Letters to the Next President: What do Brazilian Youth Say?

Abstract

This paper discusses how the construction of citizenship and citizen identities takes place among young students in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Considering that education is responsible for fostering the sense of citizenship, this research asked 209 students from a public high school to write letters to a future Brazilian president and to answer an online survey on politics, democracy, and citizenship. Using the Thematic Analysis method, this paper investigates the content of these letters and the answers regarding presidential activities. The responses to both exercises express generic notions and unsuitable speeches regarding politics as well as a feeling of disbelief. It is argued that school education does not develop citizens who can perform their civic roles in society and that such detachment of the students may be a consequence of their incredulity toward politics, resulting in a narrow understanding of the matter.