Educational Decisions and Class Reproduction Practices among Upper Middle Classes in Montevideo

This article analyzes the educational decisions of the Montevideo upper middle classes and their significance as practices of reproduction and class distinction. Based on a time series of household surveys and the qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with university professionals, the article investigates how the upper middle classes choose the education of their children. To do this, it identifies and describes several different profiles: The loyalists, the escapees, and the militants. The anxieties, ambivalences, and feelings of nostalgia, guilt, and pride that these sectors experience when choosing the school for their children reveal the importance of this decision in the generation and reproduction of inequalities. These decisions, especially those that imply exiting public school towards private education as well as segregating within the public school system, have profound consequences for the generation of inequalities and the possibilities of social integration.