THINK TANKS, GOVERNANCE NETWORKS AND EDUCATIONAL POLICY IN URUGUAY

This paper aims to account for the formation of governance networks with strong power to influence Uruguayan educational policies, constituted by a diversity of actors with a common interest in disputing the traditional hegemony of public education in the country. The starting point is a conceptual framework influenced by the post-foundationalist perspective in the social sciences, which is particularly interested in the constitution of political networks and governance networks in the framework of the promotion and definition of educational policies. A methodological strategy based on a network ethnography perspective (Howard, 2002) is proposed, based on the analysis of institutional documents, educational policy texts, various websites and press releases. The paper aims to show the incidence of two local think tanks (CERES and Eduy21) in the production of meanings and proposals that dispute the public meaning of education in Uruguay. The text is part of a broader research entitled "Disputes around the public nature of education in Uruguay" (Martinis, 2022), based in the Grupo de Estudios en Politicas y Practicas Educativas of the Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educacion of the Universidad de la Republica de Uruguay.