The Problem with Naming in the School Curriculum
First, policies often adopt a narrow, essentialist understanding of diversity, reducing complex identities to singular categories that oversimplify students’ experiences. Second, social inclusion efforts typically focus on superficial interventions—such as anti-bullying programs or teacher diversity training—while neglecting more profound structural inequalities embedded in educational practices and curricula. Third, most policies lack an intersectional perspective, failing to account for how overlapping identities like race, gender, and class intersect to create distinct forms of marginalization. Lastly, policies tend to center on accommodating marginalized students within existing norms, leaving dominant, heteronormative, middle-class values unchallenged, which further perpetuates systemic inequities.
This study challenges such approaches by examining how formal and informal curricula perpetuate essentialist notions of identities. Through ethnographic research in two Santiago schools (one with a high percentage of vulnerability and the other with the elite and upper class), we document how students and teachers perform common sense and power structures present in the official curriculum that normalizes specific identities while marginalizing others.
Rather than addressing segregation or academic disparities, our research explores how students are taught to categorize identities as superior or inferior, normal or different. By problematizing how these notions are embedded in school knowledge and practices, we argue for rethinking inclusion policies by understanding how a particular knowledge is produced in the official curriculum. This research contributes to debates on social inclusion and policy enactment, promoting a more critical understanding of educational justice.