Seemingly Influential, yet Largely Invisible: The Paradox of the "Student-Driven" Chilean Higher Education Model

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: International Contexts and Issues in Postsecondary Education

Abstract

This paper reports on a qualitative study that investigated the discursive position of the student voice in contemporary Chilean higher education. The data for the study were derived from the analysis of system-level accreditation frameworks and publicly available institutional documents, in tandem with interviews with key university stakeholders and analysis of local artefacts. The outcomes of the research demonstrate that the position of the student voice remains largely peripheral, with limited evidence emerging of student opinion or representation performing any defined function in influencing the current or perspective pedagogical work of Chilean universities. These outcomes suggest there is a paradox between the rhetorical neo-liberalist notions of student choice and the lived reality of students in the Chilean higher education model.

Author

• Stephen Darwin, Universidad Alberto Hurtado