1. INTRODUCTION

Educational reforms in each country in Latin America have been developed throughout history in relation to the developmental plans they wish to imitate. They have even copied failed models from other countries, as well as reforms that are not viable since the context is different. Each Latin American country, without a doubt, has promoted, executed, and implemented various reforms. In some countries, reforms have been a complete success and can later be modified accordingly. Nonetheless, educational reforms are not absolute. They must be relative and respond clearly to the national, regional, and global context.

Globalization is not indifferent to having a direct impact on all a country's aspects, which includes education. It is not unfamiliar to see a snowball effect when it comes to globalization. This is apparent when organizations intervene, such as OAS, UN, UNESCO, and OCDE, whose objectives are to box and pigeonhole everyone in a model. Many countries are already immersed in such models, and the others are running to get on board. In Colombia's case, it is attempting to fit in with the OCDE, model and adjusting to its parameters. However, in doing so, it is neglecting the fact that some regions cannot fulfill these demands due to the circumstances of their past.

The impact that educational reforms and policies have had on the quality of education and the processes of transformation of educational systems are quite significant. They have transformed the entire educational system and the actors subject to it. This leads to hermeneutics developed through time and linked to the history of education. This is immersed in general and particular reforms where some formulate educational policies and others implement them without there being a proper feedback loop.

2. IMPORTANCE OF GLOBALIZATION AND EDUCATIONAL REFORM IN LATIN AMERICA

Research permits the elaboration of a dissertation based on the incidence of globalization on educational reforms in Latin America. Education and history are brought together in this sense. Therefore, it is necessary to understand educational reforms in light of the history of education at a general level, as well as within each country according to the dynamics of their development.

The purpose of this dissertation is to deepen the analysis of two kinds of educational policies arising from "the politics of public policies», which takes on two contrasting directions. On the one hand, its aim is expansion, coverage, and a broad enrollment rate. On the other hand, quality, efficiency, and relevance of educational services are promoted.

In order to scrutinize the two educational policies, ^{Navarro (2006)} stated that,

The first encompasses a set of basic policies to improve quality and efficiency, which are very rigid and resist any fundamental change. The second covers a set of peripheral policies, related to the expansion and growth of enrollment, which are highly adaptable and even volatile. They are subject to regular modifications, perhaps too often.

What comes forth is a challenge that leads to the unveiling, decontextualizing, and colonization of proposals to of create subsequent proposals that contradict the current ones. In turn, these proposals are meant to favor everyone, not just a few. It is important for governments to keep in mind that education is a fundamental right of every human being, and its quality should not be neglected.

As an initial approach to the connection of Globalization, Reform and Education, the definitions of the Royal Spanish Academy are cited and expressed in the table that follows. Table 1.

Table 1 Definition of the Royal Spanish Academy 

Note. Table elaborated by the authors with information from the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española (pp. 339,247, 601).

It is not simply making some minor adjustments to the system's operations; it also implies fundamental changes in its structure, process, or content. Therefore, there are four points that should be taken into account when talking about educational reform: 1) Regulate the desire to reform an educational system or to create a new one; 2) Although it may initially seem that a reform has failed, it can generate many changes; 3) It is more difficult to achieve a successful reform in education than in any other public sector; 4) The success of a reform depends mainly on political not technical skills. (^{McGinn, 1993})

Educational reforms are a normal process, and as soon as the first educational system was created the desire to reform it began. To this mindset, we can add that each reform is followed by another: the ink has not yet dried on a document when a new change is already being considered.

When talking about a project regarding education in its global sense, the ideal process of reform would be to have a plan that involves the different systems or subsystems of the great educational regime. In this way, there would be coherence in the great principles, goals, and objectives, respecting the specificity of each one. Reform processes are a peremptory necessity in the of modernity of a country (^{Orozco, 1993}).

While it is correct to criticize educational reforms and those who design them, it is important to understand that it is more complicated to achieve their success compared to reforms in other areas. Public education is more complex than other activities implemented by the private and other sectors. Several reasons that may hinder educational reform are:

Education in Latin America has been greatly influenced by globalization taking into account that Latin American countries have copied, accommodated, and imported educational models from Anglo-Saxon countries; especially European countries. The reforms that arise in those countries are also later implemented in our own. According to ^{Ordonez (1995)}, in order to transform education into one of the most vital investments, its traditional definition must be changes, which is that of a company that has to comply with certain levels of financial performance and verify its processes in order to optimize the application of economic resources.

The new emphases and demands of the modern world imposed upon education a reorientation of its objectives and procedures through various reforms. It also assigned it a new social identity by linking it to the development of all activities related to the order of production and quality of life in the educational community. As a consequence, to the effects of globalization and global changes, they referred to the school as a system of production in relation to quantitative growth and measurement.

^{Ordonez (1995)} pointed out that during three decades, the educational system grew in rigidity and immobility. Although reforms were frequently made and new programs were designed, skepticism grew among the communities regarding their possibilities for transformation. It is interesting for governments to propose educational coverage: coverage and quality, but the second is dependent and overwhelmed by the first. This indicates that more attention should be given to the problematics faced by qualitative transformation by adapting learning topics to the cultural characteristics of the communities to which the education is provided to.

^{Gorostiaga and Tello (2011)} addressed the relationship between the processes of globalization and educational reforms that have taken place in Latin America during the last two decades, they did so in accordance with the following information,

Other texts that reflect this perspective are UNESCO / OREALC (1998), Concha Albornoz (2005), OAS (1998), and Melo (2008). UNESCO / OREALC (1998) rescues the idea of ??global ethics based on cooperation among people and emphasizes the importance of regional and sub-regional integration processes as a response to the challenges of globalization. In this region, UNESCO has promoted the transformation of higher education, to become a proactive factor in the context and process of globalization. (1998, p. 53)

With the support of international cooperation agencies in Latin America, educational planification teams have been assembled to indicate the insight of educational projects in order to improve the management of schools and the country's educational results. On this note, ^{Ordoñez (1995)} pointed out that such is the case with Venezuela and Ecuador, where the support from the Inter-American Center for Studies and Research for the Approach of Education teams were organized to participate in the Human Resources Training Program in Educational Management.

Educational reforms have been carried out in each and every one of the countries in Latin America, from Mexico to Chile. Each one has its own dynamics due to its historical development, and the diversity of influences on educational models of neighboring and distant countries have been displayed. In Paladines's perspective (2004), Ecuador had its own history of education and pedagogy throughout the nineteenth century. The processes of independence were a linking point of change in all the domains of Latin American countries. An elaboration of a timeline to display this period would go from the Colony to the Republic and the conformation of the National State in relation to the century being study.

Mexico is one of the most important references in education and reforms in the educational system. One study led by Galván (2004) titled, La educación mexicana en el siglo XIX: 1821 - 1921. [Mexican education in the 19th century: 1821 - 1921], divided educational reform in three periods: 1) The first steps: 1821-1867; 2) Towards the formation of the Mexican educational system: 18671910; and 3) Education and the revolutionary movement: 1910-1921. It begins with the process of the Mexican independence. It commences with a liberal state and its systematic development with its various reforms to the educational system. It ends in 1921 with the creation of the Secretary of Public Education amid a process of restructuring the Mexican educational system.

Los proyectos educativos en México 1921-1982 [Educational projects in Mexico 19211982], is an investigation led by Lazarin (2004). It is divided equally in various periods: 1) Post-revolutionary education: 1921-1940; 2) The economic miracle and education for national unity: 1940-1968; and 3) The economic crisis, worldwide globalization and the new educational models: 1968-1988. They denote the importance of educational reforms in Mexico over two centuries and consolidate the active dynamics and progress of education in this country. Among the various studies in Colombia, one study by ^{Zuluaga et al. (2004)} is highlighted, and it is titled, La instrucción Pública en Colombia, 1819-1902: surgimiento y desarrollo del sistema educativo [Public Instruction in Colombia, 1819-1902: emergence and development of the education system]. It is divided into several periods: 1) Emergence of Public Instruction: Santander's reforms 1819-1841; 2) Universities, provincial colleges and schools of Ospina's reform: 1842-1848; 3) Freedom of education and municipalization of primary school: 1848-1868, 4) Public instruction during the instructional reform: 1868-1886; and 5) Regeneration: 1886-1902. Development and reforms of the Colombian educational system have been done according to the convenience of the current government and affiliation to political parties.

Instruction and Public education in Colombia: 1903-1997 [Instruction and Public Education in Colombia: 1903-1997] is a research conducted by Quiceno et al. (2004), where these educational periods are divided into: 1) Public Instruction: State, Catholic Church, and human sciences: 1903-1930; 2) Active pedagogy, recatholicization and development: Reforms to education in Colombia: 19301957; 3) Educational policies in Colombia 1957-1998; 4) Reassessments of the teaching profession and Pedagogical Movement; 5) The Constitution of 1991 and the educational reforms of Gaviria's government.

In Colombia at the end of the 20th century, the improvement of the quality of education was proposed. According to the Law 115 of 1994 for basic education and vocational media, it was ordered to develop Institutional Educational Projects. According to Article 73 and other articles oriented to ensure the quality of education, this is meant to provide the best moral, intellectual, and physical education for students, as well as the fulfillment of educational objectives. Higher education in Colombia is governed by Law 30 of 1992, whose initiative for reform occurred in 2011, but it did not prosper because of a national student mobilization that led the government to withdraw the proposal from Congress.

In other countries there was also an emergence of educational systems and their subsequent reforms. For now, we will construct a comparative study between Colombia and Mexico, as well as mention Venezuela and Ecuador. The educational development of Brazil, Argentina and Chile will also be highlighted and given special attention due to their current importance in our context. Each of the Latin American countries has had its own unique development of educational systems and reform processes due to their diverse circumstances inherent to their historical development, which has been linked to education as part of a whole in the nation.

3. COVERAGE AND TUITION RATE INCREASE

Educational reform is a constant process of changes within the system, which is why it cannot only account for transformations outside of the system. However, the role of education is carried out in different places, but there is little communication between politicians, administrators, and teachers (McQuinn, 1993). Additionally, ^{Navarro (2006)} stated that all of the countries within the region have introduced significant changes in their educative systems.

Even though there appears to be a lack of communication, reforms have continued to surge. An action and reaction process has been witnessed, in which politicians have introduced new reforms in a top-down manner. Afterwards, administrators must include these reforms in operational programs and procedures. Finally, these programs are passed down to the teacher, who needs to make adjustments in order to adapt new reforms to the particular context.

In regard to this, ^{Navarro (2006)} mentioned the following, Change is difficult, and we need to understand the main actors, as well as their preferences and temporary horizons. Furthermore, we need to understand these actors' interests, how they are similar, and if there is a possibility of conflict or cooperation. The context where policies are being created should also be considered.

Along the same lines, Ossenbach (2004) stated that, policies meant to promote development have favored a spectacular increase in schooling in all educational levels. Coverage in rural areas has widened, and the obligatory schooling period in these zones has also been extended.

In rural areas, significant governmental initiatives have emerged, such as promoting literacy in adult populations (diversity of programs for Colombia) and supporting preschool education and participation (early childhood policies in Colombia). Along with these policies, there has been an increase in school enrollment, as well as educational programs for adults and young children. Consequently, the demand for teachers in these fields has also grown.

In planning new reforms and policies, theories on human capital and the involvement of teachers have also emerged. Therefore, training programs for teachers have also increased. Even at a technical level, teachers are being trained to be qualified and capable of teaching the fundamentals of different knowledge areas. In order to meet the demands of increasing educational coverage, programs, institutes, and universities have also needed to provide training for their teachers.

Throughout the history of educational reforms and public policies mentioned below, compensating teachers is not considered a priority in most economical development plans. This is one of the reasons for which unions, as well as teacher and students' movements, have surged. Such associations fight to reclaim rights and fair retribution as a condition for quality of life.

Up until the end of the 1970s, developmentalist educational policies continued to thrive in Ibero-American countries. In the 1980s, decentralization and neoliberalism dominated the educative spectrum, and it emphasized an obsession for quality and abilities. In this sense, Ossenbach (2004) mentioned that neoliberal policies have been a result from the demands and conditions imposed by international organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank. The purpose of these policies was to payback monetary debts that many Latin American countries had incurred.

As a consequence, international cooperatives tended to highlight the importance of promoting changes in institutional conditions. Furthermore, they also recommended introducing factors that fortify internal mechanisms in educational management (^{Ordoñez, 1995}). Behind these reforms, we see a hidden reality. There is a reduction on public spending for social matters, of which education is included. Additionally, decreasing public spending has worsened the poverty situation in several sectors of the population. Despite increasing enrollment and coverage, there continues to be difficulties in accessing the educational system. The latter creates challenges in promoting competitiveness within the labor market. These obstacles are not just a challenge for teachers, but also for those who are still not being included in the educational system.

4. QUALITY AND EFFICIENCY IN EDUCATION

After the 1980s and 1990s, educational reforms in Latin American were preoccupied with improving education quality. According to Ossenbach (2004), this improvement was strongly founded upon an economical perspective due to pressure and competition from other countries, which has led to tremendous challenges for countries with scarce technological and industrial development. The concern with quality from an economical perspective is accompanied by another worry, which is the use of generalized mechanisms of evaluation to evaluate skills and abilities. These types of evaluations are used to measure different levels and aspects of the educative system. Furthermore, higher education has promoted the expansion of private universities, while public universities have had to find their own financing for their teachers and investigation due to budget cuts by the State.

In regard to this, ^{Ordoñez (1995)} proposed the following, from education quality, we can observe that recent discourse insists on the idea that knowledge is a susceptible resource, which is imbalanced and monopolized. Therefore, teaching socially relevant knowledge is facilitated. Education quality seeks to evaluate students' cognitive achievements through evaluative systems. It is assumed that these evaluation instruments are decisive, and they are meant to reach autonomy within a centralized context.

The quality and efficiency of education is evaluated through a fundamental component of political power as a disciplinary instrument against educational participants or actors. In other words, these actors must bear new policies and those who impose them, while being labeled as measurable, predictable, and comparable subjects. Such is the case that the educational actors that form part of the process are subjected to being considered as objects of production. Policies and reforms are a devasting concept. Above all, those who create these policies have copied models and guaranteed that this is the way to evidence quality in education.

5. THE PROCESS OF POLICY CREATION: EXAMPLES

In the process of leaving developmentalist educational policies behind, a proposal for decentralization and neoliberalism surged in the 1980s and 1990s. This marked a new cycle of educational reforms, which expanded throughout Latin America. Such was the case with la Ley Orgánica Constitucional de Enseñanza de Chile (1990) [the Organic Constitutional Law of Teaching in Chile (1990)], la Ley General de Educación de México (1993) [the Law of General Education of Mexico (1993)] , la Ley Federal de Educación de Argentina (1993) [the Federal Law of Education of Argentina (1993)], la Ley General de educación de Colombia (1994) [the General Law of Education of Colombia (1994)], la Ley Reforma Educativa de Bolivia (1994) [the Law of Educational Reform of Bolivia (1994)], among other laws and policies. Some of these reforms were general, while others were more specific. For example, Ley General 115 de 1994 [General Law 115 of 1994] of Colombia was characterized for its specificity in different elementary, middle, and high school levels. Meanwhile, Ley 30 de 1992 [Law 30 of 1992] of Colombia was limited to universities and higher education.

As Ossenbach (2004) mentioned, one of the significant general trends that characterized reforms, especially in Latin America, is the reduction of public funding allotted to education. Consequently, official education is deteriorated and the gap between public and private education is widened. As a result, there is a fallacy in updating teachers' salaries, which causes some of them to leave their profession and seek other jobs in order to improve their living conditions.

Several decentralized political policies have surged, along with the privatization of education. Additionally, the role of the State in the educational system has been modified, especially in terms of financing. In the following table, four countries are highlighted according to ^{Navarro's (2006)} perspective and suggestions. The examples below show significant reform processes based on the objective of the study. Table 2.

Table 2 Examples of countries and the implementation of Educational Policies. 

Note. Table elaborated by the authors with information taken from ^{Navarro (2006)}.

In constructing the history of education in Latin America, several authors agree that it is still incomplete. It is necessary to pursue a histography for each country in Latin America, as well as a study of comparison between the countries. Nonetheless, ^{Alvarez (2004)} believed that as a whole, Latin American educational reforms coincide within five events, which are discussed in Table 3.

Table 3 Important events in the governmental systems of Latin American that marked education 

Note. Table elaborated by the authors with information taken from ^{Alvarez (2004)}

Though these events are generalized, the reformations of the State have influenced the history of education in many aspects. For each one of these periods, educational reform and public policies have not been left untouched. In the last event, we witness an imposition of external agents, coverage, and education quality.

La Instrucción y la Educación Pública en Colombia: 1903-1997 [Instruction and Educational Policy in Colombia: 1903-1997] is an investigation study done by Quinceno et al. (2004), where educational reform is divided into several periods. These include the following:

The claims argued by the different academic works provided in the theoretical framework all lead to the same conclusion. Dropouts, coverage, and quality of education have all been influenced by permanent reforms in the educational system.

Postmodern pedagogy, as a proposal for educational reforms, contains genuine principles, such as new ways of tackling literacy. It has contributed to new types of knowledge, such as the surge of communication technology.

Additionally, postmodern pedagogy has helped to theorize on education, economy, knowledge, and identity in a culture of decentralization. The real issue commences when education demands greater coverage. Furthermore, actors within the educational system are not guaranteed a quality of life, which does not allow for pedagogical proposals to become effective. These proposals would have otherwise founded the principles of a civilized society, as well as promoted inclusive education for all.

Latin American countries, with their own history and common points, are connected by educational reforms throughout different decades. During the same time periods, all these countries seem to implement the same educational reforms and are affected by similar conditions and realities. Additionally, educational reforms in place are not just the result of economic adjustments, but also the current situation of the State and its relationship with education. The impact that educational reforms and policies have had on education quality and the processes of transformation have been transcendental on educational actors. Nonetheless, these policies are contradictory in that they try to cover everything without adequately measuring education quality and conditions for the educational actors they affect.

As a consequence, as ^{McGinn (1993)} stated, there is a process of educational reform within different educational systems that is constant. However, since countries are not homogenous, the process of reform is unequal. In some countries, the process of reform takes longer than others. Therefore, changes in State are ahead in other countries, but in all of these cases, reform continues to emerge.

Likewise, ^{Sarmiento (1993)} sustained that the Colombian educational system of administration has considered the main elements, such as efficiency, effectiveness, equality, and quality, according to the theory. Despite the difficult social and economic conditions faced by the country, its institutions have advanced toward peace and development. Even though the country has faced issues of conflict in the past few decades, there have been economic, social, and educational achievements in Colombia. Given the progress Colombia has made, post conflictive education has grown, which has been recognized by an international audience. In fact, the ministry in charge of post conflictive education manages the greatest budget, and its objective is to make its citizens among the best educated by 2025.

6. FINAL NOTES

It is important to study the incidence of globalization and reforms in Latin American educational systems, since it allows us to have knowledge about the specific advances of each country, as well as breaking down borders and making educational achievements in Latin America visible. This should be done in isolation and at the same time connected to the history of education. In this case, the relationship between the teaching and learning process and the government, politicians and external agents could be taken into account. It is this relationship that has generated the dynamics of pedagogy.

Educational reforms are both relative and dynamic issues of the natural system. One of the difficulties found in educational reforms is in their application, as they are copied from other models in countries that are partially or completely different than those in Latin America. Therefore, innovative initiatives within the local context are affected. Professionals in the field of education and agents of the academic community have not been taken into account for the advancement of educational reforms. One of the reasons for this is the direct relationship reforms have with the government, along with the absurd budget that is allotted to education. In other words, reforms are created based on the government's own interests, which could be considered negligent.

Educational reforms have been associated with the dynamics of the history of education in each one of the countries in Latin America. In this case, we highlight Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia, among other countries in Latin America. It has been evidenced that these countries have points in common, one of which is associated to the independence from Spain. Another similarity to be considered is changes in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Finally, these countries coincide in the development of politics and governments, taking into account democracy and coups d'états as factors in the innate expansion of the Republic.

This fundamental document, and those that accompanied it to complete the dissertation on the issues of public educational policies, create an academic inquiry that leaves a troubled feeling concerning all things administrative and formative. In the midst of competition and competitiveness, coverage, expansion, and the increase in the rate of enrollment is important. We should strive for the same quality of education to form integral human beings that will not solely produce skilled and cheap labor for the service of multinationals. Challenges are vast because reforms should not only take into account increasing coverage and educational enrollment, rather it should go hand in hand with the reality of educational quality. This should be done throughout all educational levels and geographical contexts in each territory.

Public policies in education are developed by those who project, study, approve, and implement reforms without taking the national context into consideration. In lieu of incongruous reforms, importance is given to educational models that are implemented elsewhere, and which barely or do not adjust to the reality of the country. Very few diagnoses of the reality have been done, with a focus on the implementation of policies that are considered public, for all by all.