CRESJ Seminar: Head teachers as policy actors. The case of two secondary schools in the City of Buenos Aires and their antagonistic ways to define “inclusion”

As in the UK, recent educational policy in Argentina has included an emphasis on ‘inclusion’, albeit in a very different national political and educational context. In the City of Buenos Aires, inclusion has been enacted through initiatives including the raising of the school leaving age to 18 and the creation of Escuelas de Reingreso (Reintegration Schools) aimed at those aged 16 – 18 who have missed schooling or dropped out. In line with research done in the UK and in Argentina, this presentation shows that inclusive policies are enacted by schools in specific and contextualised manners. It compares the organisation and ethos of two such schools, focussing particularly on the role of  headteachers as policy actors. Despite sharing a critical stance towards the exclusionary character of traditional secondary schooling, the headteachers nevertheless adopt antagonistic approaches to inclusion, drawing on different policy discourses. While one school stresses teaching and learning, the other situates itself as part of a broader social welfare network. The presentation will account for the different trajectories of the schools through their different locations in the school system, the biographies of their headteachers, staff composition, and their different material conditions.