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Access to the higher education system in Mexico has been characterized by educational inequalities explained by social and reproductionist currents. The phenomenon occurs in graduate students with a high school diploma and coming from different contexts (social, cultural, economic, institutional and academic ones) that create a process of transition far away from equal opportunities. Therefore, the differences due to cultural diversity do not generate equitable access to higher education institutions. The aim of this study was to identify the social, cultural and academic factors affecting the access to or the abandonment of the academic education of students with expectations of entering the higher education system. The research was based on the results obtained from forty technicians who studied at a vocational high school with high academic performance in Mexico, and were supposed to enter the higher level. It was an exploratory descriptive investigation with qualitative approach, using two multiple-choice item questionnaires whose results were analyzed interpretively. The sampling was non-probability, with the technique of “snowball” and “convenience”. The results showed that the level of parents’ schooling, social relations, and academic career of graduates were decisive to enter the higher education; so it can be concluded that the students’ origin generate inequality in educational achievement.

Los profundos cambios que experimenta la sociedad, caracterizados por la búsqueda de nuevos paradigmas que tutelen la educación superior a nivel internacional, dejan entrever la posibilidad de que la identidad docente se encuentre en severa crisis. Frente a escenarios poco veraces, de manera recurrente se observa un disenso entre la identidad profesional disciplinaria del maestro y su papel como educador, condición que se ve exacerbada por la exigencia que se le impone institucionalmente para hacer investigación, como si comulgar estos dos ejercicios profesionales pudiera solventarse únicamente con su formación disciplinar. Ante ello, es necesario efectuar un acercamiento a las posibles causas que determinan esta condición, a finde delimitar el grado de responsabilidad que a cada protagonista, y en especial al maestro, le atañe.

Frente al reto que representa la denominada sociedad del conocimiento, la alfabetización ciudadana y el desarrollo de comunidades de diálogo y aprendizaje se muestran como tareas imprescindibles. En este sentido, el nuevo quehacer del investigador científico le exige prestar mayor atención a las labores de divulgación y difusión de la ciencia, las cuales generalmente son soslayadas por considerar que se trata de actividades secundarias. De esta manera, el investigador parece ignorar que la habilidad de divulgar demuestra el grado de cultura científica que posee como experto, mientras que la habilidad de difundir evidencia su dominio de conocimientos, propios de su campo disciplinar. Reunir ambas destrezas hablaría de un alfabeta científico verdadero, competente en su quehacer científico, motivo por el cual es necesario revisar el sentido y la orientación que estas actividades sustantivas deben seguir, a fin de alcanzar el objetivo social planteado.