Educational policies for equality in higher education: PRONABE scholarships from the social representations of the beneficiaries

Abstract

To speak about scholarship programs is to speak about education policy, in Mexico, PRONABES (National Scholarship Program) was created in 2001, within the framework of the National Education Program 2001-2006 of the Federal Government, in an executive of partisan change with the mandate of Vicente Fox Quesada. The main purpose is to generate conditions of equality for a greater number of young people in higher education who have economic problems. This program shows different ways of reporting its results using evaluative exercises and statistical information, however, there is little information from the direct beneficiaries regarding the conditions of equality this program seeks to generate through the economic support it grants. And to a lesser extent, on the improvements or practical implications hoping for improving the beneficiary’s conditions. This paper aims to explain how to address this dimension from the scholarship holders, derived from a research protocol developed during the first semester of the Master of Social Sciences program of the UAEH, and from which also the thesis work will be developed to obtain the degree, which will focus on social constructions and apprehensions (meanings and resignifications) regarding the state of educational equality from the PRONABES scholarship holder position. To approach the object of study, the use of the theoretical and methodological principles of the Social Representations is considered pertinent.