Comparative Education

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Rewriting citizenship? Civic education in Costa Rica

and Argentina
David F. Surez
To cite this article: David F. Surez (2008) Rewriting citizenship? Civic education in Costa Rica
and Argentina, Comparative Education, 44:4, 485-503, DOI: 10.1080/03050060802517505
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03050060802517505

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Comparative Education
Vol. 44, No. 4, November 2008, 485503

Rewriting citizenship? Civic education in Costa Rica and Argentina

David F. Surez*
School of Policy, Planning, and Development (SPPD), University of Southern California, Los
Angeles, CA, USA

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Comparative
10.1080/03050060802517505
CCED_A_351918.sgm
0305-0068
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Taylor
2008
dsuarez@sppd.usc.edudfsuarez@gmail.com
DavidSuarez
0000002008
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and
&
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Francis
(print)/1360-0486
Francis
Education
(online)

To what degree are nations rewriting citizenship by expanding discussions of human

rights, diversity and cultural pluralism in modern civic education, and what explains
variation between countries? This study addresses these issues by analysing the intended
content of civic education in Costa Rica and Argentina. Over time, civic education in
both countries has become more focused on rights and the empowerment of individuals.
In addition, both countries embrace aspects of global citizenship through an affirmation
of human rights. Citizenship thus expands outward and upward, incorporating more
groups and people into the national polity while also broadening the concept of
citizenship beyond the nation-state. Nevertheless, Costa Rica and Argentina vary in the
intensity of the adoption of global citizenship, most likely a result of divergent historical
experiences with state sponsored violence.

Introduction
Civic education always has been a central aspect of schooling. Historical studies indicate
that creating national citizens was a main impetus for mass education (Bendix 1964; Tyack
1966), and efforts to consolidate nation-states contributed to the world educational revolution (Meyer et al. 1977; Ramirez and Boli 1987). Whether taught formally through the
curriculum, informally through the hidden curriculum, or in combination, the presumed
purpose of citizenship education was assimilation into a cohesive nation-state (Banks and
Lynch 1986). Traditional civics emphasised duties, loyalty, patriotism and the functions of
government, and good citizens were supposed to learn appropriate norms and behaviours
through the schooling process (Dreeben 1968; Butts 1980; Brint et al. 2001).
Civic education has become increasingly salient as a specific curricular subject in the
last few decades, with more countries spending more time teaching citizenship (Torney-Purta
et al. 2001; Benavot 2004). Although many of the traditional patterns remain, citizenship
education has undergone various transformations. Global and regional organisations have
started to promote citizenship premised on universal human rights and a respect for human
dignity, and many of these same organisations aid nations in reform efforts (McNeely 1995;
Finnemore 1996; Chabbott 2002). At the global level, the United Nations initiated the Decade
for Human Rights Education in 1995 and then created the World Programme for Human
Rights Education as a follow-up project (United Nations 1998; Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) 2007).
At the regional level, the Council of Europe (COE) implemented the Education for
Democratic Citizenship Program from 19972004 (COE 2007a), and in 2005 the Council
of Europe proclaimed the European Year of Citizenship Through Education (COE 2007b).
*Email: dsuarez@sppd.usc.edu
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2008 Taylor & Francis
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D.F. Surez

Among other values, responsible citizenship for these programmes implies democracy and
human rights, equality, participation, partnership, social cohesion, solidarity, tolerance of
diversity and social justice (Eurydice 2005, 9). Regional organisations have been active in
Latin America as well, with the Organization of American States (OAS) and the InterAmerican Development Bank promoting democracy and human rights (Torney-Purta and
Amadeo 2004; Espinola 2005).
From a world polity perspective, these recent changes in civic education are aspects of
global, historical processes that accelerated dramatically after the Second World War
(Meyer et al. 1997). Rather than emphasising variation and national historical legacies,
world polity theory draws attention to similarities across nation-states and trends over long
periods of time. This research paradigm suggests that modern education aims to promote
progress and justice, two dimensions of a global model that has great legitimacy as an ideology or myth of development (Meyer and Ramirez 2000). Theorised and promoted by
professionals in universities, nongovernmental organisations and intergovernmental organisations throughout the world, these scripts or blueprints for development provide a cultural
explanation for the global explosion of enrolments in primary (Boli et. al. 1985), secondary
(Kamens et. al. 1996), and tertiary education (Schofer and Meyer 2005; Frank and Gabler
2006).
The expansion of enrolments at all levels is just one of many global changes in education. The curriculum has become more standardised worldwide, textbooks include more
depictions of minorities, and children increasingly are treated as active participants in
schooling (Frank et al. 2000; McEneaney 2003; Baker and LeTendre 2005). More recently,
the human rights movement has started to exert an independent effect on education throughout the world as well, challenging the traditional links between nation-states and citizenship
(Ramirez 2006a; Suarez 2007a). In the past, nation-states transformed the masses into citizens through schooling, privileging homogenisation in bounded imagined communities
(Anderson 1983; Ramirez and Boli 1987). Though education still has a central role in creating citizens, the modern goals of valorising diversity and affirming human rights are extending conceptions of membership beyond narrow national boundaries (Soysal 1994; Ramirez
2006a). The terms of inclusion in national polities have become a key area of contention,
contributing to discussions about post-national citizenship and the possibility of a global
imagined community (Schissler and Soysal 2005; Ramirez 2006b; Soysal and Wong 2006).
Of course, not all research suggests that these new citizenship templates have been
implemented effectively or without conflict. Not all countries have enacted reforms in civic
education, and while some studies recognise that many changes in education are taking
place, conclusions emphasise the need for teacher training and advocacy to institutionalise
new citizenship curricula (Ichilov 1998; Osler and Vincent 2002). More critically, in some
instances research has found that civics has become more relevant, but new themes are
framed in national terms or mask orthodox agendas (Davies et al. 2005; Davies and Issitt
2005). Central puzzles, then, involve the relationship between nationalism and citizenship.
To what extent are nations rewriting citizenship? Put simply, just how much has civic
education changed, and how do countries balance nationalism with new ideas of human
rights and global citizenship?
This study addresses these questions by analysing the intended content of civic education in Costa Rica and Argentina. In both countries the discussion of rights broadens over
time, citizenship responsibilities decline and homogeneous citizenship rooted in patriotic
nationalism gives way to a more multicultural model. Nevertheless, the two countries differ
in the intensity of the adoption of global citizenship, and Costa Rica remains much more
nation-centred than Argentina. To explain these patterns, the following section briefly

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considers education trends in the Latin American region and then transitions to a comparative analysis of civic education in Argentina and Costa Rica.
Education and reform in Latin America
Education in Latin America is beset by a number of contradictions. Universal enrolment in
primary education is nearly a reality, and enrolments in pre-primary, secondary and tertiary
education continue to grow (UNESCO/OREALC 2001). Nevertheless, Latin America
suffers from the greatest income disparity between the rich and the poor in the world
(Reimers 2001; Hoffman and Centeno 2003), and many studies point to huge differences in
the quality of education within and between countries in the region (Anderson 2005; Carnoy
and Marshall 2005).
As many countries in Latin America began the transition to democracy from authoritarian governments in the 1980s, education reform emerged as a key policy issue throughout
the region. Partially funded by development agencies like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, many of the changes that took place conformed to neoliberal models
endorsed by those agencies (Arnove et al. 2003; Ball et al. 2003). Much of the recent
research on education in Latin America has focused on these reforms, analysing the structural changes intended to reduce costs and improve efficiency (Hanson 1989, 1995; Rhoten
2002; Ferrer 2004) or studying human capital formation and competitiveness (McEwan and
Carnoy 2000; Rivarola and Fuller 1999).
Many countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean have started to reassess the
curriculum as well, particularly in relation to citizenship. Several recent studies on education in Latin America have brought attention to reforms designed to promote democracy
and create new modern citizens through the formal curriculum (Braslavsky 1999a; Gvirtz
2002; Levinson 2004; Astiz and Mendez 2006). In addition, a number of studies have documented the influence of human rights on education in the region (Basombrio 1991;
Magendzo and Dueas 1994; Cuellar 2000; Cox 2002; Interamerican Institute of Human
Rights 2002).
Costa Rica and Argentina serve as useful cases for addressing the extent to which these
new citizenship reforms have penetrated the curriculum. To begin with, both countries have
a long history of involvement with human rights education. Suarez (2007b) indicates that
nine countries in Latin America and the Caribbean addressed human rights in the curriculum by 1990, and Argentina and Costa Rica were among this group of countries. Moreover,
as early adopters of global citizenship education, these two countries might serve as a
model for the evolution of civics in Latin America. Policy borrowing is a common feature
of the contemporary world (Schriewer 1990; Steiner-Khamsi 2004), and countries in Latin
America adopt models from each other rather frequently (Braslavsky 1999b).
Costa Rica and Argentina also provide an interesting contrast because they offer very
different contexts for citizenship reforms. In many respects Argentina and Costa Rica are
quite similar Argentina ranks highest on the Human Development Index (HDI) in Latin
America (United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 2006). Costa Rica is not far
behind, ranking fourth (behind Chile and Uruguay). In addition, the two countries are similar in the faith they have in education as a tool for human capital development and economic
growth. While there is plenty of room for improvement, a recent study of education in Latin
America and the Caribbean suggests that Argentina and Costa Rica are among the more
successful countries at educating students (Proyecto Regional de Indicatores Educativos
(PRIE) 2002). In comparing civic education reforms, then, many of the basic indicators of
development are comparable in Argentina and Costa Rica.

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These similarities contrast with one major difference between the two countries
national histories of democracy and human rights. Costa Rica is a country with a good
human rights record, a stable democracy and no standing army. Argentina is a country with
a history of authoritarian regimes, and during a period from 19761983 the government
participated in many egregious human rights violations against its own citizens. The selection of Costa Rica and Argentina, then, is far from random. The comparison of two countries
with progressive citizenship reforms and very different social histories demonstrates what
global citizenship reforms entail while drawing attention to salient national differences.
Curricular guidelines, textbooks and supplementary materials were collected during
three-month trips to each country in 2004 and 2005. Appendices 1 and 2 detail the documents and textbooks investigated for Costa Rica and Argentina, respectively. Seven textbooks from Costa Rica from the early 1990s were analysed and compared to nine textbooks
published since 2000, and the relevant study programmes were created in 1996, 2001 and
2005.1 For Argentina nine textbooks were analysed from the 19831994 period and seven
recent textbooks were analysed for the period since 1994;2 the study programmes that are
analysed were created in 1983 and 1995.3
All of the documents were read carefully, and general trends were determined by
ascertaining the frequency of relevant keywords. Though this method does not demonstrate
change in every aspect of civics, the analytical strategy enables a basic comparison of citizenship education in two countries and at two different time points. These data are presented
in following sections, and interesting quotes are drawn from the different texts to supplement the analysis of keywords. The documents from Argentina demonstrate transformations
since the beginning of the return to democracy in 1983, and in Costa Rica the documents
highlight trends since the integration of civics as a curricular subject in the early 1990s. By
comparing older study programmes to new study programmes and then considering textbooks and their content in both countries, results dramatise internal changes and the depth
of attempts to rewrite citizenship by emphasising rights and personhood.
Civics in Costa Rica and Argentina
Costa Rica has a centralised education system, and decisions made by the Ministry of
Education apply to all regions of the country. The General Education Plan and the Curricular Policy of 1990 (MEP 1990a, 1990b) served as the basis for new curricular guidelines,
and these guidelines have been created and revised three times (MEP 1996a, 1996b, 2001,
2001b, 2005b). One of the main changes in the curriculum in recent decades has been the
reintroduction of civic education as a separate and obligatory subject.4 Beginning in 1989,
civic education was re-added to the tenth and eleventh grade curriculum. In subsequent
years civic education was incorporated into the seventh, eighth and ninth grade curriculum
as well, and the Costa Rican government began to produce detailed curricular guidelines
(also known as study programmes) for civic education from seventh through eleventh grade.
Unlike Costa Rica, Argentina now has a decentralised system of education, but the
school system was unified nationally until 1993.5 Civic education has been a component of
the curriculum throughout the twentieth century, and many civics courses after the Second
World War placed an emphasis on nationalism, rule-following and anti-communist order
(Romero 2001). The dictatorship from 19761983 deepened the emphasis on these values
(Hanson 1996; Tedesco et al. 1983). Even though new curricular guidelines were not
consolidated in Argentina until 1995, immediately following the fall of the military dictatorship in 1983 the new government endorsed major changes to the civic education curriculum for eighth, ninth, tenth and twelfth grade. After the passage of the new education law

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in 1993, Common Basic Contents (CBCs) for civic education and other subjects were
created as curricular guidelines for primary and secondary education. Because the new
education law decentralised the education system, not all Argentine provinces follow the
CBCs exactly. However, provinces create more localised standards based on national documents, and the federal government maintains some control through national examinations.

Study programmes for civic education in Costa Rica and Argentina

As part of an education reform campaign called Educational Policy for the Twenty-First
Century, in 1994 the Costa Rican government began to focus on six elements: study
programmes, teacher training, evaluation, textbooks and didactic resources, professional
development and management training (MEP 1994). The new study programme for civics
that emerged from this campaign in 1996 claimed that the course prepares Costa Ricans for
active participation in the exercise of their rights and responsibilities as members of a
Nation-State, giving priority to the development of values, the safeguarding and preservation of historical-cultural heritage, and the search for cultural roots (MEP 1996a, 1). These
objectives have a solid national emphasis and reflect what might be expected from traditional civics courses.
However, civic education in Costa Rica in the early 1990s also taught respect for
human rights and peaceful relations, and appreciation for peace as the result of mutual
respect between people and between nations (MEP 1996a, 23). These global themes were
integrated into different areas of the civic education guidelines, but they were most evident
in ninth grade. For this grade level, the government established the theme Costa Rica and
Respect for Human Rights. The study programme states that students should learn about
positive law and natural law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the American
Convention on Human Rights, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (MEP
1996a). Far from a passing reference to the global context of citizenship, in its report on
activities during 1999 the Ministry of Education mentions that:
New strategies are being developed for the study of civic education beginning in preschool,
with one axis as political citizenship and the rights and responsibilities of all Costa Ricans, and
a cultural citizenship axis that aspires for Costa Ricans, without losing their roots or national
spirit, to consider themselves universal citizens. (MEP 1999, 18)

Although human rights and other global themes remained important topics in the
curricular guidelines from Costa Rica in 2001 and 2005, their treatment underwent a number
of changes. Principally, Costa Rica introduced many of these issues as cross-cutting themes.
The study programme mentions three cross-cutting themes: (1) Education for Human Rights,
Democracy, and Peace; (2) Education for Environmental Protection; and (3) Holistic Sexual
Education (MEP 2005a). Rather than teaching human rights as a specific content topic in
ninth grade as before, Costa Rica altered the curriculum to make human rights a main
component of civic education as a whole. In addition, many more global themes like peace
and environmental protection emerged that cut across all areas of the curriculum.
In the new curricular guidelines for eighth grade, for example, students study the rights
of women, children, the elderly, the handicapped, minorities and immigrants (MEP 2005a).
Moreover, in eleventh grade, students are supposed to identify situations that violate
human rights and the rights of children at the national level and at the international level
(MEP 2005a, 45). As might be expected from civics courses, students learn about the
construction of the constitution and the workings of the political system in Costa Rica, and

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D.F. Surez

students also learn about the importance of democracy, voting, and even student government. However, more sub-national groups are discussed in the newer curricular guidelines,
and cross-cutting themes reinforce the importance of global citizenship scripts.
While curricular guidelines in Costa Rica integrate global themes and balance them with
traditional aspects of civics, the focus on the nation withers significantly in Argentina. The
main global theme addressed in older curricular guidelines in Argentina is human rights,
and study programmes from 1983 discuss human rights in tenth grade. According to the
study programme for tenth grade, human rights is one of five themes for civic education,
and students are supposed to study: (1) the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen (France); (2) the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and (3) manifest and
hidden forms of human rights violations: terrorism, repression, censorship, misery, ignorance and racism (MEJ 1984c).
Students also study a number of additional topics dealing with democracy and international relations, but for the most part civics is grounded in positive law and national traditions. For example, support materials for civic education state that true civic mindedness is
understood principally as an expression of nationalism, the development of the Argentine
man in complete consciousness of his nationality and with a clear comprehension of patriotic values (MEJ 1988, 7). Citizens are treated as belonging to a common culture, and there
is very little emphasis on women, minorities or immigrants. Overall, then, human rights
appear prominently in the curriculum beginning in 1983, but the civics curriculum emphasised the nation, the rule of law and the constitution.
Beginning with the new education law in 1993 and the publication of Common Basic
Contents (CBCs) for General Basic Education in 1995, civic education in Argentina underwent radical changes. To begin with, cross-cutting themes emerge in Argentina as blocks
or key competencies, and these key competencies apply to all levels of general basic education. The Ministry of Culture and Education (renamed from the Ministry of Education and
Law) begins the discussion of civic education for General Basic Education by stating:
When the Federal Education Law establishes that the education system needs to make possible
the holistic development of men and women, the document utilizes several referents: education
for democratic life, environmental conservation, health, love, work, and respect and defense of
human rights. (MCE 1995, 332)

These referents set the tone for the curricular guidelines, and standards for each of the
key competencies address a variety of rights.6 Created in 1997, curricular guidelines for
polimodal education (non-mandatory secondary education) also discuss global themes
extensively. Like the Common Basic Contents (CBCs) for general basic education, the
guidelines for polimodal education include content objectives, and the three main competencies are human rights, democratic life and a just society.
Because the provinces do not have to follow the CBCs exactly, study programmes from
Buenos Aires Province and from the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires were analysed to
see how human rights and other modern topics were incorporated. Like the CBCs for the
national level, the study programmes for the province of Buenos Aires and the Autonomous
City of Buenos Aires address global themes at great length. For polimodal education in
Buenos Aires Province, the study programme for civic education states:
Human Rights and Citizenship attends to the primary goal of polimodal education developing
attitudes for responsible and conscientious citizenship. Human rights have a special significance because they are intrinsically linked to the concept of citizenship, understood as the
effective enjoyment of all rights for everyone. Citizenship education should begin with

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491

the recognition, defense, respect, and promotion of human rights and have as a goal the maximal development of abilities for all individuals and peoples. (Consejo General de Cultura y
Educacion 1999b, 118119)

As a final example, the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires recently created new study
programmes for the first and second year of civic education (eighth and ninth grade).7 The
study programme from the first year of civic education teaches students:

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Beginning with the analysis of actual situations, one can understand the historical need to
establish universal rights, as principles of justice for which multiple social actors have fought
and continue to fight. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights constitutes a basic reference,
as long as it is not presented in a dogmatic manner but as a milestone in the struggle for the
recognition of rights. (Gobierno de la Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires 2004a, 24)

The comparison of the CBCs from the national study programme to the specific study
programmes from the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires Province
demonstrate that all of the documents include extensive discussion of rights and other
modern citizenship themes for civics. Like the study programmes in Costa Rica, human
rights in Argentina have become a key competency that orients the civic education curriculum. In addition, like the changes that take place in Costa Rica, human rights in Argentina
spread up and out. Human rights cease to be a topic just for a specific grade level.
Instead, human rights become a major component of civic education that permeates all
grade levels.
In many respects, Argentina and Costa Rica are similar in their treatment of human
rights and other global themes. Both countries make human rights an orienting or crosscutting theme, and both countries continue to include human rights as part of the content of
the curriculum. The main difference is that while Argentina expands the focus of rights
beyond the nation-state, Costa Rica maintains a much greater emphasis on the nation. The
clearest way to demonstrate some of these changes is through a comparison of keywords
mentioned in the curricular guidelines. Table 1 presents the average number of mentions per
page for specific terms that characterise traditional and modern civics.
Table 1 indicates that the discussion of rights diminished slightly in Costa Rica, but the
discussion of responsibilities declined as well. In addition, the current curricular guidelines
mention specific issues or groups (minorities, women, the handicapped, the elderly, and the
environment) more than the prior guidelines. However, the discussion of the nation and the
constitution barely change, suggesting that Costa Rica is working to balance national citizenship with more modern and global themes. In Argentina the study programmes abandon
the attempt to maintain this balance. Not only does the discussion of rights increase and
responsibilities decrease, the discussion of the nation and the constitution also decrease.
Overall, civic education in both countries becomes infused with global themes, but
Argentina and Costa Rica differ in how they incorporate these new themes. In Costa Rica,
discussions of minorities and rights coexist with more conventional or traditional civics
topics. In Argentina, the discourse of rights seems to crowd out discussions of the nationstate. Nevertheless, because policy documents may be very far removed from classrooms,
civics textbooks serve as a complementary source for assessing the extent of curricular
changes.
Civic education textbooks in Costa Rica and Argentina
While textbooks do not necessarily capture the implemented curriculum, they do serve as
an intermediate step between policy discourse and teacher practice that can be compared

492
Table 1.

D.F. Surez
Average keyword mentions per page, study programmes in Argentina and Costa Rica.
Costa Rica
Old programmes
(1996)

New programmes
(20012005)

Old programmes
(1984)

New programmes
(19952004)

Modern civics
Rights
Human rights
Specific groups
Equality
Health
Democracy

2.17
0.47
0.31
0.24
0.29
0.36

1.85
0.22
0.83
0.19
0.32
0.49

0.81
0.25
0.22
0.09
0.25
1.19

1.53
0.41
0.34
0.41
0.47
0.43

Traditional civics
Responsibilities
Authority
Patriotism
Nation
Loyalty
Constitution
Family
Total pages

0.35
0.14
0.31
4.21
0.09
0.29
0.45
86

0.22
0.00
0.13
4.13
0.01
0.31
0.22
72

0.31
0.03
0.09
1.81
0.00
1.22
0.13
32

0.09
0.03
0.01
0.45
0.00
0.49
0.29
99

Country

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Argentina

Sources: MCE (1995, 1994) MEP (1996a, 1996b, 2005a, 2005b); MEJ (1984a-e, 1988); Consejo General de
Cultura y Educacin (1999a, 1999b); Gobierno de la Ciudad Autnoma de Buenos Aires (2004a, 2004b).
Note: New study programmes in Argentina cover all subject areas. Only the sections relevant to civics were coded.
Specific groups refers to the keywords: minorities, handicapped, elderly, women, and environment.

across countries. In Costa Rica the textbooks from the mid-1990s addressed global issues
such as human rights, but discussions were limited to specific grade levels. For example, a
ninth grade textbook states:
Human rights have the characteristic of being universal, absolute, and inalienable. They are
universal because they belong to all people, without distinguishing between ethnicity, color,
sex, language, religion, political opinion or any other opinion, national or social origin,
economic position, birthplace, or any other condition. They are absolute, because they impose
their respect for all, regardless of distinctions or differences. They are inalienable because they
do not have commercial value and they are outside of commerce, they are not measured in
money. (Castro Castro 1994b, 59)

This depiction of human rights is fairly extensive, but sub-national groups receive very
little attention. Moreover, even though the textbooks discuss the universalism of rights, the
discussion relates the topic to national laws. In many cases the textbooks include tedious
pages of text from the Costa Rican constitution, linking universal rights to the rights of
citizens in Costa Rica. For example, the same textbook addressed earlier emphasises that:
Our Constitution recognizes the integral rights of all people civil, political, economic, social,
cultural and establishes the primacy of those fundamental rights, in such a way that they should
not be disrespected, suspended, limited, unrecognized or transferred. (Castro Castro 1994b, 60)

Both of the major textbook publishers in Costa Rica revised textbooks substantially at
the end of the 1990s, mainly to improve the quality of the readings. New textbooks are much

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493

longer, more detailed, and they include many more activities and pictures to engage the
students. In addition, textbooks remove the long discussions of rights enumerated in the
constitution. Instead, rights become somewhat decoupled from the national constitution. For
example, a recent textbook states:

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Beginning in the 1980s, a third generation of rights emerged, called solidarity rights. These
rights deal with collectivities, for example humanity, a people, a nation, a community or an
ethnicity. These rights can only be guaranteed through the participation of all the members of
society: the nation-state, individuals, public organizations and nongovernmental organizations.
Solidarity rights include the right to peace, which implies that all people should fight crimes
against humanity and attacks on peace. (Espinoza Rostran 2003b, 6)

Textbooks demonstrate that rights are an important aspect of civic education, and these
materials emphasise democracy, sub-national groups and increasingly global aspects of citizenship. Nevertheless, these transformations have not entailed a wholesale elimination of
the nation. As with the new study programmes in Costa Rica, new textbooks look quite a
bit like traditional civics texts, with discussions of the construction of the nation, national
heroes and the functions of different governmental bodies. Similar to policy documents,
new textbooks in Costa Rica discuss rights and address a variety of sub-national groups, but
the nation remains central.
Even when looking at textbooks, the emphasis on the nation remains the key difference
between Costa Rica and Argentina. With the return to democracy in Argentina in 1983, the
country began a slow process of reconciling with human rights violations in its immediate
past. The events and developments after the return to democracy demonstrate that there was
a desire to come to terms with atrocities, but the transition was not quick and fluid. Textbooks
from the decade demonstrate a wide range of perspectives, especially within the discussion
of human rights violations.
As mentioned previously students were supposed to study human rights in tenth grade,
and three different textbooks for that grade level take up considerable space formally
presenting the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and the United Nations
Declaration of Human Rights. The area that caused great variation in terms of presentation
was the section on Manifest and Hidden Forms of Human Rights Violations. The most
conservative textbook states that:
Our country has suffered from international Marxist aggression in recent years. The country
has lived through the actions and consequent reactions, caused by an enemy who unleashed
attacks in different areas: intellectual, political, economic, social, religious, and military.
(Kechichian 1985, 215)

Without question, this particular textbook focused more on authority and the power of
the government than any other textbook analysed from Argentina or from Costa Rica. The
other textbooks in Argentina are quite similar to the textbooks from Costa Rica from the
same period. As in Costa Rica, Argentine textbooks define and describe human rights as
natural, inalienable, inviolate, universal and obligatory. Moreover, the textbooks in both
countries include large amounts of text directly from international treaties like the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.
The textbooks from 19831993 in Argentina make a clear effort to frame citizenship in
a global context, but the nation and national citizenship were primary aspects of civics during
the period. Textbooks emphasised the legal and procedural dimensions of the Argentine
government, and even the discussions of human rights include long passages from legal

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D.F. Surez

texts. With textbooks since the reforms that began in 1993, human rights and global
themes become much more central to civic education. The changes since the reforms in 1993
indicate that the variation in the treatment of human rights in Argentine textbooks has diminished, and human rights have become an orienting principle for the curriculum.
Textbooks from the most recent period in Argentina differ markedly from textbooks
produced in the 1980s. To begin with, most of the textbooks produced before the curricular
reforms in 1993 addressed rights in relation to the constitution, and the specific discussion
of global human rights was limited to one grade level. For the most part the broader discussion of rights focused on political rights like voting, but the new textbooks incorporate
social and cultural rights as well. Moreover, the new textbooks expand the discussion of
citizenship beyond the nation-state, addressing the national community in relation to the
human community (Romero 2001).
Rather than defining human rights as embedded in national laws, the new textbooks tend
to highlight the fact that rights are the result of activism and resistance, even though they
are universal. One textbook comments:
Human rights are the rights that everyone has, with no form of discrimination, simply
because they are human. These rights represent the guarantee that people can live in accord
with their human dignity. The recognition of human rights and their development in international declarations and constitutional texts of different countries has been the result of a long
history of struggles in which human rights were seriously violated. (Casullo et al. 1997b,
132)

This shift in the definition of human rights is compounded by an expansion in the scope
of rights and the discussion of marginalised groups. For the most part, textbooks in the
earlier period in both Costa Rica and Argentina avoided discussions of gender and other
forms of institutionalised inequality, even if economic, social and cultural rights were
addressed. In the more recent period, textbooks in both countries begin to apply the general
discussion of human rights to particular groups. While gender discrimination and gender
inequalities are still a problem in Argentina, a textbook designed for polimodal education in
the Province of Buenos Aires states:
Gender rights refer to rights of men and women. Historically, rights of men and women have
been considered hierarchically, with the rights of women inferior to the rights of men. Womanmother, woman-teacher, woman-nurse have been the traditional stereotypes of women with
specific and exceptional capacities for maternity, teaching, or caregiving. These stereotypes
constructed inequalities and diverse forms of domination or subordination of women to men.
(Schujman et al. 1999, 163)

The civic education textbook from the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires also deals with
issues of discrimination. The textbook has a specific section on gender inequalities, and the
book spends considerable time discussing the rights of children as well. Moreover, the textbook makes a conscious effort to focus on the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires rather than
just generalising to the nation as a whole. The notion of rights takes centre stage, reinforced
by national legal protections. In describing the rights of marginalised groups, the textbook
mentions that:
The Constitution of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires dedicates special chapters to establish the protection of groups such as boys, girls, adolescents, youth, the elderly, and people with
special needs. In this way, all of these groups are legally protected from situations of abandonment, discrimination, or rejection from society conditions these groups have been subjected

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495

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to for too long. As citizens, it is our responsibility to make sure these norms are enforced and
translated into concrete action so that all social groups can enjoy their human rights. (Blanco
Odena 2005, 123)

These quotes from the most recent textbooks highlight many of the salient changes that
have taken place in the content of civic education. Argentina did include human rights in
the curriculum as early as 1983, but the discussion of rights has expanded dramatically. In
order to compare the textbooks from Costa Rica and Argentina in a more direct manner,
Table 2 provides descriptive summary statistics for several key words mentioned in the
Table of Contents of the textbooks in the past and the present. Like Table 1, Table 2 shows
some common tendencies.
A comparison of the terms rights and responsibilities proves particularly informative.
Not only does the discussion of rights increase in both countries, the discussion of citizenship as responsibility diminishes in Costa Rica and Argentina. Human rights also become
more prevalent over time in the textbooks, although much more dramatically in Argentina.
With the exception of democracy, every indicator of modern civics remains the same or
increases over time in Argentina and Costa Rica. In both countries, then, civic education is
characterised by an expansion in attention to rights, equality and diversity. However, as with
the study programmes, the focus on the nation remains stable in Costa Rica. In fact,
mentions of the constitution and the nation increase over time even though discussions of
loyalty, patriotism and the family decrease. The emphasis on the nation and the constitution
continue to be the main difference between Costa Rica and Argentina, with the textbooks in
Argentina decreasing the average mentions of the polity.
Table 2. Average keyword mentions per page, textbook table of contents in Argentina and
Costa Rica.
Costa Rica

Argentina

Old textbooks
(19931997)

New textbooks
(20002005)

Old textbooks
(19851992)

New textbooks
(19972005)

Modern civics
Rights
Human rights
Specific groups
Equality
Health
Democracy

2.29
0.64
0.21
0.21
0.00
1.64

3.11
0.89
1.28
0.50
0.17
0.39

1.94
0.67
0.44
0.06
0.39
1.67

3.24
0.92
0.76
0.76
0.44
1.32

Traditional civics
Responsibilities
Authority
Patriotism
Nation
Loyalty
Constitution
Family
Pages

0.79
0.21
0.07
1.14
0.07
0.07
1.14
14

0.17
0.11
0.06
1.67
0.00
0.56
0.11
18

0.61
0.50
0.11
2.39
0.00
1.22
1.17
18

0.20
0.04
0.04
1.84
0.00
1.16
0.20
25

Country

Sources: See textbooks listed in Appendix 1 and Appendix 2.

Note: Specific groups refers to the keywords: minorities, handicapped, elderly, women, and environment.

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Discussion
In both country cases, the analysis of study programmes and textbooks reveal striking and
robust patterns. In the earlier period under study for both countries, civic education follows
a centralised and standardised pattern. Students are obligated to study given topics in
specific years, students learn about human rights and responsibilities and textbooks often
make extensive references to international and national legal texts. As progressive as they
are, relative to countries with no mention of human rights, the study programmes and the
textbooks make few references to minorities, marginalised populations and topics involving
cultural issues.
Over time, civic education undergoes major shifts in both countries. Argentina and
Costa Rica modernise their study programmes and their textbooks, they increase the
emphasis on diversity and they decrease the emphasis on citizenship responsibilities. In
Costa Rica the discussion of human rights becomes a cross-cutting theme rather than just
a content topic, and many new aspects of human rights are addressed in the study
programmes and in textbooks. Argentina also makes human rights a cross-cutting theme,
and human rights remain an integral content topic as well. As different as the two countries are, civic education seems to follow a similar trend in both countries: notions of citizenship expand to incorporate more sub-national groups, and the conception of citizenship
becomes more global. Extending beyond the nation-state, national citizens become human
persons, individuals that defy traditional visions of assimilation and incorporation
(Ramirez 2006a).
Why, then, the differences between Costa Rica and Argentina in the treatment of the
constitution and the nation? Costa Rica represents a more conventional treatment of global
citizenship and human rights than Argentina, a pattern that could be due to historical legacies of human rights violations in Argentina. From this perspective Argentina suffers from
questions of legitimacy as a result of the role of the state as a perpetrator of human rights
violations. Because Costa Rica has not had such problems, the nation remains a healthy and
more central referent for citizenship. Testing this idea more broadly would require a systematic comparison of citizenship education reforms in countries with egregious human rights
violations to citizenship education reforms in countries without extensive human rights
violations.
A recent study on civic education in Australia, Canada and England (Davies and Issitt
2005) could serve as a starting point for a comparison to Germany and Spain, for example. Because Germany and Spain have had problematic histories, the nation and the
constitution might be far less prevalent in the civics curriculum in these countries than in
other European or Western countries without similar histories. The comparison of Costa
Rica and Argentina provides a provocative example of this pattern, but more research is
necessary to determine the extent to which this pattern holds in additional countries or
regions.
The comparison of civic education in Argentina and Costa Rica suggests that citizenship
reforms have the potential to rewrite many aspects of national citizenship, but there are
several limitations. First, to the extent that human rights simply represent a new modern
discourse for national rights, national citizenship might not change much at all. Second,
the comparison of civic education in Costa Rica and Argentina has emphasised study
programmes and textbooks. Based on a comparison of these documents over time, both
countries have expanded their interest in human rights and post-national citizenship, but the
analysis of specific keywords in textbooks and policy documents may overlook some alternatives. Moreover, teachers tend to employ conservative teaching methods (Brint et al.

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497

2001), and human rights will mean very little as a cross-cutting theme or as a content topic
if teachers do not know their human rights or do not teach them.
Costa Rica and Argentina are two of the countries most involved in teaching human
rights in Latin America, and the incorporation of human rights is more than a superficial or
token reference. With this said, future research should extend beyond the intended curriculum to the implemented curriculum, comparing how teachers present citizenship in comparative perspective. At the level of the intended curriculum, human rights and diversity seem
to have become important foundations for creating national citizens in Costa Rica and
Argentina.
If the trends in these two countries anticipate or reflect broader changes, then citizenship
throughout the world ceases to be just a national enterprise tailored to constructing members
for unique, corporatist polities. These elements by no means disappear, but civic education
loses some of its national and homogeneous specificity. Civic education becomes more
focused on creating individuals, empowered persons who are not limited by national citizenship. Stated differently, human rights and diversity are not unique to Costa Rica or
Argentina. The two countries certainly have different histories with human rights violations
that seem to influence the depth of citizenship reforms, but the discourse of human rights
and diversity has spread worldwide. The same can be said for discourse about the environment, democracy and womens rights. Costa Rica and Argentina tailor or edit these scripts
for citizenship to their national contexts, but the basic contours of these changes are embedded in broader global patterns.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Francisco O. Ramirez, John W. Meyer, Juergen Schriewer, Jeff
Marshall and Michael Crossley for comments on earlier drafts. All translations and errors are the sole
responsibility of the author.

Notes
1. In Costa Rica the government produces many national textbooks, but these textbooks do not

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

cover civic education. Interviews with academics and policy-makers at the National Instruction
Center (CENADI) identified two publishers of textbooks as being the most commonly used in
classrooms, and textbooks from both publishers were analysed for both time-points. Because
study programmes from 2001 and 2005 are quite similar they are analysed together.
In Argentina the textbook industry became completely deregulated after the military dictatorship.
Multiple textbooks for each period are compared to address potential variation.
Supplementary analyses involve newer study programmes from several Argentine provinces.
Costa Rica had included civic education as a subject in the curriculum for much of the history of
the nation, but in the 1960s international agencies promoted a model of civic education integrated
into social studies (Dengo Obregn 2001; Salazar Mora 2003).
Recent education reforms in Argentina, consolidated in a new education law in 1994, have been
studied extensively. For an overview see (Hanson 1996; Dussel 2000; Rhoten 2000; Gvirtz and
Beech 2004; Astiz 2006).
In the new guidelines, civic education is called Ethical Development and Citizenship.
Buenos Aires has not enacted the structural reforms from 1993.

Notes on contributor
David F. Surez is an assistant professor of public management in the School of Policy, Planning, and
Development at the University of Southern California. His research interests include human rights,
comparative education, non-profit management and leadership, and civic engagement. His work has
been published in Comparative Education Review, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly,
Administration & Society, and a variety of edited volumes.

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Appendix 1: Textbooks and study programmes from Costa Rica used for analysis

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Textbooks
Castro Castro, Maria et al. 1994a. Educacin Ciudadana 8 [Citizenship education 8]. San Jos:
Editorial Norma.
. 1994b. Educacin ciudadana 9 [Citizenship education 9]. San Jos: Editorial Norma.
. 2000a. Educacin ciudadana 8 [Citizenship education 8]. San Jos: Editorial Norma
. 2000b. Educacin ciudadana 9 [Citizenship education 9], San Jos: Editorial Norma
Espinoza Rostran, Maura. 2003a. Cvica 8 [Civics 8]. San Jos: Editorial Santillana
. 2003b. Cvica 9 [Civics 9]. San Jos: Editorial Santillana.
. 2005a. Cvica 7 [Civics 7]. San Jos: Editorial Santillana.
. 2005b. Cvica 8 [Civics 8]. San Jos: Editorial Santillana.
. 2005c. Cvica 9 [Civics 9]. San Jos: Editorial Santillana.
. 2005d. Cvica 10 [Civics 10]. San Jos: Editorial Santillana.
. 2005e. Cvica 11 [Civics 11]. San Jos: Editorial Santillana.
Fallas Jimnez, Lisbeth. 1993. Educacin cvica 9 [Civic education 9]. San Jos: Editorial Santillana.
.1994. Educacin cvica 8 [Civic education 8]. San Jos: Editorial Santillana.
Morales Cordero, Elsa. Cvica 10 [Civics 10]. 1997. San Jos: Editorial Santillana.
Ortiz Estrada, Gustavo. 1993. Educacin cvica 7 [Civic education 7]. Mxico, Editorial Santillana
Sequeira Enrquez, Myriam. 1994. Educacin cvica 11 [Civic education 11]. San Jos: Editorial
Santillana.

Policy Documents
Ministerio de Educacin Pblica (MEP). 1987. Memoria [Annual report]. San Jos: Ministerio de
Educacin Pblica.
. 1990a. Poltica curricular del periodo 1990-1994 [Curricular policy from 1990-1994]. San
Jos: Ministerio de Educacin Pblica.
. 1990b. Plan general de educacin 1990-1994 [General education plan 1990-1994]. San
Jos: Ministerio de Educacin Pblica.
. 1990c. Memoria final, periodo 1986-1990 [Final annual report, 1986-1990]. San Jos:
Ministerio de Educacin Pblica.
. 1994. Memoria de Labores [Annual work report], San Jos: Costa Rica: Ministerio de
Educacin Pblica.
. 1996a. Educacin cvica III ciclo [Civic education, third cycle], San Jos: Ministerio de
Educacin Pblica.
. 1996b. Educacin cvica: Educacin diversificada [Civic education, diversified education].
San Jos: Ministerio de Educacin Pblica.
. 1999. Memoria 1999 [Annual report 1999]. San Jos: Ministerio de Educacin Pblica.
. 2000. Antologa de educacin cvica: Undcimo ao [Anthology of civic education: eleventh grade]. San Jos: Centro Nacional de Didctica.
. 2001a. Educacin cvica III ciclo [Civic education, third cycle]. San Jos: Ministerio de
Educacin Pblica.
. 2001b. Compendio de temas de educacin cvica para noveno ao [Compendium of themes
on civic education for the ninth grade], San Jos: Centro Nacional de Didctica.
. 2001c. Educacin cvica: educacin diversificada [Civic education: Diversified education].
San Jos: Ministerio de Educacin Pblica.
.2005a. Relanzamiento de la educacin Costarricense [Relaunching Costa Rican education].
San Jos: Ministerio de Educacin Pblica.
. 2005b. Educacin Cvica: III ciclo y educacin diversificada [Civic education: Third cycle
and diversified education]. San Jos: Ministerio de Educacin Pblica.
Rojas, Marta, Kisabel Ducca and Amalia Vargas. 1993. Estudio sobre la situacin y perspectivas de
la elaboracin de libros de texto para la educacin bsica de Costa Rica [A study on the situation and perspectives on the development of textbooks for basic education in Costa Rica], San
Jos: Costa Rica, IIMEC.

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Appendix 2: Textbooks and study programmes from Argentina used for analysis

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Textbooks
Bidart Campos, German Jose. 1992. Educacin cvica 1 [Civic education 1], Buenos Aires: Angel
Estrada.
Blanco Odena, Diego, et al. 2005. Educacin cvica 1 [Civic education 1]. Buenos Aires: Doce
Orcas.
Bustinza, Juan Antonio, et al. 1997. Educacin cvica 2 [Civic education 2]. Buenos Aires: A-Z
Editora.
Casullo, Alicia, et al. 1997a. Formacin tica y ciudadana 8 [Ethical development and citizenship
8]. Buenos Aires: Santillana.
. 1997b. Formacin tica y ciudadana 9 [Ethical development and citizenship 9]. Buenos
Aires: Santillana.
Drago, Alfredo. 1985. Educacin cvica 3 [Civic education 3]. Buenos Aires: Editorial Stella.*
.1991. Educacin cvica 1 [Civic education 1], Buenos Aires: Editorial Stella.
Kechichian, Roberto N. 1985. Educacin cvica 3 [Civic education 3]. Buenos Aires: Braga.
Luchenio, Angela. 1993. Educacin cvica 2 [Civic education 2]. Buenos Aires: Kapelusz.
Mignone, Emilio. 1986. Educacin cvica 3 [Civic education 3]. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Colihue.
Pasel, Susana, and Susana Asborno. 1991. Educacin cvica 1 [Civic education I]. Buenos Aires:
Aique.
. 1992. Educacin cvica 2 [Civic education 2]. Buenos Aires: Aique.*
. 2001a. Educacin civica 1 [Civic education 1]. Buenos Aires: Aique.
. 2001b. Educacin cvica 3 [Civic education 3]. Buenos Aires: Aique.
Sabsay, Daniel. 1989. Educacin civica 2 [Civic education 2]. Buenos Aires: Santillana.
Schujman, Gustavo et al. 1999. Filosofia, Formacin tica y ciudadana [Philosophy, ethical development and citizenship]. Buenos Aires: Aique.

Policy Documents
Consejo General de Cultura y Educacin. 1999a. Diseo curricular: Educacin inicial y educacin
general bsica: Tomo I y II [Curricular design: Preschool and general basic education: Volume I
and 2]. Direccin General de Cultura y Educacin, Provincia de Buenos Aires.
. 1999b. Programa para la definicin del diseo curricular del nivel polimodal. Direccin
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*These two textbooks were missing a Table of Contents