Technocrats and Unions in the Politics of Reforming Teacher Careers in Colombia and Peru

Abstract

Abstract Beginning in 2002, Colombia was one of the first countries in Latin America to devise a major, meritocratic reform to teacher careers. However, the reform applied only to new teachers, and their numbers grew slowly, reaching around half of teachers by 2020. The reform was slow, but it avoided major conflict with Fecode, the teachers’ union, that ended up negotiating a revised evaluation system in 2015. Reforms in Peru started slowly in 2001. After 2006, technocrats played a larger role in implementing reforms which met several strikes by Sutep, the teachers’ union. Critical to both reform successes was consistent policy implementation by a series of different technocratic ministers of education. In comparative terms, union opposition was muted.