Secondary Education Reforms in a Federal System: Between Big Mottos and the Daily Craftiness of Education Policy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14409/ie.2025.22.e0095Keywords:
Secondary education, education policy, education reforms, federalismAbstract
The sanction of Argentina’s National Education Law No. 26,206 in 2006 introduced reforms aimed at secondary education, driving national and jurisdictional policies. However, governments still face limitations in addressing the structural segmentation of this educational level, ensuring completion and guaranteeing minimum learning standards. This article examines how jurisdictional secondary education directorates and other high–level policymakers have negotiated the enactment of these policies with various actors since the sanction of the National Education Law and 2022. Through an intentional sample of 10 jurisdictions, we conducted semi–structured interviews (n=21) with the above–mentioned actors. Our findings reveal that the enactment of secondary education policies entails daily negotiations with different stakeholders and the development of strategies for the adoption of new measures. We identify three technologies for the enactment of reforms at this level: (a) persuasion technologies, (b) monitoring technologies, and (c) galvanization technologies. We conclude that the «big mottos» for transforming secondary education at both national and provincial levels encounter contingent forms of (re)negotiation, whose enactment requires a highly contextualized and «craft–like» political engagement with various actors.
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