelled to the deputy head teacher, and nally to the principal. In
these different stages, there is always the possibility of calling students parents in order to nd a joint solution. Miriam, a student in the rural school,
describes an example of this hierarchised process of conict solving:
Sometimes Jimena [a prefect] solves the problems. If someone goes to
Jimena, you know that shes going to mediate the problem []. Sometimes
when the problem is big, she takes us with teacher Iris or teacher Marian
[school counsellors], and if its really big, with the principal.
248
L. Prez-Expsito
Teachers, prefects, counsellors, deputy head teachers, principals or parents,

sometimes play the role of mediators, as in the case of Jimena. Other times,
they act as decision-makers: a sort of juries or judges that decide the way in
which the conict has to be solved, leaving students out of the resolution
process, as Pedro recalls:
Last year I had a problem with a teacher. [] He called my father []. We

were almost nishing talking to the teacher about the problem, and then
another teacher saw that my father was there, and he started to talk to him.
The deputy head came and spoke to them also... and I got suspended []
because they told him that I was doing nothing, and the deputy head was listening, and she said: yes hes doing nothing, if he want to be seated, lets
send him to home. And I got suspended two days.
Lastly, students participation is very limited in regard to the resolution of

common problems. From their perspective, within the school these range
from a lack of material for educational activities or the state of the schools
facilities, to teachers pedagogical styles, and the general quality of their
education. In all these areas, pupils gave me a variety of specic examples.
Conversely, experiences of student involvement in actions aiming to solve
these problems were scarce.
In regard to participation oriented to solving problems within the surrounding communities, only one student in the rural school (Adrian) was
involved in the protection of the large green spaces in the area where he
lives. But this was a personal activity not related with the school. Although
students identied environmental pollution, poverty and corruption as local,
national and global problems, they could not recalled a single experience
aimed to participate in their resolution.
A quantitative approach to students participation within broader
communities corroborates this minimum level of involvement. I developed a
composite index constituted by students responses to three different
requests in the survey questionnaire: pupils perceptions on (a) their participation in organisations and groups oriented to the resolution of common
problems, (b) their involvement in different forms of protest and (c) their
involvement in altruistic forms of participation; those that are exclusively
oriented to helping or supporting others, others causes, or to contribute to
public discussions. These three questions comprised 24 items in total. Five
were explicitly related to students local community, two to the international
community and three with the national one. The rest do not relate the activities or organisations to one specic context. Students were asked to respond
between three options: (1) Yes, Ive done this within the last 12 months, (2)
Yes Ive done this, but more than a year ago or (3) Ive never done this
before. Three different variables were derived by counting the number of
responses Yes, Ive done this within the last 12 months per student within
249
each request. These were integrated as components in the index. The weight
of each component was determined using principal component analysis.
The index ranges from 0 to 1, where 0 means no participation, and 1
extensive participation. The Mean of students scores was .21 with a SD of .2.
The large SD is partially explained because the Mode was 0. The maximum
score was .85, but only 11.2% of participants scored above .5. These results
reveal that, according to students perception, their participation oriented to the
resolution of common problems across different communities is quite limited.
Thus, the forms of participation envisioned in the curriculum, which
could have an alternative political meaning, turn considerable idealistic.
Students, teachers and principals have appropriated them discursively. They
acknowledge the importance of democracy and participation; teachers stress
the need of creating responsible and active citizens. In class, they discuss
issues related to peaceful conict resolution, childrens rights and the challenge of enhancing democracy in the Mexican society. But students perceive
a lack of opportunities to practice what the curriculum aims to promote:
Maria:
We talk, but we arent listened, as it should be. Our opinions, points of view, and everything we say stays in the air,
because we arent listened. They [principal and teachers]
say: ok, we know you say that, but they dont take it into
account, they do nothing with it.
Facilitator/
Interviewer:
Adrian:
Ana:
what is political participation for you?

to help each other, because sometimes, because we are
young, we are not included. People with money are taken
into account, or older people, and that is wrong, because,
supposedly, in political participation everyone
(Interrupting) participates
In the last quotation, Adrian and Ana seem to recognise how PP should
be, but also acknowledge that people are actually excluded depending on
their resources or age. In practice, PP is not for everyone, and as Maria
points out the school is one of the closest contexts in which students
experience this marginalisation. Limited opportunities for student participation in school are so evident, that teachers and principals clearly recognised
them. For instance, in regard to adolescents participation in the Student
Society, Teacher Ivan says: I think that [students] dont take it seriously
[the Student Society], because the power they have is very little. Similarly,
the following quotation from the principal in the urban school reveals that,
at least in decision-making, students participation is almost non-existent:
I think we are not used to it. [] We dont even have in mind that they
[students] take a decision through a sort of survey, to see what is the most
important decision we should make in the school? How do we want to
250
L. Prez-Expsito
approach a given problem? How we would like that the school shows itself
to the community? What are the things that make us uncomfortable? [] We
are not willing to participate. This participation doesnt happen.
Thus, students seem to be excluded from practicing the forms of participation that the PCEF promotes. From different theoretical perspectives these
can be seen as practices of PP, however inaccessible to students everyday
life.
Conclusions
Based on a mixed methods research in Mexico Citys secondary schools,
this article has shown how the contemporary approach to CE, instead of
looking at nurturing childrens and adolescents politicity, contributes to students depoliticisation. I have analysed two different ways through which
this process takes place. First, among different perspectives through which
participation can be regarded as political, the Programme of CEF for
Mexicos secondary schools characterises PP as an arena circumscribed
within the formal political system. In this domain, students will only be
included in the future, because they are not entitled yet with the political
rights that are necessary for an efcacious and full participation in this
arena. Students representations of PP concur with the curricular view; but
the paper has demonstrated that students involvement in forms of participation that exemplify their own representation of PP is very unusual. This
form of depoliticisation does not need to remove the political from CE, but
rather to employ a particular meaning of it, which depoliticises adolescents
lives in the present.
The second way in which depoliticisation operates involves the subtraction of a political character from the type of participation that CE aims to
promote in students. The curriculum envisions an active student in decisionmaking, conict solving and the resolution of common problems in school
and broader communities. While this form of participation is not conceived
as political in the programme, from alternative approaches to the political it
can be understood as such. However, the article has shown that students are
also largely excluded from these practices. The forms of participation envisioned in the curriculum turn considerable idealistic: students, teachers and
principals have appropriated them discursively, but perceive a lack of
opportunities to perform them, especially in the school.
In the last years, then, CE in Mexico has prioritise the design of
programmes in which the meaning of citizenship is expanded according to a
dominant discourse about democracy, participation, childrens rights, gender
equity, cultural diversity, human rights and so on (Prez Expsito, 2013).
As it has been the case in other countries, while there is an extensive
consensus on the desirability of teaching these subjects, this path has
251
undermined the political character of citizenship (Biesta, 2011; Frazer,

2007; Prez Expsito, 2014b; Straume, 2015), and contributed to the
depoliticisation of adolescents. To conclude, I call the attention to the need
of shifting the priority of CE from the formal curriculum to the transformation of school practices. Three curricular reforms in the last 16 years have
not been able to open the school to students participation, to construct a
pedagogical environment where adolescents politicity can develop through
participation, instead of being denied. This involves the necessity of
thinking about the (re) politicisation of CE in our schools.
Disclosure statement
No potential conict of interest was reported by the author.
Funding
This work was supported by the Program for Teachers Professional Development,
Higher Education type (Programa para el Desarrollo Profesional Docente, Tipo
Superior) [UAM-EXB-135].
Notes
1. The normative age in secondary school in Mexico is 1215 years old. It is part
of the basic education phase and it is located between primary education
(612 years old) and medium education (1518 years old). The Mexican secondary school system offers different types of services: general (academic),
technical (vocational), tele secundaria (schools were courses are directed
through television and other technologies, principally in distant rural communities), communitarian (created for attending marginalised rural and urban
communities, as well as camps of migrant rural workers) and secondary school
for workers over 15-year olds (INEE, 2012). The general secondary school is
the most common service; half of all secondary students in the Mexican
system (public and private) attend these schools (INEE, 2012).
2. Other conceptions of the political as a process are found in Bourdieu (1991,
2001, 1979/2002), Rancire (1992, 1995, 2001), and Crick (2004). See Prez
Expsito (2014b) for a broader analysis.
3. According to the HD index used by the annual HD report, carried out by the
United Nations. In order to protect the anonymity of the participants in this
research, I do not to provide the specic levels of HD of both areas.
4. According to the Secretariat of Environment (Secretara del Medio Ambiente)
of Mexico City (see www.sma.df.gob.mx).
5. In the urban school, the group comprised 8 pupils; 4 boys and 4 girls. In the
rural one, there were 4 girls and 3 boys. In both cases, their age ranged
between 14 and 16 years old.
6. The questionnaire was especially designed to gather information about two
main. aspects: (1) students representations of PP; and (2) students representations of their participation in family, school, local, national and global
communities. It was tested and evaluated through a pilot study with 87
third-grade students from one urban secondary school, who answered the
252
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
L. Prez-Expsito
questionnaire in a 45 min session Among the various methods for testing the
quality and functioning of the questionnaire (Klugman, 2011), two were
employed: (1) statistical analysis (multiple item correlation, factor analysis and
computation of Cronbachs coefcients) and (2) cognitive interviews (Presser
et al., 2004) with 10 students. The questionnaire was tested in some usual
problems with questionnaires pointed out by (Beatty, 2004; Willis, 2004), but
particularly in: (a) comprehension, (b) keeping interest and motivation, (c)
adequacy of response alternatives, (d) social desirability, (e) construct validity
and (f) reliability.
Following these strategies, the questionnaire was administrated to a sample of
850 students in six different schools, four in the urban area and two in the
rural. The sample size was calculated considering a value of 1.96 for 95% of
condence level, a value of .5 as percentage of the population and a condence interval of 2.84. The response rate was 94%.
The qualitative eldwork took place during the academic year 20102011. The
quantitative stage was undertaken in the academic year 20112012.
Basic education in Mexico includes pre-school (3 years), primary education
(6 years, 612 years old) and secondary school (3 years, 1215 years old).
I use this term acknowledging that it is the formal name of the subject only
since 1999.
See Forsyth, Rothgeb, and Willis (2004) and Latap (2003).
See Roldn (2012), Latap (2003), and Levinson (2004) for a historical overview of Civic and Moral Education in Mexico.
See Prez Expsito (2013) for a distinction between formality and informality
in PP.
Partido Revolucionario Institucional (Institutional Revolutionary Party).
This new subject replaced civics and educational orientation, a course that
was centred more on vocational, psychological and moral orientation, and was
envisaged to serve as a guide for students process of identity formation.
The PCEF contains the following sections: (a) introduction, (b) rationale and
background, (c) general purpose of CEF, (d) purpose of CEF in secondary
school, (e) pedagogical perspective, (f) teenagers and CEF, (g) the teachers
role, (h) relationship with other courses, (i) content organisation, (j) content
structure and (k) blocks IV for second and third grades, which specify contents, expected learning outcomes, general orientations, and suggest the
application of certain didactical situations and activities.
In order to guarantee the anonymity of my informants, no real names are used
in this article.
The model has a very good tting according to the goodness-of-t statistics
values. The feasibility and statistical signicance of all parameter estimates is
achieved, and the correlation between the factors (latent variables) is relatively
low, suggesting an acceptable degree of independence.
This question was taken from the student questionnaire of the International
Civic and Citizenship Education Study 2009, developed by the International
Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA, 2010)
Spanish version.
The index was developed by assigning a numeric value to each of the four
response categories (Not at All = 0, Not Really = 1, Somewhat = 2 and
Much = 3). The lower limit of the index is 0, and, to establish the upper limit,
the higher value (3) was multiplied by the number of items in the battery (7).
Therefore, the index originally ranged from 0 to 21. Students scores were
253
computed by adding the value that corresponds to the category selected by the
respondent in each of the seven items. If a student scores 21, it means that in
every single indicator (item) he or she answered the category Much (=3). In
order to improve and clarify the interpretation of scores, I rescaled the index
by dividing the maximum limit (21) between the number of items (7). From
this rescaling, the range of the nal index is 03. The construction of the
index, by treating a categorical ordinal variable (each single indicator/item in
the battery) as a numerical one, assumes that the former has an underlying
continuous scale. As such, the categories can be regarded as only crude measurements of an unobserved variable that, in truth, has a continuous scale
(Jreskog & Srbom, 1993), with each pair of thresholds (or initial scale
points) representing a portion of the continuous scale (Byrne, 2010, p. 149).
21. n(valid) = 792, missing = 36.
22. See Prez Expsito (2015) for a complete analysis of student participation in
decision-making at school.
Notes on contributor
Leonel Prez-Expsito is Associate Professor of sociology and education at the
Department of Social Relations, Autonomous Metropolitan University (Xochimilco) in
Mexico, and Visiting Scholar in Education (20152016) at Harvard Graduate School of
Education, Harvard University. He holds a Ph D in education from the UCL Institute of
Education (previously Institute of Education, University of London). His main research
interests are citizenship and political education, adolescent participation in school,
school democratisation, and educational assessment and evaluation.
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