Date:
Location:
"The Hidden Paradox of Education and Democracy: Political Mobilization and Education Quality in Democratic Regimes"
Attend this event via Zoom (advance registration required)
Speaker:
Aurelio Nuño, Fellow, Weatherhead Scholars Program. Former Minister of Education, Mexico; Former Chief of Staff, President of Mexico; Cofounder, EMTECH.
Contact:
Alberto Parisi
albertoparisi@g.harvard.edu
This event is online only. Please click the "Read More" link for full instructions on how to attend this seminar.
Chair:
Panagiotis Roilos, Faculty Associate. George Seferis Professor of Modern Greek Studies, Department of the Classics; Professor of Comparative Literature, Department of Comparative Literature, Harvard University.
Co-Chair:
Dimitrios Yatromanolakis, Associate Professor, Department of Classics, Department of Anthropology, and the Humanities Center, The Johns Hopkins University.
Remote Access Information:
To join by computer:
https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYodOCtrzMtGNIUP1ROVlAw3r_HTMd-KfGq
Please note: This event requires registration in advance in order to receive the meeting link and password.
Abstract:
There is a hidden but fundamental paradox in contemporary democracies: if education is essential for the development of human capabilities and the exercise of freedom, we would expect to see democratic governments push for quality provision. However, this is not the case. Why? I advance the argument that, unfortunately, power and not pedagogy is the driver of educational policy.
Teachers' unions have an extraordinary capacity for political mobilization. This enormous power is directed toward elections and protests. These two activities are very valuable to political parties and governments in democratic regimes. On the other hand, political parties and governments also control a set of resources that are highly significant for teachers' unions. For these reasons, political parties, government administrations, and teachers' unions converge to establish a mutually beneficial status quo. Political parties obtain votes as a result of teacher mobilization. The government avoids or contains protests organized by teachers' unions. Unions gain access and influence over a set of resources that allow them to conserve or increase their capacity to mobilize. The status quo rejects reforms devoted to improving the quality of teaching because such policies diminished the mobilizing power of teachers' unions, because teachers rely more on their individual performance and less on collective action to progress their professional careers.
