What Is Citizenship and How Is It Practiced: The Views from Students in Porto Alegre

This study aims to understand how high school students interact with the idea of citizenship, as well as how they understand this concept. We present a part of a larger survey with students from a public school in Porto Alegre, who answered a questionnaire containing questions about politics, rights and citizenship. From a thematic analysis, we present the results related to this last concept, showing impoverished constructions and ideas of obedience, morals, besides an idea of innatism regarding the citizen's role. In light of Arendt's theory, the consequences of the lack of spaces in the curriculum for building civic thought are discussed, as well as the obstacle that hybridization between public and private generates towards the path of participatory democracy and the entry of young people into the common world.