A critical discourse analysis of the construction of otherness in the 4T government of Mexico through official educational discourse

Duran Marques, Jose Fernando

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132506 Copy

Description

Title

A critical discourse analysis of the construction of otherness in the 4T government of Mexico through official educational discourse

Author(s)

Duran Marques, Jose Fernando

Issue Date

2025-11-19

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Davila, Liv T

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Davila, Liv T

Committee Member(s)

• McCarthy, Cameron R
• Kang, Hyun-Sook
• Witt, Mary Allison

Department of Study

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ed.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Otherness
• Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
• Fourth Transformation (4T)
• New Mexican School (NEM)
• Hegemony

Abstract

This dissertation critically investigates how Mexico’s Fourth Transformation (4T) constructs and disseminates the concept of “otherness” within official educational discourse. Employing a hybrid methodological design that integrates Thematic Analysis with Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), the study examines foundational policy documents—the 2022 Study Plan for Preschool, Primary, and Secondary Education and official secondary school textbooks from the formative field Ethics, Nature, and Societies—. The research addresses three central questions: how otherness is conceptually constructed; which linguistic, rhetorical, and semiotic strategies delineate self/other boundaries; and what ideological functions align these constructions with the 4T project. Data procedures combined Excel logging, template-driven coding, and NVivo to generate themes and parent nodes, while analysis drew on Fairclough’s CDA, the DiscourseHistorical Approach (nomination, predication, argumentation), van Dijk’s ideological square, and Gramscian notions of hegemony. Findings demonstrate that the 4T’s educational discourse operates through a dual dynamic: it advances an emancipatory promise rooted in justice, community, and historical repair, while simultaneously enacting a hegemonic closure that fixes a singular version of national identity. Overarching patterns include the systematic construction of otherness; the resignification of neoliberal categories within a new moral grammar; the operation of binary logics through the ideological square; and the central interpellation of teachers and schools as political and civic agents. The dissertation concludes that the New Mexican School curriculum (Nueva Escuela Mexicana (NEM)) functions as a privileged political instrument for shaping social consciousness and consolidating the 4T’s hegemonic project. By defining legitimate knowledge, identities, and practices, educational discourse simultaneously includes and excludes, promoting a vision of social transformation that risks narrowing Mexico’s political and pedagogical pluralism.

Graduation Semester

2025-12

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132506

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2025 Jose Duran Marques

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