Single-sex education and social inclusion

On November 24, 2020, Lic. María Elisabeth Vierheller, member of the team of this website, defended her doctoral thesis entitled “Single-sex education and school inclusion in complex social contexts. The case of the Buen Consejo School”, prepared under the direction of Dr. María Lilián Mujica (Universidad Nacional de San Juan) and the co-direction of Dr. Santiago A. Frigolé (Universidad Nacional de Cuyo), in order to access the title of PhD in Educational Sciences.

The Tribunal in charge of assessing the thesis was made up of professors Dr. María Elsa Porta (Universidad Nacional de Cuyo), Dr. Ana María Sisti (National University of Cuyo) and Dr. Hilda Difabio (CONICET) who highlighted the discursive quality, strength argumentative and presence of the personal voice of the author in the different sections of the thesis, in a diaphanous and dynamic style, of pleasant reading. She also valued the rigor of the work both in its theoretical and empirical development, approving the thesis with the qualification of outstanding. Congratulations!

In this video you can see the defense of the thesis.

Her thesis, which we hope to be able to attach soon, has as abstract the following:

Single-sex education and school inclusion in complex social contexts. The case of the Buen Consejo School

This thesis aims to understand and relate two categories, school inclusion and education differentiated by sex, that characterize the selected case: the Buen Consejo School, an institution located in a disadvantaged area in the south of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The research consists of an ethnographic approach work. Through various collection techniques, the immersion in the field allowed the analysis of the material to be revealed - fundamentally, the voice of the actors - which was then processed using the ATLAS.ti software. A detailed interpretation of the data obtained was carried out, which, in turn, was contrasted with the theory on each of the categories. As previous studies indicate, single-sex education in vulnerable environments provides the appropriate conditions for students to feel capable of modifying their reality and being the protagonist of a change, as was found in the case of female students. In addition, the combination of both categories generates a positive school climate, open to dialogue, fosters a motivating academic environment and the psycho-affective support necessary for a population of students living in an area of ​​vulnerability.