Routes to Reform : Education Politics in Latin America.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schneider, Ben Ross.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (246 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, Incorporated, 2024.

Summary:

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.In Routes to Reform, Ben Ross Schneider examines education policy throughout Latin America to show that reforms to improve learning--especially making teacher careers more meritocratic and less political--are possible. He contends that the first bottom-up route to reform is electoral. The second route was more top-down and technocratic, with little support from electorates or civil society. By framing education policy in a much broader comparative perspective, Schneider demonstrates that contrary to much established theory, reform outcomes in Latin America depended less on institutions and broad coalitions, but rather--due to the emptiness of the education policy space--on more micro factors like civil society organizations, teacher unions, policy networks, and technocrats.

Contents:

Cover

Routes to Reform

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

PART I THEORY AND ARGUMENTS

1. Introduction: The Contentious Politics of Education

I. Introduction: Actors and Factors

II. From Quantity to Quality

III. Why Learning Lags: An Empty Policy Space

IV. Bottom-​Up and Top-​Down Routes to Reforming Teacher Careers

V. Country Cases of Reforms to Teacher Careers

VI. Conclusions: Underdeveloped Theory

2. Theorizing on Education Politics: Macro to Micro

I. Introduction: Thin and Disjointed Literatures

II. Democracy Boosts Quantity but Not Quality

III. Social Class and Education as Redistribution

IV. Education as Human Capital: Business, Skills, and Varieties of Capitalism

V. Education as Political Fodder I: Clientelist Politicians

VI. Education as Political Fodder II: Political Machine Unions

VII. Micro Drivers: Technocracy

VIII. Micro Shapers: Civil Society and Policy Networks

IX. Conclusions: Most but Not All

PART II REFORM CASES

3. Bottom-​Up Reform in Chile: Electoral Mobilization, Policy Networks, and Civil Society

I. Introduction

II. Summary of the National Teacher Policy

III. Key Stakeholders in Policy Debates

IV. Reform Unfolding: Electoral Mobilization and Policy Networks

V. Finishing Touches: Civil Society and the Teacher Union

VI. Conclusions

4. From Bottom Up to Top Down in Ecuador

II. Teacher Career Reforms, 2006-​2017

III. Fewer Main Stakeholders

IV. Reform Dynamics

V. Conclusions

5. Top-​Down Reform: Unions and Technocrats in Colombia and Peru

II. Colombia: Slowing Reform to Bypass the Union

III. Peru: Staying Alive through Turbulent Times

IV. Conclusions.

6. Union Blockage and Clientelist Backlash in Mexico, South Africa, and Rio de Janeiro

I. Introduction: Filling the Empty Space

II. Reform in Mexico: Imposed from above, Dismantled from above

III. Stymied Reforms in South Africa

IV. Clientelism Redux in Rio de Janeiro

PART III COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS

7. Brazil: Innovating in the States

II. Principal Protagonists: Business Philanthropy, Political Parties, and Teacher Unions

III. Ceará: Scaling Up Sobral

IV. Pernambuco: Leveraging New Schools to Improve Quality

V. Merit Reforms in São Paulo

VI. National Reforms: Redistributive Finance and Common Curriculum

VII. Comparisons and Conclusions

8. Parties, Coalitions, and Routes to Technical Education

I. Introduction: An Emptier Policy Space

II. Cross-​National Variations and the Middle-​Class Slant in Latin America

III. Markets and Left Parties in Chile

IV. Left Parties and Ramping Up in Brazil

V. The SME Alliance in Turkey

9. Conclusions

I. Introduction: A Summary Guide to Routes

II. Moving Masses and Problematizing Organizations, Bureaucracies, and Networks

III. Back to Inequality and Development

Appendices (B-​E online)

A. Interviews

B. Ministers of Education: Technocrats or Politicians

C. Governors and Parties in Brazil, 1999- 2022

D. Protests and Demands in Education

E. Civil Society in Education

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780197758885

0197758886

OCLC:

1422168330