Contingency and Educational Tensions in University Students

A comparative sociocultural analysis

Abstract

The objective of this research was to describe the perceptions of university students based on their sociocultural context regarding the transition from a face-to-face educational modality to a virtual one originated by the COVID-19 contingency. A sociological perspective was recovered to articulate the production of subjectivities based on their objective conditions.  Methodologically, three moments were recovered: capital detection for the educational transition; determination of its volume and structure of capital and relation of their perceptions to that volume and structure. Operationally, the survey, multivariate analysis and the method compared in education as an articulating axis were used. The analysis unit was the Metropolitan Polytechnic University of Hidalgo (Mexico) and the target population was 817 students from four undergraduate educational programs. The results made it possible to detect that students have different volume and structure of capital (academic, economic, cultural and technological) that conditions their perceptions and provisions in this educational transition. It is concluded that it is students belonging to vulnerable groups who present greater risks to educational achievement and have a hysteresis effect that leads them to higher levels of stress and therefore proclivity towards an in-person educational modality.