Learning from the Chilean student movement

Professor Pat Drake, Dean, College of Education, invites you to attend the second seminar in the 2015 Diamond Series, Remaking education from below: Learning from the Chilean student movement, presented by Dr Jo Wiliams.

Chile is currently implementing a massive reform agenda across all sectors of education. Recently approved corporate tax reforms worth US$8.3 billion will fund plans to provide free higher education for all from 2016. Other reforms include an end to profit-making in government subsidised schools, an end to exclusive school selection practices and a longer term plan to make primary and secondary schooling free for all. These reforms constitute the biggest attempt to dismantle what has been recognised as the most marketised education system in the world.

This presentation will look at the Chilean student movement and their 10 year struggle to force these reforms and demand a nationwide discussion on education and social and economic inequality in Chile. It will consider the lessons that educationalists and the broader community might draw from the experiences of the movement, which has seen students and young people at the heart of the largest and most sustained political action in Chile since the democratic movement of the 80s which eventually forced out the Pinochet dictatorship.

About the presenter

Dr Jo Williams began her career in education as a secondary school music and drama teacher. She first began working at VU in teacher education in 2001. Her research interests include critical pedagogy, teacher education, comparative education and Latin American education systems. Her PhD research focused on critical educational partnerships in an era of neoliberal crisis. Jo and her family had the opportunity to experience and support the Chilean student movement first hand while they lived in Chile last year. She is looking forward to sharing the inspiration she took from her time in Chile with others interested in education for social justice.