Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online 2025
Operational experience,multi-scalar influence,and political ambivalence: Mechanisms of influence of UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Education in the Chilean school system (1990–2024)
The UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNESCO/OREALC) is an understudied actor in policy transfer analyses. This article addresses this gap by analyzing the mechanisms of influence and educational messages that the organization mobilizes to shape school policy in Chile, its host country. Drawing on the analysis, processing, and coding of documents produced by the organization between 1990 and 2024, this article demonstrates that UNESCO/OREALC has mobilized and combined diverse, multi-scalar and thematically polyphonic governance instruments within the Chilean education system. The article also shows that UNESCO/OREALC has maintained an ambivalent relationship with Chile, insofar as its mechanisms project narratives of both validation and opposition to local trends of privatization. The article suggests that UNESCO’s regional bureau performs functions that transcend the logic of a forum, positioning itself as an actor seeking to broaden the learning curve and policy options within the host country. Furthermore, it reaffirms the identity tensions that arise when the organization operates in contexts with high levels of privatization.
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