The Struggle Over Teachers' Professional Autonomy in Mexico

• In Event: Global Teacher Organizing and Union Resistance to Neoliberal Education Reforms

Abstract

1. Objectives
This presentation describes how teachers’ professional autonomy in Mexico has been impacted by the Professional Teachers’ Service Law and related changes in education governance. I will discuss how teachers organized within the National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE) contested these reforms between 2013 and 2016, despite their endorsement by the leadership of the official National Union of Education Workers (SNTE).

2. Perspective(s) and theoretical framework
With successive waves of high stakes standardized exams for students and teachers, ‘School-Based Management’, and a reduction of teacher training, much of contemporary education policy within Mexico can be situated within the ‘global educational reform movement’ (GERM). Critical scholars describe GERM as an emphasis on market competition within education systems, the centralization of governance and the undermining of teachers’ unions and professional autonomy. I define professional autonomy as the capacity and freedom of teachers to interpret broad guidelines on curriculum and practice established by education authorities and the state, in a manner that is most effective for the specific composition of students in their classroom. Teachers exercise professional autonomy by drawing on their formal training in pedagogy, child and youth psychology and classroom management, as well as classroom experience and collaboration with their colleagues.

3. Methods, modes of inquiry, data sources and evidence
The specific policies affecting professional autonomy which I discuss here include the national student ENLACE exam, replacement of an education degree as a prerequisite to teach with a standardized written exam, the use of standardized written exams to evaluate teachers, and precarious part time employment. I draw on semi-structured interviews with primary and secondary teachers in Mexico City and Guerrero on how contemporary policy has affected their work in the classroom and power relations within the school and the education system. I have also interviewed senior officials in the Secretary of Public Education, school administrators and local leaders of the CNTE. I analyze policies affecting professional autonomy using reports prepared by Mexico’s National Institute for the Evaluation of Education (INEE), the Mexican Senate and the OECD.

4. Results and/or substantiated conclusions
This presentation finds that many of the most significant recent policies of the Mexican government have adversely affected professional autonomy, though their effect has been undermined by the resistance of organized teachers.

5. Scholarly significance of the study
Professional autonomy is a central issue that defines the nature of teachers’ work. Education policy has a high profile in Mexico. The recent wave of policies in Mexico since 2013 that have impacted professional autonomy have been very controversial, triggering large scale strikes and protests of teachers across the country, especially in the south where the CNTE is concentrated. These policies have also elicited significant criticism from Mexican academics as well as elected politicians. This presentation relies on in-depth interviews with classroom teachers to explain how their work has been affected, a methodological approach which is often under-utilized.

Author

• Paul Bocking, Toronto District School Board