Families and Schools: how Argentinean high class builds meanings about schools and schooling

Abstract

This paper elaborates a set of concepts drawn from empirical material from a work on the relationship between education and high class in Argentina. By analyzing the formative experiences of members of the high class, two concerns are put forward. First, in the context of the reconfiguration of the relationship between families and schools, I sketch how high classes build meanings and practices about school and schooling. Second, within educational inequalities processes, I analyze high classes’ school selection practices. This paper is an attempt to describe how high classes participate in struggles with other class fractions within the educational space. In doing so, they profit from “family’s close protections” that schools help to reinforce.