A manifestation of symbolic violence in students with intellectual disabilities. a case study

Based on Pierre Bourdieu's proposal of the economy of social practices, the evaluative practices of students with intellectual disabilities in a school with special education support are analyzed. For this purpose, a mixed methodology (qualitative and quantitative) was used as required. According to Bourdieu, we must take into account both aspects, because in isolation it is not possible to consider social classes, thus, he says, we cannot fall into pure intuitionism, but neither in the fetishism of statistics.32.3% of people with disabilities in Mexico have dropped out of school and it has been due to problems of school performance and school administrative reasons. The average national schooling of this population is equivalent to four years of primary school (INEGI, 2005), which means that despite legislative modifications, exclusion continues to permeate in the evaluative practices towards this sector.Symbolic violence is manifested in the evaluative practices of the teachers who were investigated, finding that 72.7% tend to make simulated evaluations in order to comply with regulatory and administrative guidelines, and in other cases to obtain monetary retribution or to make a social investment by appearing to be "inclusive" teachers. These types of practices express what Pierre Bourdieu (1979b) calls symbolic violence, as they are presented with the appearance of being a fair, neutral and objective system, but their social function is essentially the legitimization of social inequality through the educational system.