Routes to Reform : Education Politics in Latin America

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. The key to sustained and equitable development in Latin America is high quality education for all. However, coalitions favoring quality reforms in education are usually weak because parents are dispersed, business is not interested, and much of the middle class has exited public education. 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. Several Andean countries and state governments in Brazil achieved notable reform since 2000, though on markedly different trajectories. Although rare, the first bottom-up route to reform was electoral. The second route was more top-down and technocratic, with little support from voters or civil society. Ultimately, 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. 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 I. Introduction 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 I. Introduction 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 V. Conclusions PART III COMPARISONS AND CONCLUSIONS 7. Brazil: Innovating in the States I. Introduction 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 VI. Conclusions 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