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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Education INSTITUTIONS, SOCIO-POLITICAL ENVIRONMENTS, AND EDUCATIONAL CHANGE: LESSONS FROM DECENTRALIZATION OF EDUCATIONAL SERVICES IN BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA. A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN TWO MUNICIPALITIES A Thesis in Educational Theory and Policy by María Fernanda Astiz © 2002 María Fernanda Astiz Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2002 We approve the thesis of María Fernanda Astiz. Date of Signature ______________________________________________ __________________ David P. Baker Professor of Education and Sociology Thesis Advisor Chair of Committee _______________________________________________ __________________ Gerald K. LeTendre Associate Professor of Education ______________________________________________ __________________ David Gamson Assistant Professor of Education ______________________________________________ __________________ David Myers Associate Professor of Political Science ______________________________________________ __________________ Suet-ling Pong Associate Professor of Education and Sociology In Charge of Graduate Programs in Educational Theory and Policy iii ABSTRACT During the last decades, policies of educational decentralization have been globally embraced as a strategy to solve not only problems of governance and finance but also to strengthen educational democratization by bringing decision making closer to the citizenry. Following this worldwide trend, during the early 1990s the Argentine central administration delegated to the provincial administrations some responsibilities of secondary and tertiary schooling. Using an integrative approach and methodology, this study traces different sources of explanation—institutional frameworks, socio-political environmental conditions, and civic capacity characteristics—along the different phases of the 1990s Argentine decentralization policy process while looking comparatively at its outcomes in two school districts of the Province of Buenos Aires. The results underscores three important points: 1) how Argentina’s institutional framework conditioned the policy adoption by centralizing the decision-making and control over the process of education reform at the national level while delegating the responsibilities for policy implementation to the provincial administration; 2) how the province of Buenos Aires adopted and adapted certain aspects of the decentralization policy through informal institutional funding networks of neo-populist style, vesting the education reform to the political aspirations of the governor and, 3) how the distinct socio-political environment of each school district produced differential policy outcomes towards three policies of the decentralization reform: school autonomy, community participation in education, and the role of the local educational administration. These iv differences surfaced through the inefficiencies of the provincial administration to respond to new educational responsibilities. Evidence from the two school districts included in the study—La Matanza and Vicente López—that differ in size, political culture, and socio-economic level illustrates varied resources for adjusting provincial mandates to the socio-political circumstances. La Matanza’s chaotic environment, inefficient managerial capacities, and its economic and political subordination to the provincial administration, have been the origins of an almost inactive school-community relationship except for the activity promoted by the decentralized and informal provincial social welfare network that used the school as the center of political clientelism. The school-community relationship’s apathy was also evident among the school, local school board and the local administration interaction. On the other hand, Vicente López’s charismatic leadership, accountable and efficient managerial capacity—based primarily on an informal institutional funding channel established between the local administration and a local business association—and its political rivalry with the provincial administration have allowed this district to maintain certain autonomy from the latter and to have an active role at the school level. This municipality has also proved to be pro-active in establishing participatory channels between the school, the local school board, and local civil associations. The particular state-society relationship established in each district proves that socio-political environments and civic involvement characteristics have an important effect in determining the type of community involvement developed. However, the effect dilutes at the school level where the formal structure of the provincial educational system v is still an important determinant of in-school participatory outcomes. As a whole the study demonstrates that when global trends are carried out at the national level, they are not only conditioned by national institutional frameworks but also by local socio-political environments in which they operate proving that, in some cases, neither civic involvement nor decentralization equal democratization at the local and school level. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES................................................................................................. x LIST OF TABLES................................................................................................... xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................................................................ xii INTRODUCTION................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 EDUCATIONAL DECENTRALIZATION: THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL APPROACHES............................................................................ 10 Theoretical Issues in Decentralization................................................................. 11 Decentralization: A Fuzzy Concept............................................................... 11 Administrative and Political Rationales for Decentralization.......................... 13 Administrative Rationale......................................................................... 13 Political Rationale................................................................................... 15 Educational Decentralization and the Legitimization of the State .................. 17 Globalization and Decentralization................................................................ 20 Empirical Studies in Decentralization in Latin America ....................................... 22 Administrative Approaches........................................................................... 22 Political Approaches..................................................................................... 24 Interpretative Approaches............................................................................. 25 Argentine Views................................................................................................. 27 Initial Steps: An Administrative Rationale..................................................... 27 A Political Rationale..................................................................................... 30 As a Way to Conclude: General Critiques..................................................... 32 Decentralization, Participation, and Democracy.................................................. 34 Chapter 2 CIVIL SOCIETY PARTICIPATION AND THE DEMOCRATIZATION RATIONALE FOR DECENTRALIZATION............... 36 The Democratization Rationale .......................................................................... 36 Revitalization of Civil Society and Civic Engagement ......................................... 41 Various Ways of Understanding Participation..................................................... 45 Participation and Civil Society in Argentina. What do we Know? ....................... 47 The ‘Local’ as the Unit of Analysis of Civil Society and Participatory Practices....................................................................................................... 50 Participation in Education................................................................................... 54 Participation and Education in Argentina............................................................ 56 vii Conclusion......................................................................................................... 59 Chapter 3 AN INTEGRATIVE APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY .................. 61 A Neo-institutional Perspective .......................................................................... 62 Socio-political Environments.............................................................................. 65 Civic Capacity Approach.................................................................................... 68 A Mixed Methodology....................................................................................... 71 Research Design................................................................................................. 73 Case Study Approach................................................................................... 73 Sequence of Qualitative and Quantitative Research....................................... 74 Unit of Analysis and Sampling Strategy ........................................................ 77 Qualitative Method....................................................................................... 78 Data Analysis ..............................................................................................