Rethinking Public Education Systems in the 21st Century Scenario

Book excerpt: This book emanated from presentations at the World Congress of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES), held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in June 2013. The Congress theme of “New Times, New Voices” provided the broad frame of the post-Buenos Aires series of volumes including this one containing research contributions focusing on the situation of public education systems. The chapters in this volume are selected for quality of research and relevance to the theme, and for representation across global regions. They examine the new and renovated challenges faced by public education systems at present for which different paths are suggested. In particular, this book puts together studies from authors from Latin American countries, especially from the Southern Cone, as a way of giving voice to particular educational problems and perspectives in a globalized world. Getting into educational systems in Argentina, Brazil and Chile and analysing some of its current particularities through the lenses of regional and international comparison, contributes to a better understanding of the processes of circulation, reception, appropriation and translation that historically characterizes educational systems development. This is why the volume also includes studies regarding the impact on contemporary educational reforms in the public sector, their links to past reforms and their cumulative impact on educational systems.