CITIZENSHIP, EDUCATION AND BRAZILIAN REALITY:

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CITIZENSHIP, EDUCATION AND BRAZILIAN REALITY:
POINTS FOR DEBATE AND COURSES OF ACTION
Ciudadanía, educación y la realidad brasileña: puntos de debate y
cursos de acción
Cidadania, educação e realidade brasileira: pontos para o debate e
encaminhamentos

Lilian Tatiane Candia de Oliveira
Paulo Gomes Lima**

ABSTRACT: This survey discusses citizenship in a recurrent perspective by
means of a critical-reflective analysis in the light of historical materialism and in
four sections. In the first section we discuss the historical backgrounds of
citizenship, the constraints and values which dealt with man and his comprehension
of reality. In the second section, Citizenship and contradictions: senses and
meaning, as a kaleidoscopic dimension we distinguish the structural elements of
consolidation of the term citizenship, as well as the contradictions arising from its
reflection. Later, in “Educational policy and citizenship” we debate the outlines
and reflections on citizenship nowadays. Finally in the forth section, we
problematize the challenges and courses of action on the importance of citizenship
in education in Brazil and vice versa. The study points out that the sense of a
citizenship corresponding to the democratic perspective improves the educational
courses of action so that its implementation gives meaning to the constitution of
citizens who live and claim the social space as a universalized and humanized
conquest even if it is a reality to be built.

Keywords: citizenship, senses, meanings, educational policies.

RESUMEN: Este estudio aborda la ciudadanía en una perspectiva recurrente
mediante un análisis crítico reflexivo a la luz del materialismo histórico y en cuatro
secciones. En la primera sección se discuten los antecedentes históricos de la
ciudadanía, las limitaciones y los valores que trata con el hombre y su comprensión
de la realidad. En la segunda sección, ciudadanía y contradicciones: sentidos y
significados, como una dimensión caleidoscópica distinguimos los elementos
estructurales de la consolidación de la ciudadanía de término, así como las
contradicciones que surgen de su reflexión. Más adelante, en "la política educativa
y la ciudadanía" debatir los contornos y reflexiones sobre la ciudadanía en la
actualidad, finalmente, discutimos los retos y cursos de acción sobre la importancia


Mestranda em Educação pela Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados. Bolsista da Coordenadoria
de Pessoal de Ensino Superior [CAPES/CNPq]. Email para contato: candia.lilian@gmail.com.

**Docente do PPGEDu da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados
[UFGD]. Contato: paulogl.lima@gmail.com.

Educação e Fronteiras On-Line, Dourados/MS, v.2, n.6, p.116-134, set./dez. 2012. 116

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de la ciudadanía en la educación en Brasil y viceversa. El estudio señala que el
sentido de una ciudadanía correspondiente a la perspectiva democrática mejora los
cursos de acción para que su aplicación de sentido a la Constitución de ciudadanos
que viven y buscan el espacio social como una conquista universalizada y
humanizada, ou sea si es una realidad que se construirá com basis democrática.

Palavras clave: ciudadanía, sentidos, significados, políticas educativas

RESUMO: Esta pesquisa discute a cidadania Numa perspectiva recorrente por
meio de uma análise crítica-reflexiva, à luz do materialismo histórico e em quatro
seções. Na primeira seção, vamos discutir as origens históricas da cidadania,
restrições e valores em relação ao homem e sua compreensão da realidade. Na
segunda seção, cidadania e contradições: sentidos e significados, como uma
dimensão caleidoscópica, podemos distinguir os elementos estruturais da
consolidação da cidadania a partir do termo, bem como as contradições decorrentes
da sua reflexão. Mais tarde, "políticas de educação e cidadania" debatemos os
contornos e reflexões sobre cidadania nos dias de hoje. Finalmente
problematizamos os desafios e linhas de ação sobre a importância da cidadania na
educação no Brasil e vice-versa. O estudo ressalta que o sentido de uma cidadania
correspondente à perspectiva democrática melhora a educação e os cursos de ação
para que sua aplicação dê significado para a formação de cidadãos que vivem e
reivindicam espaço social como uma conquista universalizada e humanizada,
mesmo que isso seja uma realidade a ser construída.

Palavras-chave: cidadania, sentidos, significados, políticas educacionais

INTRODUÇÃO

The property of a kaleidoscope is to show many faces of the object
and possible combinations, thus, the images formed from perspective
present particularities to the observer. However, in these terms, without the
intention of handling or using up all combinations, the aim of this article is,
using a delimited kaleidoscopic sight, gathering clues to question some
social senses and meanings of citizenship in contemporaneity, its
contemplation in educational policies and some courses of action as for the
challenges to be faced to the reach in full sense. As for methodology, we
understand that the reflective criticism through historical materialism
analysis (MARX and ENGELS, 1996; LIMA, 2003) is more appropriate to
the treatment of the object.
The historical materialistic perspective, within its dimensions,
appeals to dialectics to build its questioning universe and in that, the unity
and fight of the opposing sides is one of the main points to understanding
the object. In these terms, we’ll use the perspective of the fight of the
opposing sides in the analysis of the social construction of citizenship in
Pinsky and Pinsky (2010); Guarinello (2010); Funari (2010); Hoornaert
(2010) and Zeron (2010) contributions as a point of departure to the


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contextualization of some background of citizenship and of the revealing
milestones of material conditions of existence, expressed by ethical-
religious manifestation, or by structural arrangements in the production
mode and its unfolding between senses and meanings.
The constitution of the senses and meanings of citizenship in the
dimension of the contradictions of the production mode between linearism
and the recurrence (MARSCHALL, 1967, SAES, 2012; AFONSO and
RAMOS, 2007; MARTINS, 2000) are main points of the debate on the
context of its implementation in constant transformation; either by policies
as a whole that ensure appropriate conditions to its achievement, or specific
policies, as the educational ones which, among other points have been
emphasizing “the education of the social agent to the exercise of
citizenship” over the years.
We have some urgent issuesin this kaleidoscope requiring at least
a possible answer, namely: if it wants to educate men to the exercise of
citizenship, what citizenship is it talking about? What kind of man to
educate and for what kind of society? Thinking about reality, what courses
of action and challenges must be faced not only for the questioning, but also
for citizenship assurance in a full sense? All these questions are the object of
this study which understands that the democratization and humanization
dimensions cannot be untied from the horizontal nature of justice and
legality in a universal and material sense from what is understood about
citizenship.
We organized four sections in order to reflect the thematic unity. In
the first section “Historical background of citizenship”, we covered the
first essays of a citizenship idea from antiquity to contemporaneity;
followed by the second section “Citizenship and contradictions: senses
and meanings” where they arguments about the linear social senses
proposed as a citizenship constitution and its contestation are presented,
given the distinct conditionings that show contentious solicitations and non-
harmonious meanings in the process of distinct social interests. In the
textual explanation, we observe in “Educational policy and citizenship”
the outlines and reflections of citizenship to the Brazilian reality and finally
in the third section we discussed the “courses of action and challenges about
“citizenship dimension to education in Brazil”.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF CITIZENSHIP

The issue citizenship has been object of reflections from countless
scholars from human and social sciences in search to question this subject
area in order to deepen knowledge about this category.
Although the concept of citizenship is traditionally related to the
bourgeois revolution, with the implementation of the individual freedom, it


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is necessary to understand the previous human organization which
somewhat, helped its manifestation in the referred period and going beyond
it, understanding in what aspects the man’s new ways of being and to
producing required the establishment of regulatory milestones about his
social life.
Some authors point the occurrence of citizenship manifestations,
even before its existence or in good French terms avant la letre, described
as the prehistoric period of citizenship. Thereby, such approach requires a
brief historic explanation about its development process. As we know,
through a historical itinerary, in the didactic delimitation texts, some choi-
ces must be made, including the risk of not involving some manifestations
also important.
We do not intend to unfold the history of art of the historical
background of citizenship, which is an audacious and impossible mission
to work, we have chosen to “touch” some contexts which could contribute
for the discussion of citizenship in a more general perspective, even before
its constitution. For this purpose, we will use the contributions of the work
of Pinsky and Pinsky (2010), from which we will try to identify the sights
of citizenship and its historical background (PINSKY, 2010; JAEGER, 1995;
LIMA, 2012; GUARINELLO, 2010; FUNARI, 2010; HOORNAERT, 2010;
ZERON, 2010).
Jaime Pinsky (2010), in an attempt of identifying the most remote
historical bases about citizenship, explains that these can be found in the
Hebrew people. Not in Christianity or monotheism, but:

[…] concept of a God who is not satisfied in helping the army,
but requires an ethical behavior by his followers. A God who is
not worried about being the object of idolatry from people and
with the sacrifice of animals in His holocaust, but much more
committed with problems related to social exclusion, poverty,
hunger, solidarity (p. 16).

Pinsky tries to detect in history a peculiar characteristic of the
Hebrew people that culminated in a technique, which terms “ethical
monotheism”, and explains that “[…] the indoctrination of the so-called
social prophets establishes the foundation of the ethical monotheism, […]
and it is, perhaps, the expression which was first documented and
politically relevant (even because of its historical consequences) of what we
could call of citizenship pre-history.” (p. 17).
He reveals that when analyzing texts of distinct Jewish authors, from
different places and times, we notice their pride when showing a behavior of
low numbers of drunks, thieves and murderers. We can detect, still, a
mutual group pressure in which the threat of marginalization prevails
against those who behave in an inadequate way. So,” […] since the first


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letter to the rabbinate seminaries, it was taught that each Jew should assert
the values of justice and fraternity established by God and accomplished by
their ancestors. In the ethical practice the main difference between a Jew
and a non-Jew would reside” (p.18).
We should observe that the induction to the maintenance of this idea
was made by the Hebrew convincement and faith, passed from dad to child
as a demonstration of the transcendental will, hence the acceptance of the
given communal conditions and the legitimacy of the tribal lords about their
dominated ones. Although there was an entire ethic of religious value, the
feeling of ideological dominance was a situation not perceived as a problem,
or it was accepted or rejected. As the education was directed to the
confirmation of the arrangement “Inculcated” by the religious men since the
child was born, there was no contestation to the “normal”. established.
From Simon Dubnow (an important historian), Pinsky highlights that
a nation may pass by 3 stages: the tribal, the political-territorial and the
historical-cultural. For Dubnow, only the Jews reached the last stage,
because extrapolated the territorial links and kept them as a nation, even
scattered in the world. However, there is still a question: who created the
ethical monotheism? And it responds that it is a creation of the prophets,
which almost became a conquest of the entire humanity. The primacy and
morality doctrine is Intrinsic in the individual.
PINSKY runs through the texts written by the prophets Isaiah and
Amós (in a period when the monarchy was divided in Israel and Judah) to
reveal the political character in the mind of the prophets, which the author
calls “revolutionary”. Once with boldness (and with the direction of God)
dared to face their time, their kings and their religious costumes and selfless
practices. So, “give up the God of the temple, of any temple, and create the
God of citizenship” (p. 27).
We cannot state, however, that the cares with the moral living or the
establishment of the Jew moral statute set themselves as ample and
unrestricted, once that it serves in a major amplitude level to the Jews and
the freely converted. The hierarchy of domination was made by the war and
the capacity of territory extension. The servitude relation was not a question
of social justice or anything like that, I mean; it was not a problem in its
organization, given the complete rule for those who have the theocentric and
economic hegemony. The same was applied to women, conditioned as
proprieties of their husbands, just like the education they received about
their social role, and assert the same principle to their servants and children.
The principle of fortune extension, rights and social prerogatives to
the “men of polis” has a strong recurrence in the Greek men, however, the
módus of knowledge in the polis was given on birth or in aristocracy, and
the transcendental value as a thruster spring, but we cannot deny the form of


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representativeness which starts to draft the “resources” of its democracy, of
the discussion arena and cultural manifestation, as Jaeger says (1995, p.5):

[...] Greece represents, in face of the great peoples of the East
World, a fundamental “progress”, a new “stadium” in
everything which refers to men’s life in community. This is
based on completely new principles. The more elevated we
judge the artistic, religious and political realizations of the
ancestors; the history of what we can call culture with certainty
only begins with the Greek.

About this Lima (2012) complements that the sense of culture,
education and pedagogy to the Greek education assumes one other meaning
in relation to the previous peoples, because the fagent of rationality about
the world and its conditioner happen from the Greek, being the
contemplative knowledge or the relation lived, or even with emphasis in the
articulation of the former ones. In this sense, the Greek rationality (Logos)
emphasizes another kind of education and pedagogy focused on the
education of the of the whole man, but even so it would not say that
everyone has the same horizontal conditions to constitute himself “citizen”
of the polis, as highlighted previously, even in face of an education focused
on aristocratic values, at the expense of a nearly or no education for those
who did not belong to the high level of the social pyramid.
Guarinello (2010), when discussing the Greco-Roman contributions
to the cities in the Classical Antiquity, reveals that understanding citizenship
requires knowledge regarding to a long historical process where the Roman
Empire is the obligatory point of transition. He points out that in this
process, an evolution in the idea of citizenship occurred, which has its
genesis in the belonging to a small agricultural community (City-State), and
subsequently, it becomes the source of claims and conflicts, when they
clashed in different conceptions of rights and duties of the citizens:

[...] the participation in Power, law equality, but also in the
economical ones were the terms in these conflicts and
eliminated from community citizenship, progressively, its
capacity of a potential source of claims (p.45-46).

The Hellenistic culture, which was present in the Roman Empire,
would consider the form and disposition of the laws, some social benefits
applied to the Roman citizens. However, according to Lima (2012), the
cultural content, mobilized by its form of social organization, by the
systematized appearance of philosophy made the Greek education a
hallmark in the education history and the pervasive Roman pedagogical
thought in the ‘civitas’. Even medieval age will not ignore, but, delimitated
each human segment by its birth condition, social hierarchy, and others.


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The Roman legacy contributed a lot to the actual concept of
citizenship, as demonstrated by Funari (1010), in which exposes that the
Roman experience, used to present characteristics really similar to the
modern notions of citizenship and popular participation. The author
highlights that “[…] the founding founders of the USA took the Roman
republic construction as a model, with a combination of Senate and
Chamber (substituting the ancient assemblies)” (p. 76). Another point of
contribution was the use of the secret voting which Funari considers the
bedrock of the citizen freedom. He still highlights forums characterized as
a major symbol of the citizenship participation.
In Roman society, especially in the Christian communities in the first
centuries, there was another element which promoted the bases of
citizenship, according to Hoonaert (2010). However, this affirmation is not
apparent in documents which support the idea of Christianity articulating
citizenship, it is necessary “[...] read between the lines, interpret, the
implied, investigate from a new optics, once that the intellectuals of that
time did not demonstrate interest of what was going on within the
Christian movement” (p. 83).
In his opinion, the extraordinary development in the Christian
communities in a short-time did not happen (as stated in the current
literature on this subject), to the martyrdom; the miracles or the
evangelization, but to the education of an associative link between the
marginalized populations, “[…] which covers a social area, which was fully
neglected by the Roman administration, i.e., the organized fight for
citizenship (avant la letre, of course) within the Roman society” (p.82).
With the growing of strengthening of the Christianity in the Roman
Empire, the idea of “citizens of the Kingdom of God” was focused on the
education of the people and children, preparing the new converted to the
baptism, or to the general worship, as a model of ethical and moral
instruction. But still under the legitimating view of the status quo
established “to Cesar what is Cesar’s”, although little by little it was the
the demands of new Christians were tackled...
This organized fight comes from a series of services in the social and
humanitarian fields made by the Christians and in a short time received a
solid popular support while it was spreading. In this way, the services
provided, like charity or benesse, “[…] we translate, afterwards, in law
advances, political power and cultural prestige” (p.82). Then, the author
says:

[…] Christianity did not win by evangelization of its apostles
or bishops, neither by the undaunted testimony of martyrs, by
holiness of its heroes, virtue neither by the miracles of its
saints. It won by a persistent and brave work in the basis of


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social and political construction in the society. [...] It provided
a real citizenship to many people and many groups , although
limited and really modest in terms of global society (Ibid, p.
94).

In the medieval period, the Christian contributions because of the
feudal society became diffuse and there is a dominance of power of the
feudal lords and the strengthening of nobility, being the servants and slaves
were not cared. In relation to Renaissance, Zeron (2010) highlights that
there is a renewal of the valuing of men as a discoverer of himself and of the
world which surrounds him. Then, they will highlight an education to the
new restored Christian ethics and, in its initial phase, the artistic and cultural
manifestations and still, the boost to the construction of another world
perspective by the strengthening of bourgeoisie.
The latter will contribute as a conditioning basis to the new idea of
the man to be formed, under the economic disposition overseas and that,
even tried to break with the interests of the traditional church. So, it is
worth mentioning the protestant reform that, supported by the main
German princes, among others, will have as a necessary and indispensable
condition meeting the social demands of the needy and the education for
the knowledge of the Word of God. This was one of the initiatives of the
public school, like in the Republic of Weimar in later. (LIMA, 2012).
Even so, the sense and meaning of citizenship did not correspond to
what we understand today, although the beginning of the modern age (17th
century) with the scientific revolution, however, with the economical
transformations of the 18th century, the strengthening of bourgeoisie and
Enlightenment, but the late 18th century and the entire 19th century, with the
industrial revolution would have to establish parameters to think how man
should be formed in the typology of the present society. It will happen
mainly because of the relations of production and regulation of the work
force. Then, little by little, in the relations of class struggles, way of
production, structural form of the new society , it would have to establish
the demarcation of rights e duties and, consequently, starting the senses and
meanings of citizenship, as term and social category.
It is not the capitalist society which will establish the parameters of
citizenship, of its senses and meanings, but the struggle within it, mobilized
by multiple determinations in the relation between ways of production and
work strength as we will highlight.

CITIZENSHIP AND CONTRADICTIONS: SENSES AND MEANINGS

According to Marshall (1967), citizenship is the act of participating,
in a general way, in the political community, being manifested by the
loyalty to the present standards of civilization and access to the well-being


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and the material safety. Nevertheless, the participation in the political
community presupposes rights and duties. The individual rights amount to
indicators of citizenship in which the State recognizes the production and
work spheres; of political activity and of consumption.
As such, Marshall understands that citizenship manifests itself in
three axes, namely, civil, political and social rights. These elements interact
in to compose the citizenship tripod. We should explain each element.
The civil rights, according to Marshall, are those which concretize
the individual freedom (free thought; to the acquisition or maintenance of
property): “The civil element is composed by the necessary rights to
individual freedom – freedom of movement, freedom of the media, thought
and faith, the right to property and of valid contracts and the right to justice
(MARSHALL, 1967, p.63).
In this view, in relation to the right to justice, there must be tools
which guarantee the defense and maintenance of all previous rights, that is
why he “[…] differs from others because it is the right of defense and affirm
all the rights in terms of equality with the others and the due lawsuit work
(ibid, p.63).
The political rights are a possibility of participation in political
power (participate of a government, be elected, choose the government,
vote). Marshall clarifies: ‘[…] the right of participating in the exercise of the
political power, as a member of an organism with political authority or as a
voter of the members of such organism” (ibid, p.63).
The social rights can be explained with the State guaranteeing minimum
access to the well-being and material security. Social rights can be
understood as an access of all the individuals in participating in the current
civilization standard:

Social element refers to everything which goes from the right
to a minimum of economic well-being and security to the right
of participating, completely, in the social inheritance and live
like a civilized being according to the standards prevailing in
society. The most intimate institutions linked to an individual
are the educational system and the social services (Idem, Ibid,
p. 64).

We should point out that, according to Marshall, the civil, political
and social rights are materialized if they extrapolate the legal texts and are
implemented in the everyday life of the social individuals. Then, for the
fact, such rights could be implemented: to the fulfillment of the civil rights,
it becomes necessary the access to public attorney, or financial resources to
the payment of lawyers, law services to the ones unable to pay such service,
independence of the Supreme Court in face of the private, economic and


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social pressures. To the fulfillment of the political rights it is necessary the
existence of conditions of voting and being voted. To the implementation of
the social rights, the State must have enough financial conditions to provide
a minimal social well-being.
Marshall, still, in a compelling way affirms that these elements
which constitute the guarantee of citizenship were so far through the time
that it is possible to affirm that each one has its genesis in different
centuries: the civil rights come from the 18th century, the political ones from
the 19th century and the social rights come from 20th century. However, he
explains that these periods must be “[…] treated with a reasonable elasticity,
and there are some connections especially in the last two cases.” (Idem, ibid,
p.66).
To better understand the evolutionary process of the rights and,
concurrently, the implementation of citizenship, we should consider
Marshall:

I’ve tried to demonstrate that the civil rights appeared, in first
place, and established itself in a very similar way of the
modern form assumed before first Law of Reform in 1832
came into force. The political rights followed the civil ones,
and their enlargement was one of the main characteristics of
the 19th century, although the principle of universal political
citizenship was not recognized until 1918. The social rights,
otherwise, almost disappeared in the 17th century. Their
reappearance started with the development of the primary
public education, but it was not until the 20 th century that they
reached a plan of equality with the other two elements of
citizenship (ibid, p.75).

However, Saes (2012), on the search of the word citizenship,
explains that the development of the rights is not linear and simply
evolutionary, as Marshall proposes. The implementation of such rights
occurs within social struggles, once that, if the working class, in order to
implement its citizenship, assume a dynamic and progressive action, the
ruling class tend to be stagnatists and even regressive, causing conflicts in
the creation of new rights, however, not contradictory. From Göran Terborn,
Saes concludes that “[…] it would be the popular fights, if potencialized by
the internal dissentions of the ruling classes in the national and international
plans, the determining fagent in the global fagent in the creation of rights in
a capitalist society”.
Saes also appeals to Jean-Claude Delaunay, who understands the
term citizenship in “Initial effective citizenship” and “developed effective
citizenship”. The first refers to the civil rights, necessary to the
implementation, reproduction and expansion of the relation between capital
and paid work, as an agreement of an individual’s will. The second relates


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to the political and social rights. The evolution of the initial citizenship to
developed effective citizenship is resultant from the popular struggles
when imposing the implementation of new rights to the ruling class . The
concession of such rights does not destroy the capitalism, but they are not
wished by the capitalists.
Similarly, Afonso and Ramos (2007) on the sense and meaning of
the term, explain that citizenship is, above all, a conquest from the popular
classes and not a mere concession of the State. So, the social struggles are
the protagonists in the process of strengthening the social rights:

Thus, the social struggles were produced through History,
have a stronger expression between the 19th and 20th centuries,
and conduct a conception of enlarged citizenship, meaning not
only civil and political rights, but also social rights to the
workers. (p. 81).

However, the implementation of citizenship or the citizen status has,
as prerogative, the linking with the State/nation as regulator of social life.
We should explain that it is only in the 18th century that the modern State
and Nation get together to form the State/nation (MARSHALL, 1967;
HABERMAS, 1995 & AFONSO and RAMOS, 2007). And, in this way, we
have, in determined territorial space, the organizing unity of a State with its
own specificity, national identity. However, according to Afonso and
Ramos (2007, p.80), “State and nation are different realities, sometimes
with past, sequence, direction and really distinct protagonists, which may or
may not have long term connections, but always with their own histories”.
In any case, the connection between the citizen subject and the
State/nation is prerogative to the implementation of the citizen status, what
is also explained by Benevides (1998):

Citizenship and its rights concern a determined juridical-
political order in a country or state, in which a constitution
defines and guarantees who are the citizens, what rights and
duties they will have in function in a series of variables such as
age, status quo, mental health and the own idea of citizenship
are not universal in the sense that they are fixed to a special
and determined juridical-political order. Then, we identify
Brazilian, North-American and Argentine citizens, and we
know that vary the rights and duties of a citizen vary from
country to country (p.04).

In this respect, the author emphasizes that citizenship is also
connected with political decisions, of a determined government, for
example. Then, citizenship can be altered according to political decisions,
when modifying rights and duties of the citizen, for example, when
modifying the criminal code modify the civil code (equality of rights among


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genders, changes in the family code, rights and duties of the spouses,
offspring etc.). All of this concerns citizenship.
However, through its historical process, the term “citizenship” has
been used in many meanings, including antagonistic ones among them.
According to Martins (2000), citizenship can be characterized, at least in
three manifestations: a) as an economic value; b) as a gnoseologic value and
c) as an eminently ethical and political value.
Citizenship, as an economical value refers to the overlap of the
economical questions in relation to the other social facets, making the
reduced to a mere client, or a consumer of state services.
A gnoseologic value refers to the citizen who simply knows his
rights and duties, especially the ones which are related to consumption. In
the latter, the individual adopts a position of uncritical passivity, he does not
participate in the formulation process of the rights and duties, neither
question its principles and its objectives.
In a broader concept, which surpasses the economic and gnoseologic
dimensions it is presented with ethical-political value, in which the citizen is
subject to his own historical destiny, is detached from individual condition
entering the political struggle, knows his rights and duties and participates
in a conscious and transforming action of society and men, which will
result in a new social situation (MARTINS, 2000).
In relation to the Educational Policy, the same author points out that,
since the traditional theories until the contemporary ones affirm that the
objective of education is the education of the citizen, however, with fully
distinct characteristics in each of them, once that the social policies are
characterized as a State interference with the objective of maintaining
social relations, or the status quo. Then, in a class society, the citizen is
educated according to the pre-established limits of the dominant powers.
Reflecting the relation of the educational policy with citizenship is the
objective of the next section.

EDUCATIONAL POLICIES AND CITIZENSHIP

The exercise of citizenship requires knowledge of the rights and
duties and an eminently defensive political posture and enlargement of the
rights by public policies, resulting in a collective conscience as a non-linear
tool of the “social context” which, in the actual social structure, although it
is not a ruling axis, it has been demonstrating presence and strength in the
new educational policies in the citizen construction with ethical-political
values.
To Afonso and Ramos (2007), the construction of the citizen linked
to certain interests, values and particular ideas, was strengthened by the


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historical typology of the Brazilian public school. These authors use
citizenship restricted to State-nation logic nomenclature to designate, in a
certain moment of the human history, situations and social-economic
policies in which a non-democratic or authoritarian was characterized, once
the rights legally constituted and respected were scarce or embarrassed.
However, the educational role in the construction process and
strengthening of citizenship are considered important:

[…] the construction of citizenship or the process to be a
citizen is also an epic and historical process which is related to
the victory facing the power and that, surely, is related with
education and with the capacity of having voice and using the
word, and acting according to it (p. 82).

However, in the context of globalization and educational reforms ,
in which the educational systems are delimitated from the changes of the
capitalist system, in which we see the educational policy focused on
meeting the needs of the production systems,: citizenship as a dimension of
collective consciousness is not always privileged in school arena.
Afonso and Ramos (2007) affirm that democratic citizenship and
social cohesion emerge in this context. , conversely, because citizenship is
considered an antidote to the growing neoliberal vulnerability of social
rights which increase the inequality and social exclusion. Hence the need of
the school being a public space of democracy and citizenship, as a place of
hegemonic confrontations.
Although it is undeniable that economical rationality influenced the
Brazilian educational policy, according to Sobral (2000), we cannot ignore
the social conception of education, once that the development of educational
policy enlarges the educational access opportunities, which concurrently,
can decrease the social inequalities and for this reason, education also
promotes. citizenship.
Sobral (2000) emphasizes that education promotes development of
the individuals, including the increase of competitiveness among them,
meeting the demands of the companies and of the country in the
international market. However, do the National Education Guidelines and
Framework Law, in a dualist logic, let education promote citizenship and
competitiveness?
Education to citizenship seems to be weakened, as demonstrated by
Jacobi (2008). The author highlights the detachment between the
centralized powers and the social realities which highlights the limits of the
formal, vertical, and corporative and client mechanisms, which were made
to permit/prevent the participation of the citizens in public affairs.


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In this way, there is an urgent need to the citizenship be taken as a
central role in the institutionalization of the citizens participation in
decision making process in public interest, whether in the context of
educational policies, pr the other structural and infrastructural policies. The
main challenge will be to strengthen the deliberative spaces and modernize
the tools of management and articulation.
So, it is required the guarantee of assessment of information, mainly
to the most vulnerable populations to strengthen the citizenship education
practices and provide a major commitment in joint responsibility practices
of management and of the public thing, which guarantee the expression and
representation of the collective interests.

CHALLENGES AND COURSES OF ACTION ABOUT THE DIMEN-
SION OF CITIZENSHIP TO EDUCATION IN BRAZIL

Thinking over the challenges and course of action of the
Educational Policy to the implementation of citizenship, surely, it is a
complex task, because there are many challenges to be faced, as already
highlighted by many authors. We remember Moacir Gadotti’s (2008)
contribution, which points out the need of building a school which can be
public, universal, or in other terms, equal to all the individuals and respect
the regional, local and multicultural specificities, which he calls citizen
school, whose formulation must undertake efforts to understand that:
To this author, the main current challenge, in respect of public
school, is to provide a universal quality standard, i.e., equal to all, and at the
same time, respecting the regional peculiarities. The same explains that this
challenge is result of the nationalization of schools by bourgeoisie. He
exposes that in order to implement the citizen school, it is necessary to “join
the national with the regional, inserting the popular in the public, overtaking
the national and state school to reach the popular school” (ibid, p.52).
To Gadotti, the creation of the citizen school is a historical creation
project, a horizon, a belief that can be built from a Decalogue:
1) the autonomous public school is, before everything else,
democratic (for all) in its management, […] assessment and
permanence […] has communitarian social character […]. 2) to
be autonomous, it cannot be dependent of middle bodies which
design policies from which the school is a mere executor […].
3) the citizen school must value the 40 hour contract of full
time teachers: 4 class hours per day and 4 hours for other
activities (interdisciplinary group) […]. 4) Direct action. Value
the personal initiative and school projects […]. 5) the
autonomous school cultivates the curiosity, passion for the
study, pleasure for reading and writing […]. 6) it is a
disciplined school […]. 7) School is not a closed space


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anymore. It is linked to the world in terms of work [...]. 8) the
school transformation doesn’t happen without conflicts. It
happens slowly. [...}. 9) There are not equal schools. Each
school is a result of the development of its contradictions. 10)
each school should be sufficiently autonomous to organize its
work whatever it wants […] (ibid, p.52, 53, 54).

Thereby, the author questions what force could construct the citizen
school, and answers, the transformation of the school should join two
historical movements, the movement for the public education and the
movement for a popular education.
Vaidergorn (2000, p.21) alerts that “[…] basic education, presented
as a right of citizenship conquered by the masses and incorporated as a
liberal value, is not more than a way of securing social inequality on behalf
of rights equality”. Hence, the knowledge about the kind of citizenship that
the Educational Policy presupposes.
Citizenship, in capitalist social arrangement, is a tool of social
stratification, in which the using the benefits of civilization and possibility
of overcoming differences of class. And to the conservatives as a control
element of mass rebellions, pointing it to the totalitarianism” (Ibid, p.21).
Then the importance of education as a possibility of constitution or
education to a full citizenship. Thereby, Valdemarin (2000), based on
Rousseau’s texts, tries to show the connection between policy and
education, and points out a course of action in the pedagogical actions,
“[…] need of individual strengthening to avoid dependence on the social
rules and values, and not the exacerbated and selfish individualism practiced
nowadays, but the practice of one’s own potentialities” (p. 51), so that in
the moment of the social contradictions, the collective consciousness has
sufficient basis e and contestation force and consistence in its claims.
This transforming education promotes conscience through the view
of the students, teachers, improving the educational policies manifesting
the democratic dimension to citizenship and the recognition that everyone is
part of a history constituted by one’s turn, voice and vote and more than
that, the knowledge which are acquired and the results begin to have
another flavor: an emphasis in the constitution of men as a social agent and
not as passive subject who must, simply, consume a linear intellectual
knowledge (LIMA, 2010a). That is the big challenge, so: education in and
for full citizenship.
To this author, the principle is still a guideline to education today is
the one which allows the development of capacities and autonomy, in which
the individual is capable of not being subject to the powers established
without a previous judgment.


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Not being subject to established powers, mainly if they come from
an authoritarian society, which, according to Marilena Chaui (1994), is the
Brazilian society. In this society, citizenship is a “class privilege”, according
to the author.
Nogueira (2000) when questioning the violence question (another
challenge to be faced in school), explains that the same happens today, in
the Brazilian policy there is still the relation between protection and favor
This makes the public space receive a private treatment from governors. In
this public space the school is not a place where citizenship is constructed
and rights acquired, and become a place of private political promotion,
offered as a favor to the people by politicians:

The quality of this education is regarded as avoid failing at
school and dropout rates, ignoring the pedagogical aspects, its
values, importance, methods, objectives and the most important
the concern with the whole education of a future citizen.

The great challenge nowadays is education which allows and
implements citizenship. The courses of action are related only to the of
public policies, which emphasize education as one of the assurances of the
citizen right, it is also true the experience and the understanding of
citizenship as a conquest by the education, the marks be memorial of the
same, in the perspective human, democratic and universal dimension.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

We observed in this study that the senses and meanings of
citizenship are full of contradictions, although the term citizenship is, long-
established, being debated about distinct points of life. The sense of a
citizenship which corresponds to the democratic perspective improves the
courses of action of the educational policies in order that its implementation
gives meaning to the constitution of citizens which live and claim the social
space as a universal and humanized conquest. This is the biggest
challenge of the contemporary societies because of the predominance of the
structural arrangement of capitalism.
The recognition that education and acquisition of knowledge is
fundamental to the construction of citizenship with ethical-political value is
undeniable, but it is also true that the school alone is unable to translate the
desired complete and structural changes, in particular, in the Brazilian
society. Conversely, according to Lima (2010b) the integration of multiple
voices constitutes the dimension of totality in human learning, whether in
the school life or the school of life or facing the realities of social inequality
or injustice. This non-linear process requires that men live together
resignifying values, i.e., by the establishment of what is important and/or a


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priority to the human group or society, the assumptions, which will guide
the social practice, just like the notion of ethics and morality between the
subjects. Here is a search and courses of action that the educational policies
need to handle with a recurrently.

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