Theoretical-Political Renewal in Education and its Contradictions under Neoliberalism: An Inquiry into the Debates and Challenges of the Chilean Case in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

The article presented here focuses on the New Public Education (NPE), established by Law 21.040, which represents a substantial change in the understanding of the right to education in Chile. The fieldwork is organized around three key areas: 1) the administrative structure supporting public schools, the SLEP (Servicio Local de Educación Pública / Local Public Education Service); 2) the effects and aftermath of inequality exacerbated in school communities during the pandemic; and 3) the strategies implemented by schools with the SLEP to ensure equity and equal opportunities in dynamics of participation, communication, and democratic dialogue within the framework of education for citizenship and democracy as outlined in the law’s principles. The methodology of this research is based on a qualitative and hermeneutic epistemological paradigm, aligned with the goal of deeply understanding the reality of local public education services through a multiple and retrospective case study design. The emerging results from the analytical processes of discourse and documentary material collected in five case studies across the country are built around three categories: 1) teachers as the foundation and pillar of public education; 2) neoliberal managerialism; and 3) the deep gap or fracture between what Law 21.040 declares and the daily reality of schools. These categories were constructed to contrast theory with practice in the Chilean educational context, demonstrating that these three axes allow for a rethinking of the current situation, an understanding of dominant conflicts and debates or tensions, and the charting of new perspectives to address current challenges.