APORTES DE INVESTIGACIONES PSICOLÓGICAS A LA CONSTRUCCIÓN DE LA CIUDADANÍA DEMOCRÁTICA

Actualmente la formacion de futuros ciudadanos constituye una preocupacion prioritaria a nivel mundial. Ante diversos problemas internacionales como la relevante exclusion social, la xenofobia, la desafeccion politica, entre otros fenomenos sociopoliticos y culturales, la educacion para la ciudadania democratica se ubica como una de las claves necesarias para superar tales dificultades. Sin embargo, al definir el sentido y propositos de la formacion ciudadana existen notables divergencias. En esta comunicacion se analizan ciertos aspectos criticos de tal problematica y se examinan aportes al tema desde la psicologia social, la psicologia del desarrollo y la psicologia educacional. Asimismo se presentan las lineas de investigacion psicologica de un programa vinculado con el campo de problemas e interrogantes de la formacion ciudadana que desarrollamos en la Facultad de Psicologia de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. En el se entrelazan investigaciones acerca del desarrollo de nociones politicas en adolescentes y jovenes relacionadas con contenidos escolares atinentes a la educacion ciudadana, y ciertas problematicas psico-educativas de docentes y adolescentes en el area de la formacion ciudadana. Palabras clave Investigacion psicologica Formacion ciudadana ABSTRACT CONTRIBUTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC CITIZENSHIP At the present time, the formation of futures citizens it’s a highpriority preoccupation at world-wide level. Facing many international problems, like relevant social exclusion, xenophobia, political indifference, among other sociopolitical and cultural phenomena, education for democratic citizenship is located as one of the necessary keys for the overcoming of such difficulties. However, there are remarkable divergences when it is about defining the sense of citizen formation and its intentions. The present text analyzes certain critical aspects of this problematic as well as some contributions offered by psychology from various frames: political psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology and educational psychology. In such context there are presented the lines of a psychological research program which focuses on the field of problems and questions about citizen formation, and that takes place at the Faculty of Psychology of the University of Buenos Aires. In this program there are interlaced investigations about the development of political knowledge in adolescents and young people related to scholastic contents to citizen education, and some psico-educative problems that teachers and adolescents show in the area of the citizen formation. Key words Psychological investigation Citizen formation