Percepciones del estudiantado sobre la democracia y los derechos humanos al finalizar la educación general básica: Un estudio desde las aulas de historia

We report the results of a qualitative piece of research conducted in the Bio-Bio Region of Chile, which aimed at studying how students perceive democracy and human rights when they finished their elementary education. It also looked into how they perceive these topics in their curriculum and in learning activities to which they had been exposed in their History class. Results suggest that, even though both get covered reasonably well, there are big differences across students in terms of assimilation. Although students perceive democracy as a static concept, rigid and stalled in time, most of the time foreign to school experience and which fits in other contexts, they believe human rights are fundamental in order to guarantee justice, freedom of speech, respect to diversity and community life.