School participation and educational inclusion: A case study of high school student experiences

Abstract

This study explores school participation as an educational inclusion-exclusion mechanism, through the analysis of participatory experiences described by high school students from schools located in areas of high social vulnerability in Mexico City. Information collected through focus groups answered the following questions: What situations, from the point of view of students, detonate their participation in schools? What institutional mechanisms do students perceive as guiding their participation and to what kind of situations do they respond? What emergent channels of participation do students construct when institutions lack mechanisms for it and to what kind of situations do they respond? How is participation by students of both high and low performance perceived? Responses were analyzed using a qualitative methodology with a phenomenological approach. The results identified channels of formal and informal participation; the latter are reactive to different problems within the campuses. Contrasting the perceptions of high and low performance students, different degrees of involvement and participation were identified and compared, suggesting that it is a priority to promote the participation of low performing students to favor their inclusion.