School choice or school pilgrimage? Pathways of students migrating from urban to rural schools in Chile

Abstract

This qualitative analysis investigates the school paths and factors that affect students' shift from urban to rural schools. Rural schools in Chile are increasingly receiving students from urban establishments and, despite the current policy on school inclusion, urban school culture’s exclusive forces are strongly present. Across semi-structured interviews to mothers of students who migrated from urban to rural schools, results show that different narratives are established in terms of the choice of school, according to students’ cultural capital, the school experience, and their expectations for what the school system should provide. Hence, we called school pilgrimage to mothers’ school choice journey to focus on meeting their children’s academic and socio-economic needs. We argue that inclusion policy fails to eradicate exclusion practices in urban schools, shaping non-linear pathways, and indeed rural school emerges as an inclusive institution.