The violent incidents report as school convivencia policy in México

Abstract

In Mexico, school convivencia (the experience of living together) has been situated as a priority of the educational policy. In this article, I will analyze the orientations e implications of such policy through the specific study of one of its most representative actions: the report of aggressive or violence behavior incidents. This analysis derives from a wider ethnographic research in two Mexican public primary schools. Firstly, I will specify the analytical framework used, based in a differentiation between restrictive and wide or comprehensive approaches to convivencia, and I will present the ethnographic methodology developed. Secondly, in relation to the results, I will analyze the policy at a normative level and then detail the enactment and implications of the aggressive and violent incidents report as a convivencia diagnostic practice. Finally, I will argue that this policy presents a restrictive approach to convivencia, and discuss its implications, specifying the need to reorient the educational policy towards a comprehensive convivencia to develop peaceful, inclusive and democratic relationships.