Chilean Educational System Research Articles

Unmaking the market: exploring the Chilean challenges to de-privatise the educational system

ABSTRACT The Chilean educational system is widely known as one of the most marketized systems globally. However, new political dynamics have emerged, challenging the extent to which education has been privatised and set in train what we might call the ‘unmaking of the market’. Across the literature, there are numerous accounts on making markets. However, what does ‘unmaking’ the market look like as a project, process, and set of outcomes, especially in a context where markets as a mode of coordination of social life more generally, and education as a sector in particular, have become common sense? This paper draws from a larger study on the making of the education market in Chile over a forty-year period. Focusing on the latest Bachelet's reforms (2014–2018), which aim to roll back privatisation and put into place the strengthening of public education, undoing the institutionalisation and legitimation of market-making mechanisms, and the materialisation of the market through its interiorisation in education actors. Here I show the emergence of a new discourse: a progressive dispute of the public(in)education. Chile finds itself in an interregnum; the old is potentially dying, but a new social order is yet to be born to stabilise a new epistemic moment.

(In)justicia multidimensional y pedagogías socialmente justas: el caso de un padre de un niño con discapacidad

En este artículo, pretendemos contribuir al debate de la justicia educativa, especialmente para niños/as con necesidades especiales, desafiando aquellas teorías que se enfocan solo en aspectos unidimensionales. Utilizando el modelo multidimensional de justicia de Gewirtz y el marco de las pedagogías socialmente justas, analizamos el caso de Oscar, padre de un niño con Síndrome de Down, que busca una escuela para su hijo. El caso se desarrolla en el contexto del sistema educativo chileno, que se caracteriza por un marco político neoliberal y con una estructura altamente estratificada. Debido a esto es que en 2015 y 2017 respectivamente, se implementó una nueva ley de inclusión y, específicamente, un nuevo sistema de admisión escolar, para generar un marco de política de admisión escolar más justo y equitativo. De este modo, nuestra propuesta teórica tiene implicaciones prácticas—en términos de política pública— y analíticas. Proponemos agregar dos dimensiones de la justicia educativa al momento de analizar el caso Oscar: primero, la justicia educativa debe abrazar injusticias que no necesariamente se viven en los espacios educativos formales; a esto lo llamamos la dimensión multiespacial de la justicia. En segundo lugar, proponemos un análisis de multitemporalidad de la justicia educativa, que considere, como lo han establecido las pedagogías socialmente justas, un enfoque hacia el futuro. En este caso, la política y el discurso educativo promueven un futuro preestablecido y normalizado para los niños y niñas, lo que es problemático para los niños/as con discapacidad, cuyos padres, como Oscar, tienen un foco en el presenta más urgente.

How Can Physical Inactivity in Girls Be Explained? A Socioecological Study in Public, Subsidized, and Private Schools.

In the last few years, the World Health Organization has highlighted that physical inactivity is a global issue affecting women to a greater extent than men. Faced with this, different nation states have developed public policies to reduce physical inactivity at school; however, the biomedical and individualistic models used have generated widespread criticism, as figures remain the same. In the context of failed interventions on increasing levels of physical activity, this study utilizes a socioecological model to analyze and understand how physical inactivity is reproduced in girls in the Chilean education system. A qualitative study was implemented, as it allows a focus on the entailed meanings, context, and processes. Active semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 groups comprising headmasters, teachers, non-teachers, students, and families. The results show that physical inactivity is linked to factors that go beyond the individualistic model; that is, consideration must include intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, community, and public policy dimensions. Furthermore, gender stereotypes gain relevance in physical education classes, in addition to friendships and family, teaching, and administrative work, access to safe play areas, use of spaces, and widespread cultural factors associated with men and women. This study concludes that the assessed gender differences should be approached from a pedagogical perspective beyond common sense, further reporting that the individualized explanation for physical inactivity is irrelevant to answer why women are more inactive than men.

When the Invisible Makes Inequity Visible: Chilean Teacher Education in COVID-19 Times

Although there is high inequity in the Chilean education system, the sanitary situation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has repositioned the debate about inequity in teacher education. We explored the following two questions: what are the (new) inequities highlighted in teacher education during the pandemic in Chile? What can we learn from teacher educators’ responses to these issues? Using content analysis, we analyzed interviews held with 16 teacher educators from four different programs across the country. Findings show that the pandemic makes unequal pre-service teachers’ living and studying conditions visible, becoming a source of stress but also an opportunity to rethink program support. Teacher educators’ responses to inequity were based on a distributive and/or recognition perspective of justice, mediated by program resources and characteristics. We identified difficulties in achieving justice of participation by teacher educators in this context, influenced by scarce program resources or a sense of urgency. Conclusions highlighted the role of teacher education in addressing students’ inequities and the importance of remaining vigilant about these issues in the aftermath of the pandemic, keeping them visible.

Social representations of physical education teachers concerning the game: a qualitative study in Chile

Background and Study Aim. The objective of this research was to determine the social representations of the game in physical education teachers belonging to the Chilean educational system, searching for the sense and meaning given by the educators to the game aspect.
 Material and Methods. The study sample consisted of 14 physical education teachers, who were chosen by the convenience sampling method. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from the participants, maintaining gender equity. The analysis of the data obtained was by means of content analysis and the NVivo 11 program was used to process the data.
 Results. Our research indicates that of the categories analyzed, the highest was the role of the game (22.29%), demonstrating the relevance given by teachers to the game in the development of meaningful learning. On the contrary, the category characteristics of the game (17.42%), describe how teachers visualize the contributions of play at the educational level, in this sense, the role of the game goes beyond motor contributions, but also provides tools for social and cognitive development.
 Conclusions. For the teachers, the game promotes autonomous and proactive actions of the students, which will be beneficial to understand that playfulness in education implies not to put in contradiction the rational and emotional faculties. This comprehensive view is called full attitude, and it is a relevant step toward the understanding of the game from a complex perspective. In this area, it is evident that, in the social representations of the participating teachers, the game constitutes a natural environment in which children develop, where the physical education teacher should create an environment that facilitates the game, facilitating the expression of autonomy, freedom, creativity, and playfulness.

The construction of a leadership identity based on empathy, care, and participation: María Eliana's history

Recent academic research highlights the role of leadership identity when thinking about the improvement of the educational field. Based on this research, this article aims to identify and analyze the elements that affect the development of leadership identity in female school principals within the Chilean context. This is achieved by working from a biographical-narrative approach, specifically from the life history technique. This analysis emerges from a considerate reflection on the teachings, and personal and professional milestones highlighted in the biogram. Both personally and professionally, a multiplicity of elements is observed in the life history of María Eliana, influencing the development of her leadership identity, particularly highlighting her self-recognition as a woman. This identity is oriented towards social justice, based on socio-emotional tools such as care, empathy, and participation; and understands and values the role these elements must take in Chilean education. The case study presents tensions for the Chilean educational system, which must be able to address the complexities that women experience while holding leadership positions, especially when challenged with the perspective that school is an inclusive space of social justice.

Analysing Probability Teaching Practices in Primary Education: What Tasks Do Teachers Implement?

This study analyses probability tasks proposed by primary education teachers to promote probabilistic literacy. To this end, eight class sessions at various levels of the Chilean educational system were recorded on video and analysed through the ”probability tasks” dimension from the “Observation Instrument for Probability Classes” (IOC-PROB), which includes five components: use of resources, probabilistic contexts, cognitive challenge, procedures and strategies, and probability meanings. The results show that probability tasks focus mainly on technical knowledge, causing the probability class to become an arithmetic class in which only formulas are applied, mechanically and with no meaning. As a result, we see no use of technological resources, a low use of physical materials, and an absolute predominance of solving decontextualised exercises. We conclude that it is necessary to enhance the probability teaching practices based on lesson plans that consider a wide variety of resources and contexts to gradually advance towards a representation of probabilistic knowledge that relies on conventional procedures and notations.

Socioeconomic segregation between and within curriculum tracking

Previous studies have documented social segregation for single types of tracking, but little previous research has compared levels of segregation across different institutional tracking arrangements. This paper uses extensive administrative data of the Chilean educational system to estimate the magnitude and evolution of socioeconomic segregation between- and within-school curriculum tracking. Results indicate that the unequal distribution of students by socioeconomic status between tracks narrows when tracking takes place within schools, mainly in the presence of market incentives that lead schools to focus on particular student populations.

Conceptual metaphors about Chilean education and students represented by 2006-2018 online English-speaking newspapers

This investigation aims to find how Chilean education is perceived by 69 English-speaking online newspaper articles from 12 different countries. A qualitative study coherent with metaphoric analysis was carried out to identify metaphors about education and students. Conceptual metaphors found in the 99 fragments taken from these news articles are organized into two dimensions. Each dimension deals with a different topic related to education in Chile and how it is represented by online media: Chilean education system , and student role and education conflict . Most of the newspapers scrutinized focused on the commercial and conflictive side of Chilean education, making the categories of Commercialism and War the most frequent ones. The most mentioned topic was the student conflict as the main subject of analysis. Chilean education can be defined as in conflict due to the contrasting viewpoints of the stakeholders involved in it and the inability to come to terms with each party. This unchanging state of affairs has led to ceaseless protests and general unrest from the Chilean population.

Law on Teaching Careers in Chile: The Way Teachers and School Leaders Interpret and Develop its Principles

The Chilean educational system is facing important processes of transformation and reform. This article explores the Professional Development System for Teachers (Law 26.093), which has focused its efforts on improving teacher evaluation systems and promoting changes in their working practices and professional training. The objective is to analyse how principals and teachers of the educational system have interpreted this law, and their beliefs about how the principles of the reform can be implemented with a perspective of recontextualization. Therefore, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 teachers and members of management teams. The findings presented point out that there is great potential in the development of collaborative work, the need for training for its implementation and formalization.

Towards a network learning system: reflections on a university initial teacher education and school-based collaborative initiative in Chile

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the development of a network learning system to enhance professional learning in Initial Teacher Education (ITE) through collaboration in a university–school partnership. The Chilean education system, characterised by market-oriented reforms and competition, serves as a unique context where to explore the development of an initiative designed to reframe relationships between ITE staff and school teachers with the purpose of reducing the distance between academic preparation and the day-to-day realities of teaching in schools. The findings of this exploratory study offer optimistic insights on how the initiative becomes a space for building trust and relationships among professionals and disrupts boundaries between institutions enhancing teacher professional learning, which are particularly promising given the policy context.

Educational continuity during the pandemic: Challenges to pedagogical management in segregated Chilean schools

The COVID-19 outbreak has created an uncertain scenario for educational systems, leading many countries to deploy unprecedented remote learning programmes. Chilean schools have not been the exception and have thus developed and put in place several actions to uphold effective pedagogical management (PM) and continuity of learning; however, as we emphasise in this paper, the Chilean educational system is highly segregated. PM encompasses actions and decisions aimed at safeguarding quality education by focusing on four domains: technological, curricular, methodological and assessment. This descriptive and exploratory quantitative study seeks to explore the challenges facing PM, as perceived by actors working in Chile’s three different administrative and financial school governance systems in the framework of remote education during the COVID-19 pandemic.Our findings highlight the disparities among actors belonging to the three types of administrative and financial governance systems regarding the perceived challenges facing PM. Thus, publicly funded schools face greater challenges in practically all four PM domains as compared to private schools. The main differences among schools revolve around the technological and assessment domains. While the technological domain is more of a concern for public schools, the assessment domain presents more challenges for private schools. Beyond the schools´ administrative and financial governance system, an important finding was the scant importance attached to the curriculum as a challenging issue as well as an excessive focus on the methodological domain, indicative of a prevailing logic of efficiency as applied to the learning process.

Attitude to multiculturality at school scale: validation and psychometric properties on a Chilean sample

The increasing number of immigrant students on the Chilean educational system stresses the importance of study teachers’ attitudes to multiculturality in schools settings. Nevertheless, there is a lack of adequate measurement instruments to apply on Chilean population. The aim of this work was to validate the Attitude to Multiculturality at School Scale (León del Barco et al., 2007) on a Chilean sample, composed by N=160 teachers. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the unifactorial model had the best fit to the data. Correlation analysis revealed significant relations between attitude to multiculturality at school, perceived out-group threat and prejudice. Linear regression analysis showed that perceived threat and prejudice explained 42% of the attitude to multiculturality at school variability, supporting criterion validity.

The Effect of School Voucher Spending on Initial Earnings

We quantify the effect of school voucher spending on initial earnings. We use administrative data on the monetary resources received by schools from a targeted voucher program implemented in Chile. We merge this dataset with education and labor market administrative records for the universe of students enrolled in the Chilean education system. We find that an increase of US$100 in the yearly expenditure of voucher resources per student raises initial earnings by 2.3%. However, we find that the positive effect of voucher spending only holds for private voucher schools that operate in local education markets with low enrollment concentration.

Feria intercultural y representaciones de lo migrante en una escuela urbana en Santiago de Chile

This article focuses on the educational context as a privileged space to analyze the construction of inclusion/ exclusion processes of immigrant students in the Chilean educational system. This study presents the results of an ethnographic research carried out in a secondary school in Santiago, capital city of Chile, where its own intercultural program is developed. This research goes deeper into how a school evaluates circumstances of potential discrimination in its classrooms. Firstly, it categorizes the supposed existing differences among the students. Then, the school developed several awareness-raising strategies for its educational community based on these hypothetical differences. Specifically, this article analyzes the staging of immigrant and intercultural issues on a specific activity of the school, called “The Intercultural Fair”, which commemorate every year the October 12th “Encounter of Two Worlds”.

Educational continuity during the pandemic: Challenges to pedagogical management in segregated Chilean schools

The COVID-19 outbreak has created an uncertain scenario for educational systems, leading many countries to deploy unprecedented remote learning programmes. Chilean schools have not been the exception and have thus developed and put in place several actions to uphold effective pedagogical management (PM) and continuity of learning; however, as we emphasise in this paper, the Chilean educational system is highly segregated. PM encompasses actions and decisions aimed at safeguarding quality education by focusing on four domains: technological, curricular, methodological and assessment. This descriptive and exploratory quantitative study seeks to explore the challenges facing PM, as perceived by actors working in Chile’s three different administrative and financial school governance systems in the framework of remote education during the COVID-19 pandemic.Our findings highlight the disparities among actors belonging to the three types of administrative and financial governance systems regarding the perceived challenges facing PM. Thus, publicly funded schools face greater challenges in practically all four PM domains as compared to private schools. The main differences among schools revolve around the technological and assessment domains. While the technological domain is more of a concern for public schools, the assessment domain presents more challenges for private schools. Beyond the schools´ administrative and financial governance system, an important finding was the scant importance attached to the curriculum as a challenging issue as well as an excessive focus on the methodological domain, indicative of a prevailing logic of efficiency as applied to the learning process.

Visualización de los ajustes curriculares implementados en aula durante la crisis sanitaria COVID-19 en una región de Chile

The educational process during 2020 was directly affected by the COVID-19 health crisis, after being considered a pandemic according to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2020). The objective of the research is to visualize the methodological and work settings used in the classroom during this time. The methodology of this study is quantitative and the data were obtained through a descriptive survey, applied to 14 high school teachers that make up the teaching staff of an establishment in the Maule-Chile Region. The main results indicate the effectiveness of curricular prioritization, the incorporation of ICT as a tool for the content delivery, and the increase in workload, hindering the teaching-learning process compared to 2019. It is concluded that the way of working during the pandemic in the Chilean educational system, although it is not exempt from complications, indicated that teachers manage to adapt to the changes that are presented to them, looking for different strategies, incorporating work tools, and bending the effort, identifying the successes and difficulties to teach during the health crisis.

Proposal of a model for the analysis of the implementation of state initiatives in the area of education improvement

This article presents research on the implementation of state initiatives for the Chilean education system, that seek to contribute to the improvement of education.Considering a conceptual framework unique to the study of the implementation of public policy, in general, and those relating to education, in particular, a systematic review was carried out of fifty-two studies that were conducted or requested by state institutions, regarding initiatives that sought to contribute to the improvement of education. This review identified factors related to the achievement of the initiatives’ intended objectives, factors associated with the interpretations of said initiatives made by the diverse actors and how they choose to act in response, and factors that influence the modifications made to the initiatives during the implementation process.Through this analysis, a model is proposed to analyze the implementation of the state initiatives, that permits the identification of factors that should be considered, with the goal of strengthening their contribution to the improvement of education.

La relación entre educador-educando en el contexto de la virtualidad educativa del COVID-19: afectos y prácticas pedagógicas desde una perspectiva feminista

En el contexto de crisis sanitaria del COVID-19, la irrupción de la educación virtual escolar ha acentuado las desigualdades del sistema educativo chileno, donde las interacciones afectivas entre educador y educando se encuentran mediadas por los soportes tecnológicos. Por ello, el objetivo de este estudio es identificar la importancia del afecto para los docentes dentro de su práctica pedagógica desde una perspectiva feminista, determinar el uso de medios y recursos tecnológicos desde su posibilidad democratizadora y, por último, tipologizar las interacciones afectivas entre educador- educando en las actuales prácticas educativas virtuales. La metodología corresponde a un análisis cualitativo con un enfoque fenomenológico, un diseño de estudio de casos y la técnica de análisis es narrativa-fenomenológica, luego de la recolección de registros audiovisuales de clases y la generación de unidades de significado y categorías respecto a lo observado. Los resultados revelan la existencia de cuatro categorías y ocho subcategorías afectivas dentro de la práctica pedagógica vinculada al uso de los medios digitales y, por consiguiente, la implicación afectiva que existe en el modelo educativo escolar chileno. La discusión teórica se sustenta en la pedagogía feminista, concebida como un punto de inflexión ante las lógicas de poder verticales y jerárquicas propias del modelo capitalista, lo cual permite abordar la interacción pedagógica como fenómeno, mostrando experiencias distintas que son afectadas por una misma problemática, pero capaces de visibilizar las diferentes experiencias educativas existentes dentro del modelo bancario educativo. De esta forma, se dan luces de formas educativas más horizontales y equitativas.

The circle of non-dialogue: everyday interactions at schools located in vulnerable areas and Chilean educational system

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research is to understand, through an ethnography, how interactions and dialogue transpire in the classrooms of three high-risk primary schools in Santiago, Chile. We address the problem in an educational model with an evaluation system based on high-stakes testing. The results give an account of interactions do not favour dialogue, there is a prevalence of a sequence of expository class, individual work and monitoring, hurry to cover the curriculum predominate, and the evaluation standards for learning are limited to content tests in the form of a standardised high-stakes test. The rationale behind these classroom practices follows a circular logic where the students are both the cause and consequence of the lack of dialogue.