The merit of being self-employed: around equal opotunities and the kind of student expected in a high school group

Abstract

In this work, representations of key teachers and actors about the type of student expected are investigated in a prestigious group of secondary schools dependent on the National University of La Plata, in the capital city of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Although merit as an educational selection criterion present in the entrance exams is no longer the mechanism for school admission after the return of democracy to the country in the 1980s, the meritocratic ideology persists in educational institutions today. From the analysis of the representations, analyze the type of student expected in these schools: an "autonomous" student. It is concluded that, beyond the fact that they are secondary schools that since the 1980s have had an "open" public draw as an admission policy, the notion of merit is redefined and persists through the demand for autonomy. This requirement acts as a standardizing premise.

            The methodological approach involved a multiple case study. Between 2012 and 2016, were made observations, in-depth interviews with thirteen "key" actors, sixty-seven semi-structured interviews with randomly selected teachers and documentary analysis.