Ben Ross Schneider’s impressively researched book addresses one of the most pressing challenges confronting Latin America and other developing nations: public education reform. The book engages with this critical yet academically underexplored issue through a meticulous comparative analysis of teacher career reform processes. The goal is to elucidate how the structural and political dynamics underpinning public education systems explain the divergent outcomes of the distinct routes to reform teachers’ careers analysed in the book.
The book’s central (and tragic) concern is to answer why reforming the education sector is so difficult in the region despite its enormous importance in promoting development and fighting inequality. Schneider observes that, despite high school attendance rates, ‘most children in Latin America … are not learning much’, a phenomenon he attributes to education being what he characterises as a relatively ‘empty policy area’. This void stems from the political irrelevance of children as a constituency, the disorganised and diffuse interests of parents, the increasing reliance of the middle class on private schooling, and the disinterest of the business sector, which perceives education as disconnected from immediate human capital needs. Compounding these challenges, reform efforts are frequently stymied by entrenched opponents, notably clientelist politicians and teachers’ unions, who exploit this policy vacuum to obstruct change.
Nonetheless, as the book shows, there are different ‘routes to reform’ to change this critical policy area. By exploring these diverse reform processes, we learn about the strength of these barriers and conditions and the strategies that contribute to overcoming them. The empirical analysis draws on reform case studies from Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico and subnational cases in Brazil (and ghost cases from Turkey and South Africa), offering a detailed exploration of the barriers to career reform and the conditions leading to failure or progress. Although none of the cases can be labelled successful, they show variation regarding achievements.
Schneider provides a warning before discussing the cases and findings. He cautions that meritocratic teacher reforms, as conceived through New Public Management’s lens, may not consistently yield the anticipated positive outcomes their proponents advertise. Nevertheless, he posits that these reforms serve as a critical focus to evaluate the feasibility of broader educational change, particularly in a sector where transformation is urgently required. While maintaining analytical distance regarding the alleged benefits of meritocratic reforms, Schneider unequivocally critiques the detrimental effects of the prevailing status quo of low-quality teaching capabilities.
The work identifies three distinct reform trajectories: (1) top-down technocratic reforms in Colombia and Peru; (2) bottom-up, electorally driven reforms in Chile and Ecuador (initially); and (3) stalled reforms in Mexico and South Africa. Other subnational cases in Brazil aligning with these categories are also discussed. Progress, where observed, is contingent upon specific ‘micro-factors’, including technocratic advocacy for reform, the political or clientelist nature (and strength) of unions, and the existence of robust policy networks that champion change. The role of international actors in promoting educational reforms also emerges as a significant variable.
The author does not intend to present recipes for ‘the best’ reform route trajectory. The second category – bottom-up, electorally driven reforms – illustrates how the politicisation of educational quality crucially increased demand for change and opened a window of opportunity to jump-start reforms. Although this politicisation is of the most relevance to advance change and break down resistance as it aligns political incentives with reformist goals, it is contingent on events that are not under the control of pro-reform forces. Technocratic-led reforms have more control over the timing of the reform process, but lack this political alignment and thus are weak. Nonetheless, they illustrate how different strategies are successful, or partially successful, in attaining some of the reform goals. By understanding these auspicious and adverse conditions for reform, the book provides critical information for political and civil society, and for technocratic actors championing educational change in the region.
The book has many merits. Theoretically, it engages with foundational scholarship on the politics of reform, the political economy of public policy, and the dynamics of policy change. Its principal contribution lies in its rigorous, data-rich case studies, which vividly illustrate the systemic obstacles to reform and the critical factors enabling partial or substantive advancements. The analysis reaffirms several tenets of the politics of public policy, while offering novel insights. Interestingly, it shows how political parties, often pivotal in other reform arenas, frequently deprioritise education due to its complexity and long-term horizons or even actively oppose change when they are aligned with vested interests. The study also underscores and illustrates technocrats’ and policy networks’ partial yet significant influence in driving reform, albeit with limited success. As mentioned, these findings will not only contribute to our academic understanding of the state, policy reform and the education system in Latin America (and developing countries in general), but also provide crucial information for reformers.
The book excels in its stated objective: illustrating how reformist coalitions within the state and civil society can navigate systemic constraints and explaining the outcomes observed in the different routes for reform presented. However, an issue warranting further scrutiny is the representativeness of teacher career reforms as an illustrative case study for the broader interest of the book: education sector reform. These career reforms, tethered to New Public Management paradigms aligned with private-sector logics, may encounter heightened resistance due to their implications for politicians, teachers’ unions and even civil society actors that do not share these paradigms. While central to educational transformation, their unique characteristics may limit their generalisability as they may be ‘least likely cases’ for the reform of the sector, which merits deeper discussion. Although I believe the debate will still show that we face a representative area for highlighting the difficulty of reform (another policy area briefly discussed, technical education, shows similar dynamics), the author could have addressed this point further.
In sum, Schneider’s work is an urgent and illuminating contribution to the study of public education reform. It offers critical insights for scholars, policymakers and reform advocates. And it underscores a sobering reality for one of the most essential democratic promises in the region’s history: in the absence of concerted political demand, democracy is unlikely to catalyse meaningful demand for change in this vital domain.
