Education Reform and the Law: An elusive partnership

Resumo

This is not a crisp and analytical paper. It leans towards a rambling essay about my perplexities trying to understand the nexus between education reform and the legal world. After observing, studying, and participating in the process of educational change for around half a century, I have collected hypotheses and doubts about the complex relationships between laws and reforms. This paper shares them with my readers.

The paper is not the application of some grandiose theory or set of theories. In fact, it takes an inductive path. It is made up of explorations inspired and illustrated by concrete examples. Unavoidably, they come from the western countries I am more familiar with. As it happens, many of them come from Brazil, my own country. The paper is logically organized around themes, not around levels or modalities of education.

Let me begin by stating three almost obvious propositions that are the foundations of the paper:

(i) Schools are charged with the education of society

(ii) The legal system provides the rules under which education takes place

(iii) The interaction between education and laws is elusive and full of contradictions.

As it stands to reason, to change education, the legal framework may also need to be altered. Therefore, most reforms go together with new laws. Of course, this is what could be expected. Changing modes of operation usually requires different sets of laws and regulations.

Let me begin by examining a “textbook-style” example, i.e., a reform that moved according to the most obvious model: Need to reform lead to passing the requisite laws and then to successful implementation.

The OECD considered as quite successful the educational reform that took place in Portugal in the nineties. If nothing else, a country with little to boast in education, throughout its history, managed reach the mean scores of OECD countries, not a minor feat. This is what PISA tells us (OECD, 2015).

The Portuguese reform consisted in closing very small schools, moving its students to larger units, expanding the coverage of day-long schools, improving teacher training, and strengthening the participation of local leaderships.

The Portuguese Constitution is quite detailed in matters of education and has not changed in the last decades. However, specific legal provisions were approved for each segment of this significant reform. Success!