Representaciones sociales en torno a equidad, acceso y adaptación en educación universitaria

Abstract

We present an analytic/relational study which, based on university students discourse, reconstructs social representations (SR) about equality in education, admission and adaptation to university life. We used qualitative research methodology, interviewing individuals and groups to a sample of 11 university students in the city of Antofagasta. Results show that, in the current educational system, which is deemed precarious and inequitable, the SR of subjects about access and adaptation to higher education emerge as connected to their own educational paths and flock around their constructs of equality/inequality in education. Becoming a member of the university system entails getting along with people from different socioeconomic levels and from different views about formal power, connections that lead to discrimination, hindering their stay in the university.