Resumen: El articulo consiste en un análisis sociohistórico sobre la constitución, legitimación y cambios de los colegios de élite en Chile. Por medio de la teoría de Pierre Bourdieu, dicho análisis se realiza a partir de una revisión de literatura y documentos en torno al sistema educativo y las élites del país, dando cuenta de las dinámicas internas y externas al campo educativo que han posibilitado la constitución, legitimación y cambios en estos colegios. Evidenciamos así una paradoja entre ciertas pretensiones orientadas hacia la reducción de desigualdades y estas dinámicas del campo y de las élites que operan hacia la constitución de un grupo de instituciones que generan dinámicas de segregación.

Using a societal analysis perspective that articulates structural, institutional and cognitive dimensions, this article outlines a model examining the contribution made by the schooling system to the social construction of elites. The model is put to the test by a comparative study of elitist educational pathways and their contrasting organisational modes in France, Belgium and Chile. The article shows that both the education of elites, and the role played by school in providing access to privileged social positions, continue to be marked by the distinctive historical construction of each society and education system, despite cross-cutting trends that are linked to globalisation.

Chilean elite schools have historically been spaces to ensure the homogeneity and intergenerational reproduction of privileged groups. This article presents a part of the results of an ethnographic research in two elite schools, aimed to answer how each one understands and legitimizes their privileged position. The results show how both institutions deal with privilege in different ways. In the first case, through its educational project, the school seeks that students understand themselves as privileged, and its legitimation is through involving them with the country's social problems as a “hallmark” of the school’s identity. The second school understands and legitimizes the privilege through processes of resignification, conceiving it as merit. The article then suggests a broader way of thinking about the transmission of privilege, where it is necessary to contemplate the dynamics of differentiation of the establishments in market contexts and also the socio-educational correspondence between the types of projects, the strategies and the internal divisions in the elites.