The right to education: Comparative constitutional definitions in South America

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. Analyzing the right to education in regions such as South America could be done from different perspectives since this region has had several and profound educational legislation, and also because it has had recurrent educational reforms in the last decades. METHODS. In this piece constitutional definitions -regarding the right to education- are taken into account. Four countries of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) are selected: Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay (three of the five full members) and Chile (an associate State). Data for this research has been collected from the constitutional texts of the studied countries. To analyze the data, it was documenting the case of each country, and its constitutional definitions regarding the right to education by drawing upon excerpts field notes. RESULTS. A conceptual definition of the right to education -from the human rights-based perspective- is provided in order to analyze, from a comparative standpoint, the constitutional norms of each country. DISCUSSION. A comparative analysis is made in function to the normative definitions that these four countries have regarding this matter: the right to education. The constrains and the challenges of the national Constitutions are identified, which allow us to find several interpretations of the schooling reforms that these countries have made in the last decades. In all of them the right to education was object of regulations, which admit designing a potential normative laboratory in these emerging countries.