CITIZEN COMPETENCIES AND SCHOOL COEXISTENCE: A PERSPECTIVE FROM CRITICAL PEDAGOGY IN BASIC AND MIDDLE EDUCATION

Abstract

This scientific essay extensively analyzes the implementation of citizen competencies in basic and middle-level educational institutions, examined through the rigorous lens of critical pedagogy. The text deeply questions whether current pedagogical strategies are limited to normative and administrative compliance or if they are truly impacting conflict resolution, empathy, and the formation of democratic values. Methodologically, it is based on a documentary and reflective analysis, supported by the postulates of theorists such as Paulo Freire and Henry Giroux, to reveal how power structures within the classroom influence civic formation. Through the confrontation of diverse theoretical perspectives and recent empirical findings, it is proposed that the school must transcend technical instruction to become a scenario of political emancipation. It concludes by arguing that pedagogical praxis must be transversal and humanistic, consolidating the school not only as a center of instruction but as the first public space where the subject recognizes themselves in otherness, proposing an intervention that restores the social fabric from daily coexistence.