CHE Dissertation Fellowship

School autonomy with accountability in Latin America: the diffusion of the new governance of education (1990-2020)

Why do some reforms ‘travel’ from one country to another, and, more precisely, what exactly is traveling? Is it the reform idea, its instruments, or its procedures? And how does time affect not only what travels but also how it changes? Tomás dissertation addresses these questions by analyzing the dissemination of the reform coined ‘School Autonomy With Accountability’ (SAWA) in Latin America. In simple terms, SAWA promotes schools operating as managerial units, holding them accountable through standardized testing, school inspections, and other distance-monitoring mechanisms. Once in place, SAWA produces significant changes in how schools operate, impacting principals, teachers, and families.

Over the last three decades, Latin American countries have progressively adopted the SAWA agenda, partly due to pressure from International Organizations. However, countries show significant variations regarding which aspects were taken, for what reasons, and how they were adapted in each country-specific context. Argentina and Colombia, two countries with structural similarities, are examples of divergent expressions of SAWA policies over time. To tackle the regional differences, this dissertation adopts a cross-national and historical stance to investigate why and to what extent SAWA instruments have been disseminated across Latin America between 1990 and 2020. The first research strand adopts a birds-eye and looks at the dissemination of 13 policies associated composing the SAWA reform across 33 Latin American countries since 1990. The second research strand focuses on the country's economic, political, and institutional legacies to examine why SAWA’s trajectory diverged in the cases of Argentina and Colombia. This dissertation contributes to the literature on policy diffusion by exploring why and how reforms are adopted across different contexts while offering a historical account to understand how policies evolve to endure. 

Reimagining the Public School Child: Social Constructions of the Urban Poor and Education Policies in Brazil (1983-1991)

Marcella's dissertation emphasizes the role of policymaking in perpetuating the injustices and social problems faced by public school students in Brazil. The research explores how the creation of stereotypes about the public school child has influenced the policy process and what happened when two of the most prominent Brazilian reformers, Paulo Freire and Darcy Ribeiro, challenged traditional assumptions about these children and public schooling. Although these educators had the academic credentials, experience in policymaking, and a window of opportunity in a moment conducive to change, their reforms failed. The dissertation seeks to understand how questioning the long-standing assumptions about the public school child may have cost Freire and Ribeiro the success of their policies. This discussion can contribute to broader debates on the history of education, policy studies, and how schooling policies play a role in increasing racial and social justice and democratic values in Brazil and beyond.

The Legacy of Antiblackness: Intergenerational Narratives of Black Students in Philadelphia’s Public Schools

Leana's dissertation research centers the complicated interplay of history, racial politics, and community sensemaking to explore how racism and antiblackness are reproduced over time and in different public school contexts within Philadelphia. By exploring the educational experiences of three generations of Black Philadelphians (current high school students, their parents and grandparents), this study will document current and former Black students’ understandings of the different manifestations of antiblackness in educational policy and practice over several decades.