Changes in the Justification of Educational Inequalities: The Role of Perceptions of Inequality and Meritocracy During the COVID Pandemic.
Education is considered a key tool for social mobility and equality of opportunities. However, despite the widespread value of education, disparities in educational outcomes persist over time. This paper is guided by the following research questions: To what extent are such educational disparities j...
| Publicado en: | Social Justice Research Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 240 - 264 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Springer Nature
Sep2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=187165599&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 187165599 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 08857466 4LL jtl: Social Justice Research issn: 08857466 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Sep2025 vid: 38 iid: 3 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 187165599 10.1007/s11211-025-00458-0 ppf: 240 ppct: 24 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.2MB tig: atl: Changes in the Justification of Educational Inequalities: The Role of Perceptions of Inequality and Meritocracy During the COVID Pandemic. aug: au: Castillo, Juan Carlos Iturra, Julio Carrasco, Kevin affil: https://ror.org/047gc3g35 Department of Sociology, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies, Santiago, Chile https://ror.org/04ers2y35 Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences, Bremen, Germany su: COVID-19 pandemic Meritocracy Social attitudes Educational equalization Social mobility Chileans Longitudinal method Neoliberalism sug: subj: COVID-19 pandemic Meritocracy Social attitudes Educational equalization Social mobility Chileans Longitudinal method Neoliberalism keyword: COVID-19 Inequality justification Social inequality Studies in Human Society Sociology COVID-19 Inequality justification Social inequality Studies in Human Society Sociology ab: Education is considered a key tool for social mobility and equality of opportunities. However, despite the widespread value of education, disparities in educational outcomes persist over time. This paper is guided by the following research questions: To what extent are such educational disparities justified in society? Is the justification of educational inequality affected in periods of personal and social vulnerability, as in the COVID-19 pandemic? And, what are the main factors driving this kind of justification? The Chilean case offers an interesting context for this study given its high economic inequality, deep neoliberal policies, and commodification of social services such as education. This economic and cultural environment has promoted meritocratic ideals, whereby individual talent and effort are considered key to get ahead in life, disregarding opportunities linked to social origin. The central argument of this article is that the justification of inequalities weakens during periods of vulnerability and crisis (such as the health and economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic). Furthermore, we argue that such changes could be linked to a challenge of meritocratic ideals. For testing the research hypotheses we estimate a series of longitudinal multilevel models with data from a Chilean longitudinal panel survey (2016 – 2023, 6 waves, N = 2,927). Whereas we find support for the association between the perception of meritocracy and justification of inequality, the analyses that involved changes over time showed an increase in the justification of inequality in education. The discussion of these results delves into the social consequences of justifying inequality in a sensitive area as education, as well as the persistence of meritocratic ideals despite challenging events. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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