The Class and Culture-Based Exclusion of the Chilean Neoliberal Educational Reform

Abstract

In this article I analyze the class- and cultural-based exclusion produced by the Chilean neoliberal educational reform, carried out during the period from 1990 to 2010. This educational reform follows the same neoliberal model applied to the economy of the country. Although some indicators improved in relation to coverage and public spending in education, the performance gap among social groups increased. In addition, at a cultural level, the reform promoted the value of individual productivity negatively affecting some of the cultural behaviors developed by low-income groups as a consequence of and as reaction to the exclusion they suffer. Namely, by stressing the notions of human capital and quality education, the reform has tended to reinforce these students’ fatalism, and limit the scope of the organizations they form to improve their academic and social opportunities.