Global Policies, Local Enactment: The Rise and Fall of Charter Schools in San Luis (Argentina)

Author(s):

Mauro Moschetti(presenting / submitting)Veronica Gottau

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

23 SES 01 B, New Forms of Governing in School Education (Part 1)

Paper Session to be continued in 23 SES 02 B

Time:

2016-08-23

13:15-14:45

Room:

NM-NT1

Chair:

Anna Tsatsaroni

Contribution

In 1999, the province of San Luis (Argentina) launched a school-based management policy initiative without precedents in the country, inspired by the US charter school movement and some European experiments. This initiative was part of a set of reforms that attempted to deregulate the provincial educational system (REPETTO; ALONSO, 2004). The implementation of this policy created a group of self-managed schools with greater autonomy in decision-making and per-student funding, and granted parental freedom to choose (CICIONI, 1998).

The effects of this policy were limited both in time and scope and did not lead to the creation of a quasi-market scheme: by 2007, the provincial government had terminated the contracts, aborted the project and made these schools subject to the traditional bureaucratic regulations (HUBERMAN, 2007).

The influence of global tendencies on this experience allowed for the creation of new educational spaces that eventually assembled into a distinct local matrix (DALE, 1999; RIZVI; LINGARD, 2000; CARDINI, 2006). In the case of the province of San Luis, such local matrix was strongly affected by the political slant of the hegemonic government in power: for the last 35 years the same political party has dominated the political scenario of province. From an international perspective, and in line with the new public management policy arrangements, the creation of these schools could be interpreted as the result of both endogenous and exogenous privatization processes (BALL; YOUDELL, 2008). In short, the experiment of these self-managed schools tended to blur the differences between a flexible and autonomous private sector and a rigid and bureaucratic state sector (NARODOWSKI; MOSCHETTI, 2015; CLARKE; GEWIRTZ; MCLAUGHLIN, 2000). Those who supported the initiative had expectations regarding the modernization and democratization of the provincial educational system; those who opposed it claimed it was the starting point of a hidden privatization process in the agenda of neoliberal reforms initiated by the provincial government (DEL PLÁ, 2004).

This paper serves two purposes. First, to analyze the implementation of this school-based management policy in light of the logic of regulation and enactment of public policies within the specific political context of the province. Second, to explore and interpret the circumstances under which the project was dismantled and abandoned prematurely.

Method

In order to provide answers to our research questions, we have resorted to a qualitative approach. We conducted 23 semi-structured interviews with key informants and performed a thorough analysis of school and government documents. Interviewees included members of the project’s steering committee, scholars, members of the evaluation committee and the external audit, government and ex-government officials of the Ministry of Education, and teachers. The interviews were performed between September 2014 and July 2015.

Expected Outcomes

The implementation of this policy opened a local debate in line with global tendencies in education policy: school-based management, per-student funding, hidden privatization processes, and the reconfiguration of the role of the state in education were brought to scene. The local enactment of this globally informed policy gave rise to a distinct model of charter school. Eligibility was restricted to non-profit organizations and charters were awarded on the recommendation of an independent committee. In addition to the regular per-student funding, the provincial state provided the school buildings in every case. Schools managing teams were granted almost absolute pedagogical and administrative leeway, and were held responsible for student outcomes on an accountability basis. We found deep incompatibilities between the guiding principles of this educational policy –i.e., democratization, cooperativism, autonomy and diversity–, the practices of the provincial rentier political system, and the structures and traditional logics of power bureaucratically organized at the national level. The role played by the new actors involved in the management of these schools and the emerging power relations resulting from the deregulation process came into tension with the traditional political hegemony of the last 35 years in the province. The policy backfired: what was meant to be a modernizing initiative became incompatible with the prevailing logics of power.

References

BALL, S. J.; YOUDELL, D. Hidden privatisation in public education. Brussels: Education International, 2008. CARDINI, A. The influences of globalisation in education policy-making: the case of the charter schools in the Province of San Luis, Argentina. Educate~, vol. 5, n. 1, p. 26-38, 2006. CICIONI, A. El movimiento de las charter schools: una amenaza y una oportunidad para la educación pública argentina. Buenos Aires: Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo Institucional, 1998. CLARKE, J.; GEWIRTZ, S.; MCLAUGHLIN, E. (Eds.) New managerialism, new welfare? London: SAGE Publications Ltd., 2000. DALE, R. Specifying globalization effects on national policy: a focus on the mechanisms. Journal of Education Policy, v. 14, n-.1, p. 1-17, 1999. DEL PLÁ, R. San Luis: la Avanzada del Intento Privatizador de las Escuelas. Tribuna Docente, Diciembre 2004. Available at: . Accesed on: 12 mar. 2015. HUBERMAN, H. De escuela en escuela. Recorridos educativos autogestionados. Buenos Aires: Prometeo, 2007. NARODOWSKI, M.; MOSCHETTI, M. The growth of private education in Argentina: evidence and explanations. Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, v. 45, n. 1, p. 47-69, 2015. REPETTO, F.; ALONSO, G. V. La economía política de la política social argentina: una mirada desde la desregulación y la descentralización. Washington: United Nations Publications, 2004. RIZVI, F., & LINGARD, B. Globalization and education: Complexities and contingencies. Educational Theory, v. 50, n.4, p. 419-426, 2000.

Author Information

Mauro Moschetti (presenting / submitting)

Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona

Pegagogia Sistemática y Social

Buenos Aires

Veronica Gottau

Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina & ORT, Argentina

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.