A critical analysis of editorials and their influence in shaping policies on the quality of education in Chile: The cases of La Tercera and El Mercurio

Abstract

Our study covers the production of editorials of two of the most prevalent newspapers in Chile, and critically analyzes how these discourses shape the context of influence surrounding the Education Quality Measurement System (SIMCE), in the framework of the public debate which has been developed in recent years on education reform. Based on a linguistic and socio-cognitive processing of data, we find that La Tercera and El Mercurio establish a sphere of consensus without agency that is expert and authoritative in character, whose instrumental rationality responds to a technocratic, discipline and legal order. We conclude that the interpretation of the results of SIMCE and critical junctures is linked to power groups involved in the negotiation of educational policies at the national level, which tend to relegitimize the instrument, neutralize any amendments, and defend the maintenance of private interests within the existing educational model.