Technological higher education and social mobility. A longitudinal study based on life stories

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to explore how technological higher education contributes to social mobility and, specifically, what changes in educational, occupational and income terms graduates have experienced during their life trajectory. This is done through a longitudinal panel study that collected information from a group of graduates at the level of university technician in one of Mexico’s technological universities: Tula-Tepeji. Based on the data, the authors found that the graduates have been able to achieve intergenerational educational mobility and significant changes in their occupational status, as well as in their spending power when investigating their wages. Likewise, the authors observe modifications in the idiosyncrasies of the perception of schooling as a tool to be successful, that is, they manage to break with some cultural patterns transmitted from their grandparents to their parents regarding education, which led to different ways of choosing. This points at a more complex rationality that could be analyzed in future studies.