Starting just over two decades ago, attention has once again focused on education in the wake of the strong impulse generated by the Theory of Human Capital at the beginning of the second half of the 20th century. This approach emphasizes its current extreme relevance for the consolidation and development of the knowledge economy, as well as the growing strategic role played by the development of initial and advanced human capital in the ability of a society to move forward.

In this context, the challenges facing education are profound, complex and varied, and surely derive from the specific function that it fulfills in each context, from the expectations placed upon it and from the possibilities that it has in terms of concrete actions to address the most relevant demands. During the second half of the 20th century, Latin America experienced with uneven success the impact of the first generation educational reforms, aimed at universalizing primary education while at the same time reducing illiteracy. This task was achieved in various nations, while in others it remains yet unfinished. Even more unfinished are the results of the second wave of educational reforms (or second-generation reforms), aimed at the universalization of secondary education and enlargement of tertiary education, combined with policies to increase the quality of this service and particularly of its results for the external efficiency of the system (quality of learning in terms of the performance of its graduates).

All of the countries in the region have significant levels of dissatisfaction regarding the results of their educational systems. This phenomenon is an essential component for understanding the depth and complexity of the demands placed upon their educational systems. It is also important when attempting to shed light on the complexity of demands for improvement in our societies, which are characterized by great social inequalities that the educational system has been unable to reduce. That is because this task greatly exceeds their possibilities –in the most fragmented and unequal societies– as well as because the continent’s school systems have severe problems of efficiency and effectiveness with respect to their performance.

Some of these unsatisfactory results point towards the urgent need to concern ourselves with education and educational systems. This concern must express itself by placing greater emphasis on the social agreements that form the basis for our alliances, which are currently deeply in crisis, given that social values and practices that would tend to produce cohesion as well as legitimize the social order are in doubt. Education faces growing difficulties in fulfilling this key role in building a society, due to inconsistencies between its postulates and those that predominate socially, as well as because of the loss of social value facing education, the school system and educators. This ties in with recurring social problems that have ended up eating away at the patience of the most needy.

In this difficult scenario, strategic challenges in the field of education point in some cases towards seeking solutions in other disciplinary spheres and in practices removed from its tradition, occasionally exporting them uncritically and with all of the difficulties that this implies. The need to quickly find positive results and answers, in a field where the effects are basically medium and longterm, can lead to temporary achievements rather than lasting solutions.

That is why this special issue of the journal focuses on certain dimensions of educational topics, in order to provide clues about aspects on which attention must be placed. Like other disciplines, education has a constant dynamic of revision and development of its postulates and theories that must not be ignored, at the risk of committing greater errors than those that we seek to mitigate. Currently, the development of all educational initiatives of a certain transcendence requires knowledge and application of fundamental educational, social and economic criteria, these being key elements for determining the feasibility of a project or proposal, as well as its sustainability over time.

When entering into this field of knowledge, it is important to identify the initial key aspects that will make it possible to understand the social and economic demands on education as a field of action. In other words, its results, as well as its role as an autonomous discipline. It is equally significant to establish that initial and advanced socialization processes, which for many years were unquestionable milestones in the effectiveness of educational systems, have been losing validity. This could be due to the fact that social diversity has generated socialization processes that refer less and less to a pattern of shared behavior, as well as because learning achievements have replaced these aspects in terms of their importance. What is clear is that school systems have not effectively responded to this demand, giving rise to their loss of value while at the same time opening the doors to privatization currents that have proven more effective in this regard. They have also facilitated innovative initiatives in pedagogical practices led by specialists in entrepreneurial development.

Without discarding their essential contribution, the problems of social inequality that make up a substantial part of the continent’s educational problems have been transferred to these initiatives, which have not yet been successful with the neediest population nor through longrange initiatives, but have nevertheless opened up a path that must be studied. The transcendence and growing significance of the results of education for the diverse social actors, public institutions and productive agents –essentially as a key tool for public policy– have also been a determining factor for the development of education, both in the theoretical as well as the applied spheres, including methodological and instrumental aspects in applied education.

Sebastián Donoso Díaz

Editor invitado

Doct or en Educación, Universidad de Talca, Chile.