Experiences of indigenous youth in an agronomic university in Mexico

Abstract

The objective of this article is to document the experiences of a group of indigenous youth that had to face problems and challenges the during their schooling process, creating new routes of schooling to access an agronomic university in Mexico, the Autonomous University of Chapingo (UACh). The research uses a qualitative and ethnographic methodological perspective. The life stories of 24 young speakers of seven native languages of the state of Oaxaca are presented. Through their stories, it is sought to rethink the education of indigenous youth as a process in which deep inequalities intervene that increase their disadvantages to achieve their access to the university. The results show that these young people, by continuing their education, only received the moral support of their families, facing obstacles that forced them to rethink their school trajectory, postponing their access to higher education. It is concluded that these young people have a large project agency that helped them design schooling routes to fulfill the dream of studying in a university outside their communities; nevertheless, its social origin marked the destiny towards this agronomic university that has a welfare support model and an inclusive admission policy.