Zamorano Figueroa, Francisco;
(2021)
The continuity and discontinuity of education policy: a study of change in the Chilean debate about higher education.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
This thesis's main topic is an exploration of the relationship between continuity and discontinuity in terms of the way in which higher education (HE) policies have been developed in Chile between 2003 and 2016. While neo-liberal and privatisation policies in higher education continue deepening worldwide, the Chilean state started conducting a free education policy with the promise of recovering the public and social role of the HE model in the country. This context represents a particular case in the world in that free-of-charge education has risen as a re-distributive principle, which seeks to improve national social justice through a policy that involves separating family purchasing power from access to educational quality by universal educational state funding. This research aims to analyse the public HE debate to understand the continuity and/or discontinuity of arguments providing legitimacy to the Chilean HE model in a context of policy change. Although this study does not address the policy's implementation and practices, the re-organisation of the critiques and justifications in the HE debate presents an excellent and original opportunity to approach the setting of the HE model's relationship with state and society. As this policy entails the hopes of re-defining the understanding of social justice in the country, there was an analysis of editorials and opinion columns published in the most important newspapers and interviews to relevant HE actors for describing the most significant differences and similarities with previous HE policies within a 14-year period. The findings suggest that justifications around the free education policy represent new forms of understanding neoliberal relationships in a context of policy reform. Through an institutional arrangement anchored on free education promising to improve access to tertiary education, policy continuities and discontinuities seem to work together to construct a new legitimate Chilean HE model.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | The continuity and discontinuity of education policy: a study of change in the Chilean debate about higher education |
| Event: | UCL (University College London) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2021. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| Keywords: | Continuity and Discontinuity, Chile, HE policy, Sociology of policy education |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Education, Practice and Society |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10139132 |
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