The relationship between education and society within the political-educational discourse of Gobernments of Concertación (1990-2009)

Abstract

This article examines the vision of society that goes together with the educational policies of the governments of the Concertación. In order to do this, the author studies the ‘inauguration speeches of the school year’ given by the Ministers of Education between 1990 and 2009. In them, the concepts of society expressly used are reviewed and so are those conceptions, indirectly used, to justify the measures of educational policies proposed. The educational political speech of the Concertación is analyzed between 1990 and 2009, organizing it into three periods. At first, the identity of the new government and the differences with the inherited society from the dictatorship are clearly marked. In the second stage, the presentation and justification of the reforms and accomplishments are predominant. The closure period is faced with strong education demands and the speech encounters again the democratic and egalitarian emphasis of the original speech.