The student movement 2011 and free education policy in Chile (2017)

Abstract

Since the return of democracy in Chile, until the 2019 October revolt, the most important and massive mobilizations had been related to the student movement. From the streets students pressured the political system for changes in the education policies, as well as attempting to be part of its formulation. This article analyzes how the 2011 student movement in Chile had an impact on the political system and the resulting free education policy. We argue that the movement actors have the capacity to adapt to the institutional context, however, this level of adaptation was not enough to comply with the demands of the movement. The analysis was developed through a qualitative strategy in which secondary sources were studied until saturation points were found, which were subsequently validated with interviews with key informants. The interviewees were actors who from various positions participated in the different stages of the process of creating public policy. A group of interviewees were presidents, vice presidents or general secretaries of student federations between 2011 and 2015. Authorities who played a role in promoting the reform (a minister and three professionals from the Ministry of Education of Chile), a deputy (former president of a student federation) as well as a senator were interviewed as well