Abstract

HUERTA WONG, Juan Enrique. The Role of Education in the Social Mobility of Mexico and Chile: Inequality by Other Means?. RMIE [online]. 2012, vol.17, n.52, pp.65-88. ISSN 1405-6666.

This article explores the role of education as a factor that contributes to weakening the cycle of inequality. The cases of Mexico and Chile are compared by using two models of structural equations that evaluate the relations among wealth in the childhood home, the parents' educational level, early academic achievement, final educational level, and socioeconomic well-being. The results show differences: In Mexico, wealth in the childhood home and academic achievement explain educational level and socioeconomic well-being, while in Chile, intergenerational inertia between origin and destination is different, and reflects the parents' education more than the wealth of the childhood home. The interpretation of this finding is that education in Chile interrupts the cycle of the reproduction of inequalities. The statement is made that the Mexican state does not provide an educational system that disrupts the association between origins and destinations; another topic of discussion is the importance of children's academic achievement, including compliance with the policies to keep children in the classroom.

Keywords : social mobility; sociology of education; academic achievement; evaluation of models; statistical methods; Mexico; Chile.

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