Secondary education from a comparative perspective: Contributions for considering a change agenda in the Southern Cone

Abstract

This paper provides the results of a study on policy change in secondary education. The study focuses on a central issue when studying this problem: the confi guration and maintenance of a particular institutional model. There is a historical form of school organization which is at the basis of the diffi culties and origin of the reforms that tend to incorporate more youth in secondary school from the 1960s to the present, both in western countries and in some Southern Cone countries. Some countries went further than others in dealing with this problem. Regardless of their level of progress, many countries show examples of educational policies facing this problem. Some of them are analyzed in this study from a comparative perspective regarding changes in the institutional model and a political agenda of educational change for the Southern Cone countries.

Key words: secondary education, reform, institutional model, inclusion, segmentation.