Policies and the Expansion of Early Childhood Education in Jujuy, Argentina: Policy Enactment and Actors’ Strategies in Rural Contexts

Abstract

This study analyzes the expansion of early childhood education in rural contexts of Jujuy, Argentina, between 2007 and 2019, with a focus on the enactment of educational policies. Adopting a qualitative approach, it examines how supervisors, teachers, and school leaders interpret, adapt, and recontextualize regulations to ensure the right to education. Drawing on the contributions of Stephen Ball and Guillermo Ruiz, the study highlights strategies such as the organization of multi-age classrooms and regulatory flexibility in response to diverse territorial conditions. It also recovers the role of “pioneer” educators in the institutionalization of the early childhood level. The findings show that the expansion of this educational level results from micropolitical processes in which local actors produce and transform public policy.