After two decades of neoliberal reforms, Latin America educational policy remains hotly contested by a number of players. Crisis and Hope studies the role of the state, political parties, international organisations and teachers in determining the course of South American education and invites us to understand the complexities, heterogenetics, nightmares, dreams, crises, and promises of education in the region. In these lively essays, readers in ‘the North’ get a glimpse of the innovative work of Latin American scholars whose research is usually only available in Spanish and Portuguese.