Conditional scenarios for the realization of change policies in the Argentine secondary school

Abstract

Argentina faces the challenge of transforming the secondary school in order to achieve its universalization and improve the learning it provides. This article proposes to reconstruct the conditioning scenarios of three recent provincial policies of secondary transformation (“New Format” in Tucumán, PROA in Córdoba and the reform of the secondary school in Río Negro). The following dimensions are explored: the differential resources they have -financial as well as the human resources that make up the technical teams-, the participation and the consensus achieved with other actors of civil society and the educational community, the available teaching profiles and training policies. The selected cases are public initiatives that are based on a diagnosis of the limits of the school format and the traditional pedagogical proposal of the secondary school, problematizing the relationship that the school establishes with knowledge and contemporary culture, focusing on other forms of pedagogical work and student learning. The analysis of the elements that condition the development of these policies allows us to reflect on the theories of change that they put into play, as well as to establish some questions about the political role that the provincial states are assuming.