Teach for whom? Questioning the possibility of PPPs in education through a comparison of Teach for All in Chile and Argentina

• In Event: The Global Education Industry (2): Consultancy firms and edu-business selling education reform packages

Abstract

The main question that this article will address is: Is it possible to have a public-private partnership in (teacher) education? In other words, if partnerships entail collaboration, a joint venture, and a confluence of mutual goals, are the fundamental assumptions of the public sector commensurable with those of the private actors? This piece will explore these questions through a comparison between two organizations taking part in the broader umbrella of Teach For All: Enseñá por Argentina [Teach For Argentina] and Enseña Chile [Teach For Chile]. These two programs offer a fascinating contrast; while the Argentine state has denied Enseñá por Argentina’s corps members any privileged entrance to public schools arguing that they are not certified teachers, the Chilean state has actively partnered with Enseña Chile, allowing the program to grow at a fast pace since their inauguration in 2008. After a brief introduction of the Teach For All network, the article will delve into a comparison between Argentina and Chile, two countries that present very different state configurations, histories, and socio-political idiosyncrasies, and with them, diverging understandings of the nature of public education and its relation to the market forces. The goal of the paper is to generate a counter-discourse to the common sense governing the participation of the private sector in education, by exploring the consequences of different state configurations on the nature of teaching, learning, and curriculum.

Author

• Daniel Friedrich, Teachers College, Columbia University