Pro-market educational governance: is Argentina a black swan?

Abstract

Over the past years there seems to have been a general consensus in the literature with regards to the increasing worldwide momentum pro-market reforms have gained in the field of education. Taking this worldwide ?wave? of pro-market reforms as a starting point, this article analyses the case of Argentina, and the extent to which global discourses promoting pro-market reforms have been discussed and put into practice in the Argentine political context. The main argument of the paper is that the Argentine educational system has been overall impermeable to pro-market governance models in education.For analytical purposes, three different phases within the pro-market movement have been identified. The first phase, referred to as the experimental phase, deals with the policy reforms promoted by the Chicago Boys in Chile under Pinochet?s dictatorial regime. Secondly, the first pro-market wave of reforms considers the cases of Thatcher, Regan and reforms in Australia and New Zealand. In addition, during this phase, the increasing role of multilateral organisms such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund will be also assessed. Lastly, following Stephen Ball`s broader conception of privatization, the third phase will consider the role think tanks, for-profit companies and philanthropic associations are currently having within the pro-market movement.Once the different phases have been identified and the common denominators that define the key elements of pro-markets reforms have been established, the paper delves into the specific Argentine context. The core of the analysis will thus be to assess the influence and the impact of the three pro-market phases described above in Argentina`s education system. That is to say, to what extent was the Chilean experience with the Chicago Boys exported to the Argentine case? The reform of the 1990s in Argentina was strongly influenced by the discourse of international organizations, but to what extent can this reform be described as defining a pro-market model of governance? Finally, the recent National Law of Education (2006) bans the ?mercantilization of public education?, and has not questioned the traditional bureaucratic model of governance of the educational system. However, some for-profit companies such as INTEL are participating of huge programmes to provide hardware and connectivity to schools in Argentina, and public-private initiatives taking the form of philanthropy are increasingly being devised. So, is pro-market ideology entering the Argentine educational system through subtle mechanisms that overleaps the state?s political rhetoric?Consequently, is it appropriate to state that there is a generalized worldwide trend towards pro-market reforms? In case this is so, to what extent has the Argentine system been impermeable to it? To what extent will Argentina be able to maintain, due to commercial agreements and international treaties such as the GATS, a hard position with regards to this matter? Based on these questions, the paper will reflect upon the specificities of the Argentine case, and will also consider the ways in which the analysis of ?black swans? (cases that have been overall resistant and impermeable to ?world trends?) can contribute to a better understanding of the worldwide diffusion and recontextualisation of pro-market ideologies.