Educating middle class children in Santiago: cultural capital and socio-territorial segregation in the making of local educational markets

Abstract

Many researchers have studied residential and educational segregation processes without considering the relationship between them. This article explores how middle class parents select schools in the municipalities of Ñuñoa and La Florida (Santiago, Chile). Ñuñoa is an upper middle-class municipality with a large number of elite private schools; while La Florida has a newer middle class, a higher poverty rate, and many charter schools. Based on in-depth interviews with 77 parents, this article finds that in Ñuñoa parents choose elite private schools and reject charter or public schools. In contrast, parents in La Florida select charter schools as a way to avoid the dangers associated with public schools. The results have important implications for debate on residential and school segregation.