HOW IS SELF-DISCIPLINE PERCEIVED BY SECONDARY STUDENTS IN MEXICO?

'Researching and Promoting Character Education in Latin American Secondary Schools' is a joint research project of the School of Education and Psychology and the Institute for Culture and Society at the University of Navarra (http://www.unav.edu/en/web/educacion-del-caracter). It receives funding from the Templeton World Charity Foundation. The project aims to provide practical recommendations for the cultivation of social and moral virtues in Latin American secondary school students. The team is developing six case studies in secondary schools: two of them have already taken place in Mexico (March 2017).

Two secondary schools in Queretaro, Mexico, were selected: a publically funded school and a private school, both of them with higher than average levels of educational attainment.

More than forty interviews and ten focus groups were administered on pupils between the ages of 12-14. Interviews were partially transcribed in Spanish, with representative examples derived from preliminary analysis translated into English. Data were stored and retrieved using qualitative case study software (Atlas.ti).

Mexican students related self-discipline with habits, misbehaviors, feelings, punishment and personality traits. A combination of self-discipline (control, self-regulation) and external discipline (rewards, praise and punishment) is discussed.