Chapter 2: The Mediatization of Educational Policies in Chile: The Role of the Media in a Neoliberal Education Field

Andreas Schleicher, Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Secretary-General, stated in the Chilean newspaper La Tercera that one of the problems of the Chilean education system was its highly politicized character. In an interview, he said:

This influential global policymaker sent a message to Chile using one of the most important newspapers in order to suggest how education should be addressed. He recommended a discussion based on evidence instead of political stances. His opinion was not casual. During and after the 2011 student movement (Bellei, Cabalin, & Orellana, 2014), education in Chile has been a notorious issue in the public sphere. For this reason, his opinion circulated widely in conservative media, which utilized it to reframe the debate about education in technical terms, avoiding the “ideological” discussion proposed by students.