Education in South America is a critical reference guide to development of education in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. The chapters, written by local experts, provide an overview of the education system in each country, focusing particularly on policies and implementation of reforms. Key themes include quality and access, multicultural education and the management of education systems.

Including a comparative introduction to the issues facing education in the region as a whole and guides to available online datasets, this book is an essential reference for researchers, scholars, international agencies and policy-makers.

Education in South America accomplishes the feat of providing a rich and insightful account of education’s key issues in ten national cases of recognized diversity and complexity, whilst at the same time uncovering key commonalities in their grappling with the quality and equity agendas which shape their policies. From macro issues of governance and how weak democratic politics affect policies, to the ideological basis of much of debates and policy answers regarding curriculum and instruction, and the vastness of the capacity challenge which confronts the teaching corps of the region, editor Simon Schwartzman and his contributors have produced a comparative appraisal of unparalleled value. * Cristián Cox, Dean of the Faculty of Education, Catholic University of Chile, Chile *

Simon Schwartzman is Researcher at the Institute for Studies on Labor and Society, Brazil. Previously, he was Professor of Political Science at the University Research Institute, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and President of Brazil’s National Statistical Office.