ABSTRACT

This study explores views on social fragmentation amongst participants from public and private high-achieving high schools in Mexico City. Whilst issues relating to social fragmentation have recently received more attention in Mexico, there is a lack of research in relation to the existing divisions amongst both school types. The paper aims to expose, through a limited sample size, some of the implications the public–private school divide represents for achieving social cohesion. From a framework of social fragmentation and private schooling in Mexico and drawing on data from semi-structured interviews, the study’s findings discuss the key characteristics of high-achieving high schools, participants’ conflicted views of the devalued place of public education and the current barriers for wider social interaction amongst public and private high schools. Some points for further research are suggested in the last section.

摘要

本研究探讨了墨西哥城公立和私立高中的参与者对社会分裂的看法。虽然与社会分裂相关的问题最近在墨西哥受到了更多关注，但缺乏关于两种学校类型之间现有分歧的研究。本文旨在通过有限的样本量揭示公私学校鸿沟对实现社会凝聚力的一些影响。从墨西哥的社会分裂和私立学校教育的框架，并利用半结构化访谈的数据，该研究的结果讨论了成绩优异的高中的关键特征，参与者对公共教育被贬值的地方以及目前公立和私立高中之间更广泛的社会互动的障碍的看法相互矛盾。最后一部分提出了进一步研究的一些要点。