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

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ed.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Duran Marques, Jose Fernando

Contributors dc:contributor

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

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

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Jose Duran Marques

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

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

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132506