Cabildo ciudadano en educación básica. Convivencia escolar democrática y formación ciudadana en el norte de Chile

Abstract

This article presents an evaluative research carried out as a diagnosisof a broader action-research oriented towards the democratic construction ofcoexistence agreements and the development of civic competences in basiceducation. It had two objectives: to identify the challenges in coexistence of aclass group and to assess its possibilities to work collaboratively and dialogically.To achieve them, a citizen council was implemented in which the third-gradestudents (n=39) addressed their problems as a class and developed learningagreements. The information was collected from the students’ production,questionnaires and field notes, and processed through a qualitative thematiccontent analysis using Atlas.ti. The results identified a series of challenges that affect the democratic coexistence of the group, showed that it is possible to work with students in a collaborative anddialogical way under a participatory didactic model; and recommend its adoption in schools. Finally, the hypothesisaction derived from these results is presented.