The experience of violence among the students of UNAM (2018-2020)

Abstract

This article seeks to explain the experience of violence among students at the upper secondary and higher levels of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico. We propose that violence is taught, learned, subjective, signified, given meaning as part of a larger context and a passage of time that has installed it as one of the biggest problems in Mexico during recent times, and school is no exception. In this sense, we show that young students do not position themselves as passive victims, but use various strategies to act, resist or oppose violence through individual, group and / or collective actions for self-care purposes, get routines to give continuity to daily life, until they can transform the institution. The reflections are product of the dialogue of the results of two qualitative research projects. The analysis is carried out from data obtained in interviews, focus groups, participant and non-participant observation, techniques applied between 2018 and 2020 at the aforementioned university.