Citizen education seeks to prepare individuals for democratic life. One of the main topics that is necessary to address in citizen education is the concern for the shaping of identity or individual subjectivity, which implies cultural and historical transactions. In this study, it was analyzed how Citizen Education was handled by a university through the documentary review of the curricular activity programs of four undergraduate programs. The analysis reveals that the didactic sequence of the purposes linked to citizenship is neglected, since there is a weak or null link between purposes-methodology and evaluation in the planning.

Keywords: citizen formation, higher education, democracy, didactics, identity

Training programs in higher education

AND Chile, as in the world, the landscape of higher education has changed. On the one hand, the tertiary level historically demanded only by the lite of society, currently has a high level of enrollment, which increases year by year, and a heterogeneous demand, by groups of diverse cultures, educational goals, socioeconomic origins, etc. (since 2007 at 2016 enrollment in Chile grew by26.67% according to SIES 2016). In principle, increasing of coverage has not been supported with public policies or resources resulting in a process -“uncontrolled, unplanned and often chaotic”.¹ This, has as a consequence, students with diversity of entry skills^1,2 implying that, new challenges for teaching.

Academic activity, in an attempt to respond to the growing needs of the world, organizes its training plans in documents, which give public faith that what is written is what will be taught within a prescribed training trajectory, which does not necessarily materialize in the real practice of the curriculum. It is a planning instrument that allows us to determine what and how the objectives stated therein would be addressed.

The training programs of a professional career are documents that have a certain duration, and therefore expiration, training programs that are evaluated from time to time, in a cycle that should be nourished by both external and internal information, in such a way that they are modified in their statements to be in line with the demands of discipline and the demands of the world of work.

An important part of this external information are some recent demands from the world that are present in the UNESCO report. There he points out the need to rethink the purposes of education.³ since economic progress has not been accompanied by social justice, nor by a decrease in violence, but rather it is a progress accompanied by overexploitation of natural resources and of pollution. Therefore, engaging future professionals with a strong commitment to transform inequalities tells us the importance of citizen training at the university.

One of the internal aspects are the subject program documents contained in the training programs, statements about those disciplinary or general elements that will be taught. These also reflect the educational paradigms that have existed and coexist in Universities.

From a technocratic proposal, emphasis is given to objectives and results.⁴ From this perspective, it is not questionable what is taught, or how it is taught, energizing a hidden curriculum, since there are normative principles that guide the selection of objectives, methodological aspects and evaluation that are not transparent or communicated, no less still discussed.⁵

From the constructivist perspective, it is emphasized that programs must be carefully defined in their didactic aspects. Teaching methodologies, forms of evaluation, are teaching situations in which people in training could redefine the topics proposed in a program, causing an adaptation between their knowledge and the interpretation they make of the problems they face and their context.⁶

Therefore, the decision of educational planning from technocratic parameters alienates the learning subject, since it does not protect the teaching situations in which learning would be sought, it assumes the existence of a standard subject. The importance of safeguarding the educational process is then highlighted, since the teaching technologies that will be chosen would determine our way of reasoning about what is taught.^7,8

The importance of citizen education at the university versus its historical dismissal

Why training in citizenship has a social reason: Citizenship training (CF) is an axis of the social role of education. Educational centers at all levels constitute spaces of association where individuals are challenged to overcome their differences and generate civic virtues of a public nature. These are fundamental issues for the life and stability of democracies.⁹ Universities, for their part, although they must respond to the requirements of disciplinary training, they must also exercise this social role and train citizenship, considering the complexity of the social fabric., calls us not only to take charge of economic growth but also to ensure that it is carried out with respect for the ecosystem and communities.³

Paying attention to FC in the university stage it also has a psychological reason. The acquisition of post conventional moral development can only be achieved in later stages of training.¹⁰ This means that the complexity of the social world, and being able to reflect on the different factors involved in a phenomenon, such as the economy of a country, individual interests, collective interests, the sustainability of a project, etc., is only possible in evolutionary moments after adolescence, which is then the age for entering university.

It is then questioned whether it is enough to teach disciplinary/scientific subjects to train citizenship in higher education, an idea accepted in the rationalist tradition,¹¹ since knowledge is not immutable, it does not constitute a truth in itself, but rather dialogues with the natural, social, cultural, ecological context, and of course, with the subject who learns himself.

Theoretical visions on the development of citizenship

The definition ones of citizenship have been influenced by the historical and social moment from which they arise. From the perspective of modern citizenship, power is transferred from the king to the state, with the latter holding the monopoly of legitimate violence¹² and also the responsibility of protection and care of citizens, but he was not committed to participating in the public issue.

This was not enough. It is important to have rights to a full life through secure access to health and education, which invite citizens to feel part of the community. It is the idea of social citizenship of Marshall: rights, but not duties of participation either.¹³

The vision of economic citizenship responds to this criticism and proposes that citizens they cheat duties of participation in democratic life.

Others theoretical visions that help us expand the understanding of citizenship are those offered Yodas by Heggel, Marx and the feminists Mouffe and Landclau.^13,14 All authors raise the idea of citizenship as a social construct, and as such we must be attentive to the alienations that it entails. Marx¹⁴ highlights the idea that the concepts involved in citizenship, such as justice, are consensual and prescribed by a dominant group, therefore, when referring to them we must always refer to the context where they arise. In the same sense, Mouffe and Leclau propose that citizenship is not something abstract or static, but rather roles linked to territorial spaces, therefore, they question the definition of identities.homogeneous.¹³

Zemelman¹⁵ highlights the idea of the social construction of citizenship, but adds that citizenship training, as well as all training, should constitute an opportunity for the subject in training to criticize and reflect on their own historicity, on their own alienations, and from this build their professional identity. Freedom of thought, and the construction of your identity knowledge in consideration of your historical context, will help you consider the importance of context in the exercise of your professional role.

The teaching of citizen training

Experiences and trials accumulate around the idea that higher education centers should be concerned with citizen education. In general, it has been thought that higher education should train citizens as part of its mission; it is considered key in the stabilization of democratic systems to face the challenges of change in political, social, and economic spheres, whose contexts are characterized by the inequalities and economic models that tend to maintain these situations of in justice.^16–19

In Colombia, Perafan²⁰ It refers to a citizen education experience that, going beyond rational teaching, includes emotionality through the theater of the oppressed, seeking to form critical judgment. In Brazil Estermann, Tavares and Gomes,²¹ refer to a decolonization of university education, and to this end they propose that indigenous languages be considered in university education, which implies becoming aware of ethnocentrisms and incorporating the ontology and epistemology of indigenous peoples.

In Chile, curricular studies have been carried out that allow us to know what has been taught in the last 46 years about citizenship. The curriculum on citizen training in the dictatorship (1973-1990) referred to civic education as a legal system that had to be respected and preserved. In contrast to the 90s, this training focuses on civics, participation and citizenship.²² On the other hand, the latest evaluations on the subject in 2009, carried out with high school youth, show us that Chile improved (compared to the 1999 evaluation) in terms of understanding about participation in a democratic life, but it also decreased in the credibility of formal participation spaces, such as the exercise of voting.²³

For the Ministry of Education of Chile, citizen training became a duty given the promulgation of the state university law (N°20094). It establishes that universities must teach ethical values and promote a commitment of future professionals to the country. For this reason, the CUECH (Council of Rectors of the Universities of Chile) generates strengthening projects whose focus is on citizen education.

At the University where the program study presented in this article was carried out and within the same research,²⁴ final year students from four majors were asked what citizenship training they had received. Yes they were consulted in individual and group interviews, about their understanding of citizenship, about the citizenship training they received in general, and about the training provided in their university education. Students point out that their training has been disintegrated for 3 reasons: 1. because there is disarticulation between practice and theory. That is, they evaluate that the practices could have been reflected on and potentially could have been moments to learn citizenship. But that was wasted. 2. Because there is no articulation with the social environment, that is, the social world runs along one lane, and training with its corresponding academic load or overload, as indicated, paths that do not intersect. 3. Finally, they consider that there is no integration between them as a student body. In short, they consider that they live in an individualistic society that the university does not modify in the daily life that it provides them during their educational career. As a result of this training, they think that a university life is lived without solidarity, and that when they graduate they are rather trained as technical specialists in the subject and not professionals and citizens, and that for this reason they do not acquire an attitude inclined to reciprocity with the communities. However, conceptually they have an idea of citizenship that does not refer only to rights, but also to duties, empathy and critical judgment. They propose a greater link between the university and the social environment, though, for example, social action through internships.²⁵

Study methodology

In relation to the study methodology, a thematic analysis was carried out²⁶ in relation to the presence of topics linked to citizenship as suggested by the SREDECC (regional system for evaluating citizen competencies in Bascopé et al.²²

This study was carried out at a University in northern Chile, through the analysis of its educational programs decreed in 2013, this being the case under study. Specifically, documents that summarize the educational trajectory of some courses in the nursing, pedagogy, engineering and law careers were studied. These documents declare the identification of the course, that is, name, semester to which it belongs, academic credits, description of the subject, associated competencies, thematic objectives, learning results, forms of evaluation and teaching methodologies and, finally, the basic and complementary bibliographic reference to be used. The presence of topics on citizenship was studied both in the proposed objectives, teaching and evaluation methodologies, studying the coherence in the pedagogical sequence, that is, that the proposed objective was connected with the form of teaching and evaluation.^7,8,27,28

To select the programs, theoretical sampling guided by the directors of the courses selected for the study was used. Thus, those programs that could have the most relationship with the topic of this research were studied. The programs that were analyzed are summarized in Table 1.

In the thematic analysis it is possible to discover the presence of the following themes linked to FC: teaching participation; critical judgment; commitment to the community; create community networks; take decisions; duties and rights and general and intercultural communicative competencies.

It was analyzed whether the programs had didactic relationships between the purposes described above, their methodology and evaluation, and whether these relationships allow us to think about coherence between the objective and teaching technologies. According to this, it is possible to summarize the results in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Summary of analysis of training program documents in terms of the presence of citizen training and didactic correlation.
Note: Each Teaching Objective is circled in green. According to the analysis, it was determined whether the teaching objective is proposed in terms of ability ( ), knowledge ( ), attitude ( ) or recorded as encyclopedic information ( ). The objectives are represented by circles, large or small, depending on their frequency of appearance in the programs. The objectives are organized into three lines, with the upper line being those objectives that had an appropriate teaching and evaluation methodology. The second line is the teaching objectives that had a coherent methodological definition. In the third line appear the teaching objectives that did not have a methodological or evaluation definition associated with said objective.

The CF purposes that were analyzed in the programs were associated with different levels of expected learning outcomes. Depending on the definition made of each purpose, the level of expected result could be, the teaching of knowledge, skills, and attitudes of FC.

On the other hand, it was also observed that the programs contained thematic indexes of encyclopedic knowledge related to the purposes of the CF. This was integrated into the analysis, but the programs did not define the meaning of its incorporation into the training programs, given that they were usually displayed as a book index not associated with learning outcomes.

Each of the analysis categories linked to the purpose of the CF and the related didactic proposals contained therein are described below, that is, teaching and evaluation methodologies related to said purposes.

Stake

It is the most named category. The aim is for the student to learn to participate, to be part, to contribute, but also to teach others to participate. Regarding this training purpose, knowledge, attitudes, skills and thematic reviews are proposed. Regarding knowledge, it is specified that the student learns to be organizational and social. Being organizational refers to knowing about the institutional context and the professional role to be fulfilled in said context. Being social corresponds to social theoretical knowledge of different levels of functioning, such as what society, group, individual is, and in some documents the concept of recognizing the characteristics of a community is emphasized.

The attitudes are integration, collaboration and social sensitivity. These attitudes transcend fulfillment of responsibility as a professional, indicating an attempt to commit the future professional to the complete well-being of the recipients of his intervention. The skill associated with this category is interpersonal and deals with offering training spaces to develop group collaboration skills. Active participation, below is an example of this category

Attitude/integration

Be interested in and actively participate in the environment, beyond what is strictly professional.

(Nº29; Human Interaction and Communication; Nursing)

In addition to this objective statement, the methodologies would contribute to this being learned in the exercise of participation. Thus, methodologies such as: Practices, Workshops, Debates, Case Analysis, Demonstrations/Laboratories, Group work, Role games, Seminars, Dissertations, Visits, Solidarity activities, Directed work and Brainstorming are established. The theoretical justification of the discovery methodology contributes, since it seeks for the future professional to be active in his/her learning process.

Discovery methodology

Participate autonomously in the construction of your knowledge

(nº634; Bioethics; Nursing)

In some subjects, participatory evaluation is specified. That is, an evaluation is proposed that generally requires the coordination of the group towards a goal, such as workshops, group work, dissertations and plenary sessions.

Workshops

Evaluations of activities and workshops: 25%

(nº296; Psychology; Nursing)

It can be seen in Figure 1 that it is an objective with coincidence in the didactic proposal, both in teaching methodology and in evaluation.

Teach critical judgment

Teaching critical judgment involves training in reflection and criticism that eventually contributes to understanding or modifying the reality studied. The knowledge related to critical judgment is: Reflective and self-actualizing attitudes. The associated skills are observation, investigation and search. The themes associated with critical judgment are self-education, arguments, school curricular context, thinking critically, and research.

Skill/observation

"Acquire skill in the systematic use of various observation techniques Observe school reality at different levels (…)

(nº3179; Initial practice; Pedagogy)

From these sub-purposes, students would be prepared to comprehensively understand a phenomenon and critically analyze it. The associated methodologies are research or particularly action research, interactive methodology, and the theoretical justification of discovery learning. Methodological formats that would help future professionals to be active in their learning process, to understand and eventually modify the reality in which they work.

Discovery methodology

The student, in the new modality of the Methodological Learning Process - teaching, must prepare each teaching activity; researching, studying the planned contents; made known in the Subject Program and through SIGA.

(nº914; Medical Surgical Nursing; Nursing)

A type of evaluation that would help form critical judgment is described: Formative evaluation. Due to the characteristics of this evaluation itself, that is, as it helps to create autonomy, it would contribute to forming critical judgment.

Training/Portfolio evaluation

Preparation of a teaching portfolio to carry out analysis of the theoretical-practical relationships of their teaching actions.

(nº124; Professional Practice; Pedagogy)

It appears with didactic coherence, both in teaching methodology and in evaluation.

Teach community commitment

It is associated with objectives linked to attitudes, skills and review of topics. The attitudes are: social sensitivity, which refers to the promotion of an ethic of conservation between human beings and their relationship with the environment and the consideration of human beings as subjects of law; The Promote quality attitude indicates that the student has a commitment to the well-being of the recipient of their work; value mental health, mainly in nursing, in such a way that it incorporates the topic into prevention and health promotion plans; The attitude of responsibility is emphasized in some careers, pointing out the relevance of commitment to others and also with respect to continuous training; social commitment, that is, a professional who is dedicated to development, but with equity; The attitude of service vocation is described, but not as a training objective, but as a characteristic prior to training; and probity, as part of their professional ethical training.

Attitude/the vocation of service

It will be characterized by a vocation for service that primarily translates into a sense of commitment and solidarity with the regional, national and international community, particularly with the most economically and socially vulnerable segments.

(nº102; Academic project; Pedagogy)

The associated skills emphasize care, protection and respect for the recipient of the intervention. Professional skill is not considered the learning of a set of techniques, but rather they are skills that are applied to people, first understanding that identity within a context. Thus they plan the development of skills, such as health techniques, in a context of deep respect for the dignity of people; to intervene significantly, in fields such as health and education; a comprehensive diagnosis that takes into account the patient's social and cultural environment, as well as the ability to return diagnostic information; risk prevention skills, is a responsibility of the professional towards himself and others.

The ability to intervene meaningfully

The ability to establish effective pedagogical communication with their students and the ability to consider in their educational intervention proposals the cultural context in which they carry out their action.

(nº2669; Workshop line; Pedagogy)

The review of associated topics was, responding to social and health needs, concepts on risk prevention and review of environmental issues.

Review of topics/those related to responding to social needs

The training of people oriented towards study and research, in their respective fields of action so that they can efficiently contribute to the development of knowledge and, consequently, respond to professional, social, and cultural demands at both the local and national levels and international.

(nº50; Pedagogy academic project; Pedagogy)

The methodology associated with this training objective is action research, practices and theoretical-practical classes. Action research is taught so that the future professional detects and visualizes viable transformations. Practice and theoretical-practical classes also imply a commitment to its beneficiaries.

Methodology/practice

You will participate by actively intervening in the “execution of nursing activities of medium to greater complexity”; in recovery, health rehabilitation, without failing to consider Health Promotion and Promotion activities, through Health Education, with emphasis on Self-Care.

(nº875; Medical Surgical Nursing II; Nursing)

The pedagogical sequence of this objective does not have an evaluation proposal.

Teach to create community networks

It refers to expanding the possibility of professional impact by encouraging the teaching of community networking. This is present in some training objectives, referring to attitudes and skills, and methodologies. On the one hand, the programs refer to the collaborative attitude during the intervention.

Attitude/collaboration

Flexibility, creativity, facilitator, innovator, who manages optimal interpersonal relationships, who works as a team, which will be the fundamental pillar of success.

(nº326; Nursing Care Process I; Nursing)         

Skills such as knowing how to work as a team and interaction are described, such as the possibility of relating appropriately with others and thus achieving group goals.

Skill/teamwork

Applies the scientific method in activities and seminars, assuming the role of a Nursing professional inserted in a multidisciplinary health team.

(nº87; Inpatient Internship; Nursing)

The themes associated with this category are the administrative role in the school and those contemplated in the targeting of health intervention to the family.

Thematic review/health intervention

"Unit II: The family as a biopsychosocial unit, scope of action of community nursing. -Family health model. -Theories of family functioning.

(nº565; Community Nursing; Nursing)

The methodologies described are interactive and participatory, related to practices and formation of collaborative groups. They have in common the fact of intentionally meeting people, and the skills that this requires, that is, communication, identification of existing networks, learning to work as a team and the reflection that arises from the real intervention.

Methodology/practice

"-Build educational diagnoses in health, determining the real problems of the community, the group to which the education is directed, the historical and social context in which it is immersed and the prior knowledge that the group has as a basis for education."

(nº163; Health Education; Nursing) The pedagogical sequence of this objective does not have an evaluation proposal.

Teach to make decisions

The associated learning is attitudes, skills, review of topics and knowledge related to the teaching of decision making. These would help the student understand the factors involved in a phenomenon, decide or help decide to make decisions about it. Decision making is reflected in subgoals present in attitudes, skills, thematic reviews, and knowledge that is planned to be taught to future professionals. The mediation attitude is an objective that indicates how to help others make decisions,

Pro mediation attitude

2.-That students learn to value the cost-benefit relationship of handing over the resolution of a legal conflict to a third party unrelated to it, whether it is a jurisdictional state body or not.

(nº486; Alternative declaration of conflicts; law)

The associated skills help the student learn to assess the variables of a given situation and from there, make decisions and help others to do so. There are then: The ability to solve problems, lead processes, skills in the face of conflict, and advice.

The ability to solve problems

"-Schedule nursing care, prioritizing according to the conditions of patients in an emergency situation"

(nº1213; Emergency Nursing; Nursing)

The thematic reviews in this regard are administration, the issue of conflict and leadership.

The leadership

"- Sense of leadership - Leadership functions - Assertive techniques and promotion of social skills - Leadership styles"

(nº2910; Personal Development II; pedagogy)

Knowledge, as an objective, refers to knowledge that the student is expected to achieve, in this case knowing how to identify the aspects within a conflict.

Knowledge/conflict

1.- That students are able to determine the scope of the conflict to be resolved.

(nº485; Alternative dispute resolution; law)

There is no didactic sequence associated with this objective.

Teach duties and rights

Fundamentally referring to students knowing civic principles, defense procedures, and knowing rights of different natures.

Knowledge/rights

The general objectives of this subject consist, firstly, of knowing the general system and especially of the Special Part of Common Criminal Law, and secondly, knowing the main crimes that make up Common Criminal Law: the protected Legal Asset, the basic figures, privileged or qualified.

(nº285; labor law; Law)

The thematic review is specified regarding procedural and criminal law, human rights, civil rights and litigation skills, which are limited to disciplinary training specific.

Thematic review/rights

"FIRST PART OF THE OBLIGATIONS. CHAPTER I Preliminary Notions Notion of obligation, its objective, its Legal role. Personal law or credit. Creditor, debtor, object owed. Characteristics of the obligations (…).

(no. 15; Civil Law II; Law)

The associated skill is litigation, also associated with a training program, that of a law degree.

Skill/litigate

" a) That the student is able to develop a solid line of argument.

1. b) That the student acquires sufficient research and bibliographic management skills to support his or her line of argument, with doctrine and jurisprudence.
2. c) That the student become familiar with the new technological tools for searching for information."

(nº500; procedural law II; Law)

Objective present fundamentally in the law career, and to a lesser extent in pedagogy. This objective does not have an associated didactic proposal.

Teaching of communicative skills

Communicative competencies are formulated as a training goal, in terms of knowledge, thematic review and skills, and to a lesser extent in methodological proposals. Regarding this knowledge, it is mentioned that for effective communication it is necessary to know who the person is, and the group or organization characteristics. The need to communicate in a written language specific to the discipline or profession studied is also noted, such as, for example, through the preparation of reports.

Know/be psychological

Subject that enables students to understand, analyze and explain the components of human behavior and especially those that facilitate the individual's adaptation to their biopsychosocial environment, and apply them to clinical practice.

(nº248; Psychology; Nursing)

The review of topics refers to a point presented in one of the programs, which refers to the administration of formal communication typical of work spaces.

Thematic review/communications management

Communications management

(nº12; People Management; Engineering)

Regarding skills, it is associated with intervening in a pertinent manner and expressing oneself efficiently and with empathy.

Skill/intervene meaningfully

They apply their understanding of contexts, learning, curriculum and fundamental disciplinary knowledge to the teaching process.

(nº970; Pedagogical Line; Pedagogy)

Participation is an associated methodology and only present in a career, highlighting here an appropriate expression for teaching.

Methodology/participatory

Theoretical presentations and practical tests are carried out recognizing the effectiveness of communication, its elements, and the necessary conditions to achieve commitments.

(nº2868; Personal development; Pedagogy)

There is no didactic proposal associated with this objective.

Teaching of intercultural communicative competencies

Intercultural communicative competence is about teaching future professionals different cultural codes in order to understand and communicate in diverse contexts. IS associated with this objective is associated with knowing cultural diversity, the attitude of respect for diversity, and the skills to intervene meaningfully and to observe contexts.

Know/cultural diversity

This subject will allow the student to understand the various anthropological and social phenomena that determine the culture and identity of both individuals and human groups and that would significantly influence the health-disease-care processes in culturally diverse populations.

(n°94; Anthropology; Nursing)

Ability/observe contexts

(...) in order not to compromise the expectations of future generations, identifying from this prism productive, social and cultural aspects that constitute features of the regional identity of Tarapacá, with legal significance.

(n°343; Sustainable development; Law)

There is no didactic proposal associated with this objective.

Teaching citizenship as patriotism

In this training goal, citizenship is related to patriotism that is, subordinating citizens to the imperatives of the state. This objective would not have a defined didactic sequence either in terms of methodology or evaluation.

Attitude/pro national sense

Value the development of Chile's history, as an instance to reaffirm the sense of national identity.

(n°2455; Social Sciences II; Pedagogy)

There is no didactic proposal associated with this objective.

Pending tasks regarding citizen training at the university

The results of the thematic analysis on the CF programmed in the documents studied allow us to conclude that there is a neglect of the didactic process of the topic. Given the declared didactic sequence, it is not possible to establish whether citizen training is actually constituted as a possibility for these future professionals. If this happens then, it is not because of what is declared in the programs, but because the teacher, the teaching situation, the conversation that occurs between the actors, eventually allow reflection, analysis or criticism to be generated, which in some way They help people to establish themselves as professionals with notions of citizenship.

The programs studied correspond to curricular activity programs taken by students from four professional careers at the same university in northern Chile. Within the categories analyzed, “commitment to the community” is the purpose that is most repeated in the documentary sample. However, when the students belonging to these programs are asked about what they had learned about citizenship in their university training,²⁵ they declare that they do not feel committed to their community, and they evaluate their training as something fundamentally technocratic. The above reaffirms the idea that not only must the teaching sequence be planned in detail, but that the exercise of citizenship during the daily life during university training will allow the future professional to acquire attitudes and commitment to their community.

The didactic neglect of CF is a worrying omission if we consider that the future professional does not have this instruction characterized by reflection, there is a risk that he will adapt to meaningless routines, and may be captured by immediacy, since he will be deprived of tools to criticize or reflect on one's own historicity, alienations from oneself, and from the target community.^15,29

Patriotism is established as an objective in the programs. This content is associated with the military language that had in its speech the idea of reaffirming adhesion to the homeland and on the other hand ensuring that the intentions of the regime transcended the historical moment that was being experienced. Patriotism seeks to subordinate citizens to the imperatives of the state.³⁰ this way of understanding the relationship between citizen and territory is not the only evidence of imperative submissions in the analysis of programs, since students generally receive them, but are not called to reinterpret what they receive. It seems that the prescribed curriculum is something that cannot be modified.

It is proposed that programs, rather than being a document that stores prescriptions, can be a document in which mutual definition work is proposed in such a way as to encourage critical and ethical questioning by students. We think it is important to raise the possibility that students re-signify the program they receive, even more so when it comes to their civic education. This leads us to question the homogenization of the university curriculum, problematize the idea of the institutional seal, since professional and citizen subjectivity is a relational process, where cultural heritage is as important as the definition made by the same student collectively with others.^15,31

The training of critical and reflective citizens would allow the consolidation of democratic life in Abya Yala.

None.

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to the present work.

None.

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