TY - JOUR
T1 - State theory, grassroots agency, and global policy transfer
T2 - The life and death of Colombia’s Escuela Nueva in Brazil (1997-2012)
AU - Tarlau, Rebecca
N1 - Funding Information:
In 1996, the Escuela Nueva Foundation (FEN) hosted an international seminar, funded by the World Bank, bringing dozens of government officials from around the world to Colombia to learn about Escuela Nueva. Cristina, one of the many teachers in Colombia enthusiastic about Escuela Nueva,hosted some of the Brazilian delegates in her home state.8 That same year, when the Brazilian government requested someone from Colombia to visit the poor northeastern state of Maranhão to discuss Escuela Nueva, the FEN decided to send Cristina for this task.
Funding Information:
In 2004, President Lula created the Secretary for Continual Education, Literacy, Diversity, and Inclusion (SECADI)12 in the Ministry of Education, with a specific office for Educação do Campo—the educational approach that the MST had helped to promote (MEC 2004). Armênio Schmidt, a teacher and PT activist, became the director of diversity that oversaw the Educação do Campo office, and Antonio Munarim, a university professor and MST ally, became the coordinator of the office. According to Armênio, one of his first tasks was determining what programs the Educação do Campo office would oversee. Armênio remembered, “We had nothing, so we had to create programs and I had to find funding for them.” At this time, Escola Ativa was still administered through the FNDE (National Education Development Fund), a subunit of the Ministry of Education (MEC), with funding from the World Bank program Fundescola. Given Escola Ativa’s focus on rural, multigrade schools, Antonio was interested in transferring the program to his office; however, since the program received significant outside funding, other state officials were against transferring these resources to an office that was “controlled by social movements.”13 Antonio and Armênio continued to advocate for the transfer of Escola Ativa to SECADI, inviting several outside experts to discuss the program. One of those experts was Professor Salomão Hage, who by this time had become even more critical of Escola Ativa, due to his increasing proximity to social movements through PRONERA (a program created in 1998):
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by the Comparative and International Education Society. All rights reserved.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/11
Y1 - 2017/11
N2 - This article analyzes the transfer and 15-year policy trajectory of Colombia’s “global best practice” Escuela Nueva in Brazil. This program, initially transferred to Brazil in 1997 with the help of the World Bank, was largely unknown for the first decade of its life span. Then, between 2008 and 2011, after theWorld Bank stopped funding the program, EscuelaNueva/ Escola Ativa suddenly became one of the most well funded and controversial programs in the Brazilian Ministry of Education. Continual protest and unrest concerning the programled to its termination in 2012. This article argues that it is only possible to understand these developments through an explicit theory of the “contested” state, wherein the state’s purpose is understood as both social reproduction and mediating class conflicts. Drawing on the global policy transfer literature, this framework emphasizes the role of elite actors, transnational agencies, and grassroots mobilization in determining educational policy trajectories.
AB - This article analyzes the transfer and 15-year policy trajectory of Colombia’s “global best practice” Escuela Nueva in Brazil. This program, initially transferred to Brazil in 1997 with the help of the World Bank, was largely unknown for the first decade of its life span. Then, between 2008 and 2011, after theWorld Bank stopped funding the program, EscuelaNueva/ Escola Ativa suddenly became one of the most well funded and controversial programs in the Brazilian Ministry of Education. Continual protest and unrest concerning the programled to its termination in 2012. This article argues that it is only possible to understand these developments through an explicit theory of the “contested” state, wherein the state’s purpose is understood as both social reproduction and mediating class conflicts. Drawing on the global policy transfer literature, this framework emphasizes the role of elite actors, transnational agencies, and grassroots mobilization in determining educational policy trajectories.
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U2 - 10.1086/693923
DO - 10.1086/693923
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85033553439
SN - 0010-4086
VL - 61
SP - 675
EP - 700
JO - Comparative Education Review
JF - Comparative Education Review
IS - 4
ER -