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, this book is an essential reference for researchers, scholars, international agencies and policy-makers.

Education in South America accomplishes the feat of providing rich an 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 *
This book offers a rich collection analyzing the development and performance of education systems in South America, and the key developments in education policies in recent decades. It is an invaluable resource offering a comparative perspective of the educational achievements and challenges facing the countries of this region. A must read for policy analysts and education leaders, for comparative educators and for anyone interested in understanding the people of Latin America, and how their knowledge, skills and mindsets are shaped by the educational culture, practices and policies brilliantly examined in this compendium. * Fernando M. Reimers, Ford Foundation Professor of Practice in International Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, USA *
Education in South America offers an historical perspective on the state of education in ten South American countries…providing country-level analyses, written by local experts, of the current educational climate in this region. The individual chapters accomplish the editor’s goal of highlighting both the improvements that have been made and those that are yet to be realized through a combination of policy analysis and cross-national comparison. … Overall, the book provides a vision for social development in South America by calling for improved policy implementation and the allocation of resources to the priority area of providing high-quality education across the region. -- Janna Goebel * Forum for International Research in Education *

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.