The Historical Dynamics in Chilean and Finnish Basic Education Politics

The chapter outlines the historical development of political dynamics in Chilean and Finnish basic education politics, summing up earlier research on education policy and forming a background narrative for the rest of the book. Both countries independently, have had to react to fairly similar educational and societal reform pressures, at least since the 1970s and 1980s. Whereas Chile has developed one of the most neo-liberal educational systems in the world, Finnish egalitarian comprehensive school stood the test of time. Our empirical task in this chapter is to provide a historical analysis of these developments. We analyse how two polarised solutions for managing relations among the main actors in education have been constructed in the larger societal framework through founding of instituions, in the changing discourses, and through political action.