Ab(normal) students and marginality in Chilean secondary schools: what teachers are saying

Abstract

This article is the result of a research focusing on understanding and interpreting the perceptions that mentor-teachers in the 4th grade of secondary school have built in relation to students who are in the “not-being” area, in formal educational institutions. These students are those who are not considered to be within the normality concept that rules in the educational institutions. With a paradigmatic interpretative approach and a qualitative methodology, 30 teachers were interviewed (all of them mentor-teachers of 4th grade in Chilean secondary school and with different features depending on variety of professional and personal criteria). With the help of NVivo 11.0 software, a content analysis (mainly inductive) was carried out. The conclusion is that teachers not only do not question the normality and abnormality conceptualization in which the school system operates, but also they use it in an acritical way to classify students. Academic results are the main factor for students to be considered close to or far from what teachers think as normal. Human factors are objectified and instrumentalized and are considered duties that should guide what students do. Teachers usually think that the family is the basis for understanding why these students are less normal.

Normality; Abnormality; Marginality; Secondary school