Educação política como instrumento de defesa democrática: percepções de professores de sociologia

Abstract

Representative democracy began to receive harsh criti cism from the end of the 20th century, causing many thinkers to claim that there is a democratic crisis around the world. At the same time, par ticipatory mechanisms emerge d as a possibility of bringing c itizens closer to decisions. Political education, the n, is key to stimulate and qualify citizen participation. However, there is no consensus on what should be taught in schools on th e subject. Th is work presen ts an analysis of the perspectiv e s of sociolog y teachers about political education teaching in publ ic high schools in Fortaleza , Ceará . It is a q ualitative and explo ratory research based on bibliographic and documental analysis , in addition to inter views and questionnaires , applied between January 3 rd and 10 th , used as data collecti on instruments on field research . The triangulation o f data allowed the analysis of the information collected, through which i t was found that even if teacher s understand concepts o n political education and work a lot of the ideas recommended by academics , there s still a lack of depth in perspective s on possibilities for s tudent participation a nd practical i nstruments to encourage it. The teacher also gave sugg estion s on how to over come some of the challen ges currently face d regarding the topic. From this, it can be conc luded that political education is fundamental to strength en democra c y , but advances must be promoted to ensure its full development in schools.