School participation is a debt in Latin America that hinders progress towards democratic societies. This study sought to understand school participation, from the voices of students in two schools with high quality school climate and two schools with low quality school climate, selected according to an index created from student surveys. Using a qualitative design, group semi-structured interviews with 70 students from eighth grade were performed. The results indicate that in all schools the participation of students is instrumentally supervised and directed by adults, and that school participation is heteronormative, selective and unstable. The differences between schools with high and low quality school life is that the former limits unconventional student participation linked to extra-school student mobilization, and threaten students who express political interests. We discuss the construction of passive and dependent student subjectivity within the schools, in contrast with an active and committed subjectivity outside the school premises. We also discuss the very notion of school life, which seems to be understood as discipline.
Ascorra, P., López, V., & Urbina, C. (2016). Students Participation in Chilean Schools with Good and Poor School Climate. Revista De Psicología, 25(2). https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-0581.2016.44686
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