ksquin25

A Culture of Moral Superiority

April 13, 2025

As I mentioned in my first blog post that discussed the lack of socioeconomic and ethnic diversity at The Croft School, one of my main worries was that Croft students are not able to experience this diversity therefore creating a superiority mindset. This has in fact resulted in larger societal outcomes such as further class reproduction with elites holding the top power positions in Chilean society. Thus, students at The Croft School, as a result of a lack of experiences with people from diverse backgrounds, has led to a misunderstanding about the value of money and hard work thereby developing a “culture of moral superiority” (Ilabaca & Corvalán, 2023).

So what does a “culture of moral superiority” mean, and how does it manifest in elite schooling? Moral superiority is defined as a feeling of being “higher up” and more valued than others in society (Ilabaca & Corvalán, 2023). This feeling may stem from the jobs that elites hold, or the schools, such as The Croft School, that they attend. However, it is within the hidden curriculum of these elite schools where one finds moral superiority being preached to their students. For example, one of the ways that elite schools do this is through some of the messaging they give to their students such as “Serve the Country” or “Be the best in all areas” (Ilabaca & Corvalán, 2023).

This idea of being the best in all areas or going and serving the country, while it can look nice on the surface, actually has a lot more meaning. While many elite schools, such as the Croft School, pride themselves on global citizenship education and engagement with those in their community, this can cause more harm than good. Throughout the course of reading the interviews many students touched on how they felt as though the community service was superficial. It almost felt as though the community service was more so benefiting the students and their resumes then it was actually helping those in the community who they were “serving.” The positionality of these elite students, who are in positions where they can create a social change, and yet aren’t really doing so, goes to show how “minimal” these acts of community service can be.

One of the students interviewed spoke about how the activities they were doing felt minimal, and while they have the resources to make a substantial impact in these communities they still aren’t doing so. I think that the “minimalist” effort that is being made with community service in these schools is reflective of how elites interact with other groups in society who may be from different socioeconomic backgrounds. This “culture of moral superiority” is bred from the fact that they are “too good” to contribute at a high level and be highly contributing to these communities. I think that if these schools who pride themselves on global citizenship education actually want to make a change in the world then the first step should be to actually make the community service meaningful. This would be a way of addressing and diminishing this superiority mindset.

One of the other ways in which this “culture of moral superiority” is fostered is through the students’ and their families’ transformation of economic capital into social capital. The economic capital of these families to even gain access to these prestigious schools sets their children apart and gives them an advantage from the get go. Roughly 60% of students from elite schools in Chile will go on to access four of the most prestigious careers – economics, engineering, law or medicine in two of the most elite universities in Chile (Ilabaca & Corvalán, 2023). Thus, the economic capital is transformed into the social capital by gaining entrance to these elite universities (Bourdeiu, 1996). Aside from the economic and social capital that the students hold, the school also fosters symbolic capital. Upon walking into elite schools in Chile one of the first things that you will see are displays of former students from the school who then went on to hold prestigious positions within society (Ilabaca & Corvalán, 2023). Therefore, not only is this a mindset of superiority, it is an expectation that is promoted by the schools. When things such as success in society are an expectation, students will then begin to view it as a right- anything less than the utmost success is viewed as a failure, and that is a problem.

Ilabaca, T., Corvalán, J. (2023). The School Segregation of the Chilean Elites and Its Consequences in the Socialization of Class Subjectivities. In: Dupriez, V., Valenzuela, J.P., Verhoeven, M., Corvalán, J. (eds) Educational Markets and Segregation. Evaluating Education: Normative Systems and Institutional Practices. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-36147-0_11

Bourdieu, Pierre: The State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of Power. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996.

The “Bubble” of Chilean Elite Schools and the Societal Consequences

ksquin25 / Globally Elite /

March 31, 2025

Throughout the interview analysis process one of the overarching themes that came through was how students at the Croft School felt as though their school was a “bubble” separating them from the outside world. Aside from the figurative “bubble” that Croft School students described, the physical location of the school also serves as a means of isolation from people from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. The effects of socioeconomic and ethnic diversity between the Croft School and the rest of the community has resulted in societal divides. These societal consequences have been felt not only within the student body at the Croft School, but within the larger community as well. There were two main societal consequences that were caused by the school and students being closed-off from the outside community. The first was a lack of opportunities for Croft students to interact with people from different class or ethnic backgrounds. This led to the second impact: a misunderstanding of the value of money and hard work.

The homogenous nature of the school led the students to express a lack of opportunities to interact with people from different class or ethnic backgrounds. Often the students recounted how their first interactions with people from different class backgrounds were when they went to exchange programs abroad or when they went to university. One of the main reasons why students were not exposed to socioeconomically or ethnically diverse students was the exclusionary nature of their school.

The exclusionary nature of the Croft School is a result of the fact that it does not offer scholarships. If a student is unable to pay the tuition then they are unable to attend. It seems clear that The Croft School is attempting to create an isolated and exclusive school environment for its students. If there was a true desire by the school to have a diverse student body then it would offer tuition scholarships to give disadvantaged students who otherwise would not be able to afford the lofty tuition the opportunity to attend.

Being set apart from students from different class backgrounds leads to a larger misunderstanding about the value of money for Croft students. In many of the interviews analyzed students expressed how they were unsure how much they spent in a week. For many students going out to eat and spending money was a daily occurrence. There wasn’t a need to consciously think about how much money they were spending and how it was going to affect them. This misconception about the value of money brings to light a larger question about whether these students understand the relationship between money and hard work. Many students do not work outside jobs so they can focus on their academics. As a result, many students do not know the larger value that money holds as coming from hours of hard work. I attribute this lack of understanding of the value of money and hard work to the larger isolation of the school and its students from the greater community.

The inability for students of The Croft School to experience socioeconomic and ethnic diversity as a result of the school’s exclusionary practices leads to larger misunderstandings of the value of money and hard work. It is not until these students meet peers from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds that they start to gain this appreciation. However, I worry that by the time these students get to high school or university it is too late. If the Croft School and its students continue to limit interactions with people from different backgrounds it won’t only lead to this misunderstanding of the value of money and hard work, but it will also lead to a superiority mindset and further class reproduction in Chile.

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A Culture of Moral Superiority

The “Bubble” of Chilean Elite Schools and the Societal Consequences