Curricular guidelines and citizenship attitudes in Latin American students: a comparative analysis

Curricular guidelines have become progressively relevant for educating future active citizens. In such a context, it becomes crucial to explore the relationship between the curricular guidelines and how citizenship education is currently acquired by students in Latin American countries. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to comparatively evaluate the institutional view of citizenship expressed in each curriculum and students’ attitudes on civic issues. The exploratory factor analysis and curricular descriptive statistical analysis are based in two valuable and complementary sources, respectively: The Latin American module of the International Civic and Citizenship Study (ICCS) and the Regional System of Citizenship Skills (Sredecc). By making a systematic comparison of both sources, this study reveals that several curricular aspects are consistent with students’ citizenship attitudes and beliefs, and suggests some guidelines for improving and expanding citizenship education in Latin America, considering the importance of education for the formation of an active citizenship.