The Mexican teachers' movement in the context of neoliberal education policy and strategies for resistance

Abstract

Mexican teachers experienced an intensification of neoliberal education policy during the sexenio of President Enrique Peña Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party from 2013 to 2018. Many tenaciously resisted, led by the National Coordination of Education Workers (CNTE), a dissident movement within the National Union of Education Workers, whose official leadership aligned itself with the government. This article situates the Mexican teachers' movement within the global context of neoliberal policy which despite setbacks has gradually transformed significant aspects of teachers' work and education. Despite undermining the standardized teacher exam mandated by the Ley de Servicio Profesional Docente of 2013, in other areas the neoliberalization of education advances, particularly the undermining of teachers' professional training, the “datafication” of their work and increasingly hierarchical workplace relations. These policies have the potential to undermine teachers' professional autonomy, and facilitate the degradation of their work, with consequences for their ability to meet the diverse needs of their students. Meanwhile, the movement has struggled to consolidate beyond its stronghold in southern Mexico. The survival and limited victories of the CNTE owe much to drawing on the socially embedded nature of teachers' work, and its capacity to build alliances with communities and popular movements.