YET ANOTHER EDUCATION REFORM IN MEXICOCARLOS ORNELAS
Professor of Education and Communications
Autonomous Metropolitan University
Mexico City
Visiting Professor at theCenter for the Study of International Cooperation in Education
Hiroshima University
June 19, 2014 Wife: Honey, do you love me?
 Husband: Yes And how much do you love me from 1to 10?

 From 1 to 10 I will love you all you want,

but starting on the 12 do not expect
anything from me because the World
Cup starts.

PREMISEStructure and Enrollments in the Mexican Education System
As of 2012

18171615151413121110913812711698765

Basic education 73.4%

1410

PG: Postgraduate

16
College: 8.3
TS:0.4%19

17

PT: 1.1%

20

Medium:12.6%

21

Higher Education

18PG:0.7%

Age

TS: Technical Specialization

High School: 11.5%

PT: Professional Training

Junior Secondary: 18.0%

543

Primary: 41.9%

213423

1

Preschool: 13.5%

Total enrollments: 35,251,068 = 100%

Training for Work. 4.6%

THE MEANING OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM
It may depend on the ends of the reformers, in detectedneeds of an education system, to resolve crisis in otherareas, for political reasons, or in order to legitimize agiven government policy (Bacharach 1990).
Most educational reforms make sense if there are moves on
the design of policy making, variations on the managerial
system, and or—as I would like to emphasize in thisseminar— they significantly alter power structures (Carnoyand Samoff 1990).

 Background: The Teacher’s Union and its politicalparty Panal The dissent teachers organization

CNTE Pact for Mexico
 Package of modernization reforms

CHANGES IN POLITICAL
DYNAMICS

THE RITUAL
December 10, 2012: The Constitutional Initiative National Institute for the Evaluation ofEducation

 Reforms on the General Education Act
 General Act of Educational Professional

Service

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTSPROPOSALSIGNATURE OF THE SECONDARY ACTS: INEE;GENERAL ACT OF EDUCATIONAL PROFESSIONALSERVICESEPTEMBER 11, 2013

DEBATES: NEW AND
OLD ACTORS
Civic Organizations
Mexicanos Primero
Citizen Coalition forEducation
SNTE
CNTE

SNTE

CNTE

TEACHERS DISCONTENT AND
DISTRESS1.

Top down model

2.

Centralist
1.

Structure, organization andoperation

3.

Punitive

4.

Creation of control dispositive

5.

Unilateral

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE REFORM

Merit: the principle

The Meaning of Words

GEAGPSDA

Quality

253Equity90

Evaluation

43100

Evaluation: thecoreThe weak linkage: State governors and legislatures
 The cultural persistency of theteachers guild (Husen 2007;Zucker 1999)

THE WORLD OF POLITICS: THE
LOCAL AND GLOBALReferences
Bacharach, S. B. (1990). Education Reform: Making Sense of it All. Boston, Allyn & Bacon.
Carnoy, M. and J. Samoff (1990). Education and Social Transformation in the Third World. Princeton,Princeton University Press.
Husen, T. (2007). Problems of Educational Reform in a Changing Society. Education Reform inInternational Perspective. V. D. Rust. Bingley, UK, Emerald: 3-22.
Zucker, L. G. (1999). El papel de la institucionalización en la persistencia cultural. El nuevo
institucionalismo en el análisis organizacional. W. W. Powel & P. J. DiMaggio. México, Fondo deCultura Económica: 126-153.

Books on this reform
Castillo Alemán, G. D. and G. Valenti (2014). Reforma educativa: ¿qué estamos transformando?
México, Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales: 13-17..
Hernández Navarro, L. (2013). No habrá recreo: Contra-reforma constitucional y desobediencia
magisterial. México, CNTE & Para Leer en Libertad.
Ramírez Raymundo, R. (2013). La reforma constitucional en materia educativa: alcances y desafíos.
México, Senado de la República Instituto Belisario Domínguez: 123-139.