Research project
Bureaucratic Selection and Politics: Evidence from Teachers in Brazil
Does becoming a public sector employee change a person’s political beliefs, behaviors and interactions with the state? Do public teachers hold the same values as other professionals and the general Brazilian public?
- Duration
- 2018 - 2024
- Contact
- Jonathan Phillips
- Funding
- Lemann Foundation
- Partners
Emmerich Davies (Harvard Graduate School of Education), Leslie Finger (University of North Texas), Julia Smith Coyoli (Harvard University)
Teachers’ political beliefs are crucial to the implementation of education policy, yet we know little about where teachers’ beliefs come from. Interviewing candidates for exam-based recruitment to become public school teachers in Brazil, this project compares the political attitudes of those who narrowly became permanent teachers with those who narrowly failed the exam. This helps us calibrate both how representative recruited teachers are of the broader population, and in what ways their experience of being employed by the state influences their political beliefs.