María Balarin Bonazzi
Senior Researcher
PhD in Educational Policy - University of Bath
mbalarin@grade.org.pe
María is a Senior Researcher at the Group for the Analysis of Development (GRADE) where she has a broad portfolio of both applied and academic research.
Her applied work focuses on the analysis and qualitative evaluation of educational and social policies, with a special focus on processes of policy implementation. Her academic work has mostly focused on the field of education, where she has been concerned with understanding how educational processes mediate relations between the state and society. Her recent work focuses on the impact of educational markets on patterns of social segregation; and on vulnerable youth transition processes in the context of exclusionary citizenship regimes, where she also brings a strong gender perspective. She has also developed a strong interest in understanding the conditions under which social research is conducted in developing countries, and on the way in which gender relations underpin research careers and processes of knowledge production as well as the visibility of women’s work in the public sphere.
She holds a PhD in Education Policy from the University of Bath, an MA in Psychoanalytic Studies from the University of Essex, both in the UK, and BA in Philosophy from the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Peru. Between 2006 and 2011 she was a postdoctoral fellow and then a Lecturer in the Department of Education of the University of Bath, UK, where she was associated to the Education Policy and Globalization research group.
Her work has been published in edited books and international academic journals.
She is a member and part of the Steering Committee of Grupo Sofía.
Publications
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JournalNorrag Special Issue
Placing epistemic justice at the core of educational transformations for a just future
2024 Maria Balarin, Lizzi O. Milligan
Education has a key role in responding to the calls for transformation considering urgent global challenges. We propose a refocusing of educational efforts on an ‘epistemic core’ so that education can effectively contribute to such transformations. This places knowledge/s—and the ways that young people can all consume, recognise, and produce those knowledge/s—at the heart of […]
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JournalGlobal Social Challenges Journal
Limitations and possibilities of justice in education and the implications for sustainable futures
2024 Maria Balarin, Lizzi O. Milligan
Global agendas for sustainable futures rely heavily on the role played by education in promoting justice and changing young people’s attitudes and behaviours. The articles in this special collection jointly demonstrate the challenges, as well as messages of hope, for the ambitious and transformative vision of education that is being increasingly promoted in academic and […]
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JournalGlobal Social Challenges Journal
Education as justice: articulating the epistemic core of education to enable just futures
2024 Maria Balarin, Lizzi O. Milligan
While education is expected to play a significant role in responding to global social challenges, sustainable development discourses often fail to attend to issues of pedagogy, purpose and process. In this paper, we argue that one way to focus arguments on educational practice is through considerations of the relationship between education as justice and education for justice. We do […]
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JournalGlobal Social Challenges Journal
Shallow pedagogies as epistemic injustice: how uncritical forms of learning hinder education’s contribution to just and sustainable development
2024 Maria Balarin, María Fernanda Rodríguez
This paper draws on findings from the JustEd study to discuss the shallow pedagogies that have emerged in Peru in the context of learner-centred and outcomes-based reforms that have been poorly implemented in a context with many limitations in terms of policy orientations, resources, and teacher training and support. These pedagogies promote little to no […]
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JournalNorrag Special Issue
Breaking the continuum of socioeconomic inequalities in Peru
2023 Miguel Jaramillo, Maria Balarin
By documenting the links between different forms of vulnerable life trajectories and labor market outcomes, this article highlights the need to include precarious young workers among those targeted for labour market interventions. It also makes a case for such interventions to be tailored to the needs of different groups facing specific barriers to more secure […]
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Ed-tech in the Global South: research gaps and opportunities
2023 Santiago Cueto, Maria Balarin, Mauricio Saavedra, Claudia Sugimaru
This study explores the evolving landscape of educational technology (ed-tech) in the context of increased global and national attention about the topic, with the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the drive to incorporate technology in education to mitigate issues with access, quality and systems management. Focused on challenges and opportunities in primary and secondary schools in low- […]
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Reforming education in the context of weak states: the political economy of education reforms in Peru 1995-2020
2023 Maria Balarin, Mauricio Saavedra
In this paper, we explore the political economy of education reforms in Peru through an analysis of the recent history of education policies in the country. Starting in 1995, arguably the inception point for quality-oriented reforms, we follow policy developments in three selected areas – curriculum, teachers and assessment – up to 2020, the year […]
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El derecho a estudiar: Inclusión de niñas, niños y adolescentes migrantes venezolanos al sistema educativo peruano
2021 Lorena Alcazar, Maria Balarin
Perú es, después de Colombia, el país a donde más familias venezolanas han emigrado en búsqueda de nuevas oportunidades. Al ingresar al país, las niñas, niños y adolescentes venezolanos y sus familias se enfrentan a situaciones de vulnerabilidad social debido a su condición de personas migrantes. Si bien el Estado peruano ha hecho importantes esfuerzos […]
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Evaluation of the design and implementation of high performance schools – COAR
2021 Maria Balarin, Lorena Alcazar
This report shows the results of the Evaluation of the Design and Implementation of High Performance Schools (COAR), a service model implemented by the Ministry of Education of Peru in 22 regions of the country.
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La inclusión educativa de NNA migrantes venezolanos en el Perú – una política que no se puede nombrar
2020 Lorena Alcazar, Maria Balarin
The education sector has identified the important and growing demand of foreign migrant families, and has reacted to this issue. However, a discourse and practice guaranteeing the right to education coexists with a marked absence of policies explicitly aimed at facilitating its educational inclusion. In this analysis paper, the authors address the educational inclusion of […]
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JournalNorrag Special Issue
Placing epistemic justice at the core of educational transformations for a just future
2024 Maria Balarin, Lizzi O. Milligan
Education has a key role in responding to the calls for transformation considering urgent global challenges. We propose a refocusing of educational efforts on an ‘epistemic core’ so that education can effectively contribute to such transformations. This places knowledge/s—and the ways that young people can all consume, recognise, and produce those knowledge/s—at the heart of […]
-
JournalGlobal Social Challenges Journal
Limitations and possibilities of justice in education and the implications for sustainable futures
2024 Maria Balarin, Lizzi O. Milligan
Global agendas for sustainable futures rely heavily on the role played by education in promoting justice and changing young people’s attitudes and behaviours. The articles in this special collection jointly demonstrate the challenges, as well as messages of hope, for the ambitious and transformative vision of education that is being increasingly promoted in academic and […]
-
JournalGlobal Social Challenges Journal
Education as justice: articulating the epistemic core of education to enable just futures
2024 Maria Balarin, Lizzi O. Milligan
While education is expected to play a significant role in responding to global social challenges, sustainable development discourses often fail to attend to issues of pedagogy, purpose and process. In this paper, we argue that one way to focus arguments on educational practice is through considerations of the relationship between education as justice and education for justice. We do […]
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JournalGlobal Social Challenges Journal
Shallow pedagogies as epistemic injustice: how uncritical forms of learning hinder education’s contribution to just and sustainable development
2024 Maria Balarin, María Fernanda Rodríguez
This paper draws on findings from the JustEd study to discuss the shallow pedagogies that have emerged in Peru in the context of learner-centred and outcomes-based reforms that have been poorly implemented in a context with many limitations in terms of policy orientations, resources, and teacher training and support. These pedagogies promote little to no […]
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JournalNorrag Special Issue
Breaking the continuum of socioeconomic inequalities in Peru
2023 Miguel Jaramillo, Maria Balarin
By documenting the links between different forms of vulnerable life trajectories and labor market outcomes, this article highlights the need to include precarious young workers among those targeted for labour market interventions. It also makes a case for such interventions to be tailored to the needs of different groups facing specific barriers to more secure […]
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Los caminos de la exclusión: las transiciones hacia la vida adulta entre jóvenes urbanos vulnerables
El Perú pendiente: ensayos para un desarrollo con bienestar2022 Lorena Alcazar, Maria Balarin
This essay details the transitions to adulthood experienced by vulnerable urban youth. This is the most important transition towards productivity improvements, as young people should begin to apply the learning gained from their human capital investments in the labor market. However, one phenomenon limiting this realization is the high proportion of young ninis: neither studying […]
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Paradojas de la mejora educativa en los niveles subnacionales de gobierno: los casos de San Martín y Ayacucho
La mejora sistémica de la educación2021 Maria Balarin
En Perú, María Balarin analiza dos casos muy disímiles. Por un lado, San Martín fue el único caso seleccionado en el que no hubo mejoras por encima del país, pero fue elegido ante la falta de casos de mejora porque los expertos consultados destacaron su planificación, articulación y calidad de gestión en un contexto muy […]
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Los caminos encontrados del financiamiento y la descentralización educativa en el Perú
La educación peruana más allá del Bicentenario: nuevos rumbos2021 Maria Balarin, Mauricio Saavedra
In the early 2000s, Peru opted to establish a decentralized public management system. The Ley General de Educación of 2003 took up this commitment and established the guidelines for the decentralized management of education. In the 15 years that have followed, although there has been a process of transferring functions to decentralized management bodies, the processes […]
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The slow development process of educational policies in Peru
Examining educational policy in Latin America: comprehensive insights into contemporary reform2021 Maria Balarin
This book synthesizes and analyzes the complex map of educational reforms in Latin America in the first two decades of the 21st century. The book offers insights into the agendas, processes and political economy of educational reforms in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. The chapters present systematic, critical and reflective accounts of an intense […]
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Chapter in BookUnderstanding school segregation: patterns, causes and consequences of spatial inequalities in Education
The ungoverned education market and the deepening of socio-economic school segregation in Peru
Understanding school segregation: patterns, causes and consequences of spatial inequalities in Education2019 Maria Balarin, Aurora Escudero
This chapter explores how these trends explain existing patterns of socio-economic school segregation. While other forms of educational segregation – such as that between rural and urban education – are important, the chapter will focus on what is happening in urban areas as a consequence of the expansion of the private education market. We argue […]
No se han encontrado publicaciones de Maria Balarin en la categoría Policy brief
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Bringing peacebuilding to nexus thinking in education in emergencies: promising practices to overcome injustices
2023 Julia Paulson, Kelsey Shanks, Bassel Akar, Emraan Azad, Maria Balarin, Vasila Bozichaeva, Jennifer Emelife, María Fernanda Rodríguez
This synthesis report was commissioned by INEE, UNESCO and IFRC through the Geneva Global Hub for Education in Emergencies (EiE Hub). These partners recognise that education in emergencies and protracted crises must be recognised as a cornerstone of humanitarian, peace and development action – not as secondary to sectoral responses – and that this requires action across […]
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El Perú pendiente: ensayos para un desarrollo con bienestar
2022 Maria Balarin, Santiago Cueto, Ricardo Fort
The essays that make up this book have been written to commemorate the first 40 years of GRADE’s institutional life, which coincides not only with the Bicentennial of Peru’s Independence, but also with the health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its profound economic, social and political consequences. From different conceptual and methodological perspectives, […]
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El acompañamiento pedagógico como estrategia de formación docente en servicio: reflexiones para el contexto peruano
2019 Maria Balarin, Aurora Escudero
In agreement with the team of the Office for Teacher Training in Service (DIFODS) of the Ministry of Education (MINEDU), this document contributes to the construction of the institutional theoretical reference that supports the ministerial commitment to the pedagogical support as the main strategy formative The document has allowed aligning approaches, supporting them in the light of international […]
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Desigualdad en la academia: mujeres en las ciencias sociales peruanas
2018 Lorena Alcazar, Maria Balarin
El libro recoge estudios de investigadoras del Grupo Sofía en torno a las desigualdades entre mujeres y hombres en el mundo de la investigación y de la docencia universitaria en las ciencias sociales. Las autoras presentan evidencia rigurosa, hasta ahora no disponible, que muestra las disparidades entre hombres y mujeres con una trayectoria profesional en […]
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Educación privada de ‘bajo coste’ en el Perú: un enfoque desde la calidad
2018 Clara Fontdevila, Paola Marius, Maria Balarin, María Fernanda Rodríguez
This research aims to advance in the description and characterization of the so-called low-cost private schools in relation to different dimensions of educational quality and in a context of a poorly regulated educational market. The specific objectives set by the research are the following: 1. Identify the contextual factors (political, social, economic), actors and mechanisms […]
Projects
- Just Education JustEdNovember 2020
- Political economy of educational reforms in PeruSeptember 2020
- Access to the educational system: Factors that facilitate or limit access to migrant children and adolescentsDecember 2019
- Poor education and precarious jobs in Peru: understanding who is left behind and whyJune 2019
- Design evaluation and implementation of the High-Performance Schools – COARAugust 2016
- Las transiciones a la vida adulta de jóvenes de contextos urbanos vulnerables: un estudio cualitativo con jóvenes de zonas urbano-marginales de la ciudad de LimaFebruary 2016
- The strength and growth of Grupo Impulsor de las Mujeres en las Ciencias Sociales Peruanas – Grupo SofíaSeptember 2015
- Revisión Sistemática: ¿Cuál es la efectividad de las intervenciones orientadas a incrementar la participación femenina en ocupaciones consideradas de mayor capacidad y mayor valor social en países de ingresos medios y bajos?July 2015
- Production contexts, dissemination and use of economic and social research in medium and low income Latin American countries: a comparative study between Bolivia, Paraguay and PeruJanuary 2015
- Preparation of an academic document on women’s situation in the Peruvian social sciencesAugust 2014
Media
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María Balarin in Perú 21: “We found many students and teachers who are not used to the exercise of critical thinking”
December 7, 2023 Education and learning
“We found many students and teachers who are not used to the exercise of critical thinking. This means having an idea that knowledge has to be grounded. They are also not used to the exercise of deepening: we found students who could hold two contradictory ideas without this generating any noise”. Our Senior Researcher María Balarin talked […]
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Comment, Media GRADE, GRADE frente al COVID-19
María Balarin in La República: closure of private schools due to the pandemic
October 19, 2020 Education and learning
If the majority of schools that close are those considered low-cost, it would be an interesting effect of the pandemic, according to María Balarin, senior researcher at GRADE. “It was politically very complicated. The pandemic has generated a migration to public schools and that is positive in the midst of a complex and challenging situation.” Read the […]
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María Balarin: “La respuesta que la ley plantea es promover una mayor transparencia de parte de los proveedores de servicios educativos privados hacia los padres de familia”. Pensiones de colegios particulares en debate
March 14, 2019 Education and learning
Sorry, this entry is only available in European Spanish.
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María Balarin writes about international accreditation and the quality of higher education
January 21, 2019
Can international accreditation guarantee the quality of higher education? Our senior researcher, María Balarin, writes in El Comercio’s supplement on universities and institutes about the key role of this mechanism on the sidelines of a public debate on what quality means and a proper regulation.
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PUCP’s weekly highlights Grupo Sofia’s new book on inequality in academia
May 22, 2018 Ethnicity, gender and citizenship
PuntoEdu, the weekly of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), highlights Grupo Sofia’s new book, “Inequality in academia: women in the Peruvian social sciences“, edited by our senior researchers and members of Sofía, Lorena Alcázar and María Balarin. ►Download the book here. ►Read the full weekly here.
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María Balarin writes about international accreditation and the quality of higher education
January 21, 2019
Can international accreditation guarantee the quality of higher education? Our senior researcher, María Balarin, writes in El Comercio’s supplement on universities and institutes about the key role of this mechanism on the sidelines of a public debate on what quality means and a proper regulation.
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Inequality in academy, by Lorena Alcázar and María Balarin
May 11, 2018 Ethnicity, gender and citizenship
In the Peruvian social sciences, half of the university students are women. However, only one in three teachers and one in five media experts are women. Why do we see fewer women in academic events, media and in teaching and management positions? What can be done about it? We share the op-ed by Lorena Alcázar and María Balarin, […]
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Doing research in Bolivia, Paraguay and Perú
May 3, 2016 Methodologies for research and evaluation of policy and programmes, State reform and public institutions
The article by GRADE’s senior researcher María Balarin states the main outputs of a comparative study of the social research environments of Bolivia, Paraguay and Perú conducted as part of the GDN’s Doing Research initiative. The study was carried out as a collaboration between GRADE in Perú, Fundación ARU in Bolivia, and CADEP in Paraguay. […]
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Las escuelas privadas de bajo costo en el Perú, por María Balarin
May 8, 2015 Education and learning, State reform and public institutions
Sorry, this entry is only available in European Spanish.
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Comment, Media GRADE, GRADE frente al COVID-19
María Balarin in La República: closure of private schools due to the pandemic
October 19, 2020 Education and learning
If the majority of schools that close are those considered low-cost, it would be an interesting effect of the pandemic, according to María Balarin, senior researcher at GRADE. “It was politically very complicated. The pandemic has generated a migration to public schools and that is positive in the midst of a complex and challenging situation.” Read the […]
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Six in 10 private schools are low-cost and mostly of subsistence
August 11, 2017 Education and learning, State reform and public institutions
What is the situation of private education in Peru? The newspaper Gestión highlighted some of the topics discussed in the presentation of the study by our senior researchers, María Balarin and Hugo Ñopo, on the functioning of the market of educational services in our country [Video and wrap-up of the presentation here].
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María Balarin discusses on the unique university model promoted by the university reform law
January 4, 2017 Education and learning
“The (university) law takes over a homogeneus model of university, for which all institutions are aim to do the same”. María Balarín, senior researcher at GRADE, discussed on the challenges to university reform, including setting up a unique model. In this sense, Balarín argued that, with the massification of higher education, “there are relevant processes of institutional differentiation, […]
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María Balarin joined GDN webinar on funding for social science research
August 2, 2016 Methodologies for research and evaluation of policy and programmes
“In many development countries, the discourses and practices of evidence-based policy-making, as well as the discourses regarding the importance of increasing the production of publishable research do seem to be taken hold, but there is little reflection on the need to develop the capacities of the research community, on what this means and how this […]
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María Balarin opina sobre las oportunidades y barreras de las mujeres profesionales en los think tanks peruanos
June 4, 2015 Ethnicity, gender and citizenship, Methodologies for research and evaluation of policy and programmes
Sorry, this entry is only available in European Spanish.
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María Balarin in Perú 21: “We found many students and teachers who are not used to the exercise of critical thinking”
December 7, 2023 Education and learning
“We found many students and teachers who are not used to the exercise of critical thinking. This means having an idea that knowledge has to be grounded. They are also not used to the exercise of deepening: we found students who could hold two contradictory ideas without this generating any noise”. Our Senior Researcher María Balarin talked […]
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María Balarin: “La respuesta que la ley plantea es promover una mayor transparencia de parte de los proveedores de servicios educativos privados hacia los padres de familia”. Pensiones de colegios particulares en debate
March 14, 2019 Education and learning
Sorry, this entry is only available in European Spanish.
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María Balarin joins podcast about the authorship of research work carried out by women
May 16, 2018 Ethnicity, gender and citizenship
María Balarin, Senior Researcher at GRADE and member of Grupo Sofía, Carmen Velezmoro, Vice Chancelor of Research at Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, and Gisella Orjeda, chair of the Association En Órbita, discuss the issues regarding the authorship of academic research work made by women. Podcast of Mujeres Que Transforman.
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María Balarín on the presence and impact of women in science in Peru
April 18, 2018 Ethnicity, gender and citizenship
María Balarin, senior researcher at GRADE, Carmen Velezmoro, vice-rector of research at the National Agrarian University La Molina, and Gisella Orjeda, former president of the National Council of Science, Technology and Technological Innovation, discuss the situation of women in science in the Peru and share with the initiative Women Transforming their experience: What macho expressions and attitudes […]
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María Balarin: “We found a plain scenario of underrepresentation of women in the academic and research fields”
July 18, 2017
If women produce as much as their male peers, why do they earn and scale less? In the blog Saber es Poder (Knowledge is Power) of La Mula, María Balarin, senior researcher at GRADE and member of Grupo Sofía, talks with Enrique Mendizábal, founder of On Think Tanks, on the contextual and institutional barriers behind a […]
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PUCP’s weekly highlights Grupo Sofia’s new book on inequality in academia
May 22, 2018 Ethnicity, gender and citizenship
PuntoEdu, the weekly of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP), highlights Grupo Sofia’s new book, “Inequality in academia: women in the Peruvian social sciences“, edited by our senior researchers and members of Sofía, Lorena Alcázar and María Balarin. ►Download the book here. ►Read the full weekly here.
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Low-cost private schools in Peru: the high cost of low quality?
February 21, 2018 Education and learning
We share an article on the main findings of the recent study “Low-cost private education in Peru: a quality approach”, conducted by researchers from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and GRADE with the support of Unite for Quality Education. The text highlights the impact of the low-fee private schools sector on both learning processes and learning […]
Presentations
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The ungoverned education market and the deepening of socioeconomic school segregation in Peru
Ciudad de México, 26 March, 2018
Presentación en la 62° Conferencia Anual de la Sociedad de Educación Comparada e Internacional CIES 2018.
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Mercado privado, consecuencias públicas: un estudio sobre el funcionamiento de los mercados de servicios educativos en el Perú
Auditorio de GRADE, 10 August, 2017
Presentación de resultados iniciales, como parte de las actividades de incidencia del estudio TTI-GRADE.
Selected Publications
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Vocational and business training to improve women’s labour market outcomes in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review
2018 Marjorie Chinen, Thomas de Hoop, Lorena Alcazar, Maria Balarin, Josh Sennett, Julian Mezarina