The merit trap. Perspectives on interpreting inequalities and building a demo-cratic school

Abstract

Applied to schools, the constructs of merit and educational poverty can open up social reproduction and compensatory dynamics. The meritocratic logic rewards not talent but the most favorable starting conditions; the idea that there is poverty to be overcome can imply that the obstacles to educational success depend on the students. Here we take equity as an essential horizon of meaning for schools to fulfil their democratic mandate and propose the category of non-traditional factors of inequality to highlight the extent to which their organisational culture creates inequality.