Abstract

This article presents an evaluative research carried out as a diagnosis of a broader action-research oriented towards the democratic construction of coexistence agreements and the development of civic competences in basic education. It had two objectives: to identify the challenges in coexistence of a class group and to assess its possibilities to work collaboratively and dialogically. To achieve them, a citizen council was implemented in which the third-grade students (n=39) addressed their problems as a class and developed learning agreements. The information was collected from the students’ production, questionnaires and field notes, and processed through a qualitative thematic content analysis using Atlas.ti. The results identified a series of challenges that affect the democratic coexistence of the group, showed that it is possible to work with students in a collaborative and dialogical way under a participatory didactic model; and recommend its adoption in schools. Finally, the hypothesis-action derived from these results is presented.