Carlos Alberto Torres

The political economy of higher education in the era of neoliberal globalization: Latin America in comparative perspective

During the last two decades, Latin American universities have experienced intense pressure to abandon the main principles established in the 1918 Córdoba Reform (i.e., autonomy and autarchy). While funding for public higher education has declined, they are pressured to relinquish a large portion of institutional autonomy in order to accommodate to market demands and to a new set of control strategies emanating from the state.We argue that current changes in Latin American higher education cannot be examined in isolation from larger political and economic changes in the region, which in turn are related to the dynamics of globalization. After the decline of socialist and welfare-state models, neoliberal regimes have become hegemonic in many parts of the world. In most countries, changes in financial arrangements, coupled with accountability mechanisms, have forced universities to reconsider their social missions, academic priorities and organizational structures. Concerns about equity, accessibility, autonomy or the contribution of higher education to social transformation, which were prevalent during previous decades, have been overshadowed by concerns about excellence, efficiency, expenditures and rates of return. The notion that higher education is primarily a citizen’s right and a social investment – which has been taken for granted for many decades – is being seriously challenged by a neoliberal agenda that places extreme faith in the market.Though we focus on the international dimension of university change, it is important to note that global trends are promoted, resisted and negotiated differently in each national context and in each individual institution. In the emerging knowledge-based society, the polarization between North and South is expected to increase even further if the scientific and technological gaps are not narrowed. Latin American universities have a crucial role to play in this regard. The paper is organized in two parts. The first describes the context of university change, focusing on issues of globalization and neoliberalism. The second examines the main features of university restructuring in comparative perspective, with a particular focus on Latin America.

Globalization, Education, and Citizenship: Solidarity Versus Markets?

This article suggests that globalization places limits on state autonomy and national sovereignty, affecting education in various ways. Those limits are expressed in tensions between global and local dynamics in virtually every policy domain. Globalization not only blurs national boundaries but also shifts solidarities within and outside the national state. Globalization cannot be defined exclusively by the post-Fordist organization of production; therefore, issues of human rights will play a major role affecting civic minimums at the state level, the performance of capital and labor in various domains, and particularly the dynamics of citizenship and democracy in the modern state. However, educational policy and its contributions to citizenship, democracy, and multiculturalism will face unprecedented challenges if the logic of fear, exacerbated by the events of September 11, prevails.

Participatory action research and popular education in Latin America

One of the signal developments in educational reform over the past two decades in Latin America has been the ascendancy of popular educational participatory action research. Popular education and participatory action research are two central traditions of nonformal education in Latin America. Popular education is highly critical of mainstream education, seeking to empower the marginalized, the disenfranchised, and the poor. Participatory action research combines research, educational work, and social action. These paradigms share a number of epistemological, theoretical, methodological, and political elements, and both paradigms have been influenced by the works of the Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire. This article discusses the origins of participatory action research, its basic premises, its main differences compared with nonparticipatory research, and some practical and critical conclusions that can be derived from these origins, theoretical‐political premises, and epistemological foundations. 1 In des...

Public universities and the neoliberal common sense: seven iconoclastic theses

Neoliberalism has utterly failed as a viable model of economic development, yet the politics of culture associated with neoliberalism is still in force, becoming the new common sense shaping the role of government and education. This ‘common sense’ has become an ideology playing a major role in constructing hegemony as moral and intellectual leadership in contemporary societies. Neoliberal globalisation, predicated on the dominance of the market over the state and on deregulatory models of governance, has deeply affected the university in the context of ‘academic capitalism’. The resulting reforms, rationalised as advancing international competitiveness, have affected public universities in four primary areas: efficiency and accountability, accreditation and universalisation, international competitiveness and privatisation. There is also growing resistance to globalisation as top-down-imposed reforms reflected in the public debates about schooling reform, curriculum and instruction, teacher training and school governance. Many question whether neoliberal reforms attempt to limit the effectiveness of universities as sites of contestation of the national and global order and thus undermine the broader goals of education. Neoliberal reforms have limited access and opportunity along class and racial lines, including limiting access to higher education through the imposition of higher tuition and reduced government support to institutions and individuals.

Neoliberalism as a new historical bloc: a Gramscian analysis of neoliberalism’s common sense in education

Reading neoliberalism in a Gramscian key, this article argues that neoliberalism is not merely an ideological agenda but a new civilization design, what Gramsci termed a new historical bloc. Using the concept of new common sense as an analytical framework, the article offers 16 theses exploring different areas of education and policy impacted by neoliberalism.

Paulo Freire as Secretary of Education in the Municipality of São Paulo

The political makeup of education is independent of the educators subjectivity; that is, it is independent if the educator is conscious of this political makeup, which is never neutral. When an educator finally understands this, she or he can never again escape the political ramifications. An educator has to question himself or herself about options that are inherently political, though often disguised as pedagogical to make them acceptable within the existing structure. Thus, making choices is most important. Educators must ask themselves on whose behalf they are working.2

Reimagining Critical Theory

This paper discusses Critical Theory, a model of theorizing in the field of the political sociology of education. We argue for a reimagined Critical Theory to herald an empowering, liberatory education that fosters curiosity and critical thinking, and a means for successful bottom-up, top-down political engagement. We present arguments at a theoretical and meta-theoretical level, leaving empirical analysis to a future writing. We hold it impossible: to fully dissociate normative from the analytical in constructing scientific thought, thus showing the importance of the notion of a good society to guide varied intellectual explorations; to deny the political role of education; and to detach from historicity of thought and policy prescriptions emerging from such theorizing, as not all social constructions are equal in terms of logical configuration, methodological rigor, or solid empirical proof. What follows are snapshots of how we can reimagine the historical present, and how Critical Theory can impact the new theorizing of sociology of education.

Adult education and instrumental rationality: A critique

Abstract This article analyzes the role and purposes of adult education policy by discussing six key rationales for policy making. These rationales-in-use include constitutional prescriptions, investment in human capital, political socialization, compensatory legitimation, international pressures, and social movements. Drawing from Critical Theory and research in adult education policy in Canada and developing countries, this article concludes that despite the rhetoric underlying a particular rationale or policy narrative, the dominant logic-in-use in adult education is instrumental rationality. As a conclusion, the article advances a systematic criticism of instrumental rationality and technocratic thinking taking into account State policies and policy-makers experiences.

Tunneling spectroscopy of metal-oxide-graphene structure

The unique density of states of graphene at the device level is probed via tunneling spectroscopy of macroscopic metal-oxide-graphene structures. Local conductance minima from electrons tunneling into the graphene Dirac point are observed in the dI/dV spectra of both the single-junction and dual-junction configurations. Nonequally-spaced Landau levels, including the hallmark n=0 level, are observed in the presence of a magnetic field. Linear energy-momentum dispersion near the Dirac point, as well as the Fermi velocity, is extracted from both experiments. Local potential fluctuations and interface defects significantly influence these fine physical features, leading to peak broadening and anomalies comparing to the results from the ultra sharp scanning tunneling microscope tip. This study provides important implications for potential tunneling-based graphene devices in the future.

Globalization and Comparative Education in the World System

We assumed editorial responsibility for Comparative Education Review (CER) on July 1, 1998, and the first volume under full control of our editorship was published in November of the same year. Therefore, this November 2001 issue marks our twelfth publication. The task has not been easy. While, for instance, CER circulation in 2000 increased modestly to 2,248, up by 2.3 percent from volume 43, which could be seen as a positive market response to the publication, good manuscripts do not come by very often, nor are we swamped by manuscripts that make the decision process simpler under the premise that abundance in submission will increase the probability of finding good, publishable work. For instance, there were 69 new manuscript submissions in 2000 (15 more than in 1999), and so far in 2001, we have had 42 manuscripts submitted. Yet the rate of rejection is approximately 80 percent of the manuscripts. In other terms, only about 20 percent of the manuscripts we receive are ever published. If our experience with CER, one of the prime outlets for publication, is an indicator of trends in the field, the least we can say is that good scholarship is not easy to come by. Thus, it is fitting in this editorial introducing the articles for this issue to take the pulse of comparative education today. Moreover, as the title of this editorial indicates, and as addressed by many of the articles in CER, it makes sense to discuss comparative education in the context of the process of globalization.1