(In)formação, um caminho para a participação política? um estudo de caso sobre o Programa de Educação para a Cidadania da ALMG

Abstract

In spite of the discussion about the democratization of information produced by the public and governmental sphere being a fundamental determiner for the exercise of citizenship, it cannot be materialized if, beforehand, there is not the democratization of the information of the very public and governmental sphere, its operations and foundations. This research proposal has tried to discuss the aspects of the relationship among information, pedagogical practises and citizenship. Its argumentative core was based on the premise that the lack of knowledge about the functioning of the State and its roles, concerning society, could result in a weak and defective political participation. Before such problem, two questions could be posed: 1) to inquire which is the relationship between the access to the information made available and propagated through education programmes that are developed by public agencies and the exercise of the political dimension of citizenship of the citizens that are contemplated with these programmes; and 2) to verify in which way such programmes can be regarded as information sources for the exercise of the political sense of citizenship. In order to answer these two questions, we studied a citizenship education programme developed by a public agency - "Education for Citizenship" by the Assembléia Legislativa do Estado de Minas Gerais (ALMG) (Minas Gerais State Legislative Assembly). The focus, which was chosen for the analysis of the relationship between the access to information and the exercise of the political dimension of citizenship, comprehended three large fields of study: Information Science, Political Science and Education. Out of the conclusions, at which we have arrived, two are: that the appropriation of information does not occur in a uniform manner and that the citizenship education programmes can be regarded as sources of information, but they will always be influenced by the difference in positions, motivations, and intentions of the different parts involved.