Educational Contexts, Education And Gender Identities Of Adolescents From A Rural Mayan Locality In Yucatán

Abstract

The purpose of this article was to compare and explore the gender identity of adolescent women from a Mayan rural locality, from two of their educational contexts: the telesecundaria school and daily life in the community. Interviews and participant observation were used to obtain qualitative primary data. Among the main findings, it is highlighted that the institutional structure and rigidity of the school limits the fact that adolescents can act at certain times from social attributes different from those offered by their locality. Likewise, the school contributed to the individualization of the participants and the ways to have foreign values ​​as a desirable representation of “development”, aspects that do not contribute equally to the idea of ​​“community” that is still present in this locality with Mayans and whose relationships are based on a sense of community. Finally, the education that is taught and produced in the school classroom responds to the objectives of technification and training of “citizen” women, who can play a role within the productive system, while educating them as women who maintain and ensure the traditional gender binary social order.