Solving Inequality by Acculturating the Poor? Mexican Elites’ (Un)Faltering Adherence to Education Under Changing Social and Political Conditions

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the representations of education that Mexican economic elites uphold. Our objective is to know if such representations have changed after the impact of two shocks: on the one hand, the discursive change of the federal government in matters of social policy after the arrival of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to the presidency of Mexico; on the other hand, the effects of the transition to a virtual learning modality during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, we are interested in investigating how elites understand the role of education within a national context marked by high poverty, little social mobility, and deep social inequality. Given that existing literature has understood educational institutions as both an enabler of overall social mobility and a tool for elite reproduction, we analyze elites’ consideration of education and their own role in it as a solution to pressing social problems and as a reproductive factor. We find their narratives to hold in essence but change in tone with the shocks unfolding.