How do teachers influence policy?: The case of the Teacher Reform Law (Ley de Reforma Magisterial) in Peru

• In Event: Teachers' voices in the educational policy conversation

Proposal

In 2012, the Peruvian Government passed the Teacher Reform Law (Ley de Reforma Magisterial), introducing a public career under which performance evaluations are closely linked to determining the access to salary scales and career pathways for teachers (Cuenca, 2020) . This law is strongly influenced by a trend to introduce neoliberal teacher policies in Latin America and around the world, all of which usually require teachers to organize themselves as a response indicators and evaluations (Ball, 2003). After ten years of passing the law it has become crucial to examine how teachers are experiencing the Teacher Reform Law. What are the main aspects that teachers consider need to be modified in the Law? Why do they believe those aspects need to be modified? To what extent do teachers see themselves as actors who are influencing policies?

Teacher unions in Peru have taken radical actions to demand the repeal of the Teacher Reform Law and have shown a strong opposition especially towards performance evaluations. In 2017, they called for a national teacher strike that began in June in the city of Cusco and quickly spread across the country lasting until September of that year; affecting over 1.5 million students and gaining the support of 238,536 teachers representing 63.42% of all teachers in Peru (El Comercio, 2017). As a result, teacher performance evaluations in the following years have been implemented with a very low standard and with almost every teacher in the country passing the exams, which has raised questions about the effectiveness of the law in improving teacher quality. Furthermore, a national teacher survey from 2021, showed that the vast majority of Peruvian teachers (85.89%) agree that there is a need for changes to be made in the policies introduced by the Law; with more than half of them believing there should be changes made regarding retirement benefits (58.95%), performance evaluations (53,73%) and better salaries for teachers (52,61%).

As policy actors, teachers interpret and translate policies in the school environment, rather than simply implementing them (Ball, Maguire, Braun & Hoskins, 2011); becoming enactors of policies, intended to make students visible and productive, while being themselves immersed within a disciplinary agenda of visibility and production (Hoffman, 2010). Teachers do not always agree with standards and accountability practices (Ellison et al. 2018) and may have the agency to be creative in the ways they interpret and translate the policies that affect their professional autonomy (Campbell, 2019). For many teachers, working within the neoliberal policy context represents a contradiction to their principles and beliefs. In that regard, teachers may show practices that directly confront the discourse and enactment of those policies (Ball & Olmedo, 2013). They may subtly enact enclaves of resistance within the school yet outside the scope of the neoliberal policy (Duarte & Brewer, 2019) pointing out the challenges of where the state ends and the subjects of the state begin (Silver, 2007). For instance, teachers have demonstrated resistance to national standards through opting out and opposing participating in evaluations (Weiner, 2012), and in demanding more professional autonomy in rejection to standardized lessons and curricula (Croll et al., 2010).

Through a mixed methods approach, this paper analyzes quantitative data from the National Teacher Survey of Peru (ENDO) to show the perspectives of teachers regarding the Teacher Reform Law and the role that government institutions and teacher unions have had throughout the past 8 years. This survey collects socioeconomic, training and professional information from teachers; as well as perceptions regarding their working conditions, values and future expectations. Findings from the data show that there has been a recent increase in the support that teachers have towards the Law and the level of trust that they have in the government institutions responsible for its implementation. In addition, this paper analyzes qualitative data from in-depth interviews held with Peruvian teachers in June and July of 2023 about the ways in which they interact with the policies introduced by the Law and their role as policy actors in the context of large-scale policy reforms. Findings explore how teachers may develop strategies to influence and shape the implementation of external policies in an attempt to prioritize their autonomy, and the needs of students and communities over external interests. In addition, data shows how teacher organizations can be a powerful force for social change by representing the interests of teachers and students, while promoting alternative visions of education that prioritize the needs of students and teachers over those of the policies that are being imposed at the system level.

Although extensive research has been made about the working conditions of teachers in Peru (Cuenca, 2020; Elacqua et al, 2020; Díaz & Ñopo, 2016), this paper is a first attempt at a mixed methods analysis of teacher perceptions in the context of the most recent national teacher reform. This paper explores the role of teachers and teacher organizations in influencing large-scale policy reforms, through analyzing if teachers see themselves as actors who enact policies or to what extent they believe to have agency in influencing those policies. By empirically studying the experiences of teachers in the context of the Teacher Reform Law, I aim to lay the ground for future research on how teachers are experiencing large-scale policy reforms in Latin America. I expect this study to be a step towards valuing the perspectives of teachers and to recognizing how their agency as policy actors can lead to better practices and to educational change.

Author

• Jose La Rosa Villacorta, Teachers College, Columbia University