The Politics of Student Protest and Education Reform in Chile: Challenging the Neoliberal State

Student Protest and the Nueva Mayoría Reforms in Chile

“…One theme is that the student movement developed an organisational structure and identity that expressed its rejection of parties, helping it to appeal to a wide audience (Bellei, Cabalín and Orellana, ; Palacios, ). Another is that the movement's framing strategy, including its focus on inequality and lack of citizen participation in policymaking, spoke to the concerns of many Chileans (Donoso, ; Kubal and Fisher, ). Finally, some authors focus on the use of massive, disruptive yet peaceful protest tactics, which fitted the Chilean context of strong democratic norms but acute dissatisfaction with parties (Somma and Medel, ).…”

“…However, the other two do explore why the 2011 protests had the policy impacts they did. Kubal and Fisher () argue that the movement's framing strategy undermined the ‘technocratic monopoly’ of educational policymaking, allowing non‐market approaches to wield influence. Donoso () contends that students' increasing ability to use both ‘outsider’ (i.e., protest) and ‘insider’ (i.e., participation in government) strategies has helped them influence policy.…”

“…A similar point can be made of student criticisms that private school subsidies enriched school owners while exacerbating inequalities. The first Bachelet government sought to address these issues in the LGE, but the law failed to ban public funding of for‐profit schools and continued to allow secondary schools to select students based on religion and academic merit (Kubal and Fisher, : 228). In contrast, Nueva Mayoría's reform eliminated (with a few exceptions) selective admissions at secondary level and obliged schools to adopt non‐profit status by the end of 2017.…”

“…The third issue is the recentralisation of public school administration, a cause taken up by secondary students beginning in 2006 to address quality deficits in many municipalities. Bachelet's first government did not make significant changes in this area (Kubal and Fisher, : 231). In contrast, the 2016 ‘de‐municipalisation’ law will bring public schools under the control of regional administrative bodies overseen by the Ministry of Education.…”

Student protest and the culture of violence at African universities: An inherited ideological trait

“…In Canada, the situation has not been any different; the 2004 and 2012 student protests proved that no matter what students are protesting for or against, incidents of violence are bound to occur (Giroux, 2013). According to Bellei et al (2014) and Kubal and Fisher (2016), in 2011 students in Chile staged a seven months long protest which saw several violent confrontations with the forces of law and order although it eventually led to a change in the public education agenda. In France, student protest was not only violent but became bloody in what has been christened "Bloody Monday".…”