Inequalities of young afro-colombians in the face of education and culture

Abstract

This paper presents the first part of a qualitative research carried out with young Afro- Colombians in three universities of Bogotá, and with young mestizos students of the 11th grade of a high school located in Altos de Cazuca. The research deals with an analysis of the students’ trajectories towards university. The central idea is to be able to present the six educational inequalities that these young people face to education and culture based on the Bourdieu and Passeron theory because of the social conditioning they face. The central idea is that educational inequality in Colombia is generated on the basis of Primary Education. The three main social factors that influence such inequality are: the social class, the sorrounding space, and the ethnicity. These three categories act as tools for the knowledge and communication of the symbolic capital, and they are established through the imposition of distinct hierarchies that ensure certain agreements on the meaning of the world.