Political plurality and cultural diversity. Discourses on citizenship education in basque society

Abstract

Basque society is politically plural —as well as being a scene of conflict over its political status—, culturally diverse, and caught up in a permanent debate on the role to be assigned to the Basque language and culture in relation to the development of culture in Spanish. This article will examine the different views on the subject Education for Citizenship and Human Rights developed by the main Basque trade union and political organizations, together with a group of non-university teachers. With the aid of in-depth interviews with the former, and focus groups with the latter, we shall analyse the discourse generated on civic education as an indirect means to finding answers to three crucial subjects for Basque society: the concept of citizenship, the view of the nation and co-existing cultures. In addition, we shall point out some conclusions: a) in relation to national identity, no political significance is afforded to the subject, except in the case of certain Basque nationalist organisations; b) a liberal moral discourse is predominant among all the political and educational players; c) cultural diversity is generally accepted as something enriching, although there is significant divergence between teachers and the different organisations as to its educational consequences, and d) there is mistrust on the part of the Basque nationalist movement and some teachers of the multiculturalist discourse as they see it as a setback for the Basque language.