Browsing by Author "Quaresma, Maria Luisa"

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    I Justify Myself, Therefore I am. Regimes Of Justification In Chilean Elite Universities
    (2024) Quaresma, Maria Luisa; Villalobos, Cristobal; Fergnani, Mario; Diaz, Barbara
    Few studies focus on understanding the role of universities in the elites' legitimation processes. This article examines how elite universities-in the context of Chilean tertiary education massification-actively create privileged statuses. Focusing on eight case studies, we examine how these universities justify their roles and existence, generating distinctions that promote highly exclusive spaces, replicating elite privilege. Through 48 semi-structured interviews, this article focuses on understanding the justification arguments employed by faculty and deans from these elite institutions. Following Boltanski's and Thevenot's theoretical model, the results illustrate three different justification regimes: i) arguing for their elite status within the university system; ii) justifying the role they fulfil within Chilean society; and iii) defending their existence in the social structure. These regimes combine arguments relating to social justice, efficiency and market system performance in an eclectic and pragmatic way.
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    La construcción del capital político en una universidad de élite. Redes, aprendizajes y estrategias de socialización en los estudiantes de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
    (2022) Fergnani, Mario; Villalobos, Cristobal; Quaresma, Maria Luisa
    The paper analyzes the development strategies of the political capital of the students of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (PUC), thinking about the construction of networks, the political learning processes and the socialization strategies of students who are part of the elite student's organization in PUC. Through a qualitative approach -which mixes network analysis and a biographical approach- we analyze the trajectories of ten student leaders in this elite university space. The results show that the processes of political socialization are gradual and staggered, and that the networks of political socialization rule the resources available to compete, although these are differentiated by the political orientation (left-right) of the interviewees. In addition, it is shown that the process of political socialization implies the incorporation of ideological and practical dispositions, related to operational and managerial aspects of political activity and that the PUC is structured as a laboratory of national politics.
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    Reproduction of academic and socioeconomic segregation in the transition to postsecondary education: A new approach
    (2022) Kuzmanic, Danilo; Valenzuela, Juan Pablo; Villalobos, Cristobal; Quaresma, Maria Luisa
    Highly massified and differentiated postsecondary education systems tend to replicate the stratification and social segregation of previous educational levels, thus maintaining social inequity in their access. In this regard, gaps in academic test scores are frequently perceived to be a fundamental transmission channel of socioeconomic segregation from secondary to postsecondary education. Within this framework, the purpose of this study is to analyze whether and to what degree socioeconomic segregation is reproduced in the transition from secondary to postsecondary education and how much of the socioeconomic segregation is related to academic segregation in the latter. Using a modified Dissimilarity Index to quantify the segregation of three Chilean cohorts, we find that, unlike in secondary education, academic performance is more decisive than socioeconomic background in the distribution of students in postsecondary education, with a notable reduction in the socioeconomic segregation levels in the transition to the latter. However, using a pioneering approach, we also find that less than half of the socioeconomic segregation in postsecondary education is related to academic sorting, suggesting that factors other than academic admission criteria are more relevant in explaining unequal distribution of students from different socioeconomic background in postsecondary education.
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    Students' Perceptions of Excellence in Chilean High-Performing Public Schools
    (2022) Quaresma, Maria Luisa; Allende, Claudio; Villalobos, Cristobal; Araneda, Sebastian
    This paper aims to analyze how students attending six of the most prestigious, selective, and high-performing public schools in Chile perceive the concept of excellence and what factors influence their perceptions. A survey was administered to 1,828 students enrolled in 11(th) and 12(th) grade. The results show that students share a multidimensional idea of excellence. Five dimensions are identified but, according to students' perceptions, there were two constructs that stood out the most: "effort and self-improvement'" and '"social commitment and thoughtfulness." We find that variables such as expectations about the future and perceptions about schools explain the dissimilar ideas of excellence shared by students. This research gives voice to students on a current topic of the educational agenda -the concept of excellence- and invites researchers to re-think this construct from perspectives other than academic achievements