Middle class girls’ views of their education and schools in the City of Buenos Aires

MEO, ANALIA

University of Glamorgan, Treforest, Pontyprid, Reino Unido

Congreso; Student Conference de la British Educational Research Association; 2005

British Educational REsearch Association

This research looks at how girls and boys from different socio-economic groups live and make sense of their schooling in the City of Buenos Aires (Argentina). I explore how the production of their social and gendered identities interplays with their schools’ ethos. Moreover, in a context of growing educational inequalities between schools, my study identifies the different kinds of inequalities that these pupils experience. This paper portrays how secondary schooling is experienced by two middle class girls, Maria and Patricia (15 and 17 years old) who attended the third school year at two secondary schools. Maria and Patricia’s experiences will illustrate some themes that appear to be relevant to a wider population of students in these two schools. I would provisionally argue that Maria and Patricia’s experiences illustrate how the schools deployed withdrawal strategies from conflicts of different kinds that negatively affected students’ educational experiences.