Beatrice Avalos

Leadership Issues and Experiences in Latin America

This chapter sets the context in Latin America to which four specific chapters in the Handbook refer. Using data from the most recent regional evaluation of educational achievement, four types of countries are distinguished in terms of their learning results in the curricular areas measured. Results are linked to per capita income, but also show an effect of schools and their conditions. Within this context, the main thrust of papers related to countries with high per capita income such as Chile and with low income such as the Dominican Republic in terms of school and teacher leadership is highlighted. The overall characteristics of the monitoring and supervisory roles of government (national and state) are the subject of a third paper centred on the need for appropriate mediations between state authority and school leadership, while the fourth paper is analysed briefly in its presentation of the characteristics of school principals in the Latin American region.

Future teacher trajectory research: Its contribution to teacher education and policy

AbstractThrough means of an ongoing trajectory study of teachers in Chile moving from teacher education into schools, this article examines how teacher education research may contribute to feeding into institutional improvement as well as the macro level of teacher education policy. It first provides some contextual information on the development of Chilean teacher education in the aftermath of the military dictatorship period (1973–1990) and of a research base within its institutions. Then it centres on how future teachers from 11 teacher education programmes report on their learning and growth processes before and after their final practicum, and refer to the contextual effects of school placement on these processes. To this end, questionnaires before and after the practicum experience were administered to an initial group of 152 future teachers and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 of these teachers as well as one observation in their classrooms and schools. The key elements examined we...

Reform Environment and Teacher Identity in Chile

In the last 20 years teachers around the world have been exposed to a wide range of transformations occurring in their education systems, which in turn have triggered challenges to their professional identities (Weber, 2007; Baker & Wiseman, 2005; van den Berg, 2002).

La formación inicial docente en Chile: Tensiones entre políticas de apoyo y control

The article examines Chilean national policies affecting teacher education and its effectiveness over the past fifteen year. The article uses as analytical categories those formulated by OECD (2004) and other international reports such as McKinsey (Barber & Mourshed, 2008) centred on “Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers. The policies are considered in the light of their main emphases directed to support, regulate, and provide incentives and control, and their framing within the broad purposes of quality assurance and accountability. The article notes that the policy frames studied make sense within the context of globalization and internationalization of policies, as well within the neo-liberal ideology and market concepts which have been present in Chilean policies and educational institutions in Chile since the 1980s.

Educational Change in Chile: Reform or Improvements? (1990–2007)

Very soon after Michelle Bachelet, the new president of Chile, took office in 2006, secondary public school students went out onto the streets to protest. Initially, their complaints had to do with specific issues such as free bus tickets on weekends, but gradually the movement became a more serious call to improve education in the public school system including private subsidised schools. They had many complaints, but underlying them all was the notion that large numbers of young people in public schools lacked the opportunities open to the affluent groups who attend the private school system. The student movement gained support from the public, and from many organisations such as the Teachers Union, political groups and university students, as well as private school students who perhaps recognised their own privileged situation. The impact of this massive protest may have come as a surprise. The purpose of the chapter is to discuss changes that have taken place in education, their focus, their achievements and tensions involved in the process of trying to improve the education system, what are effectively to be considered an improvement and what is still lacking.

Learning from Research on Beginning Teachers

The chapter reviews international research on beginning teachers from 2001 onwards on the basis of three thematic areas related to beginning teacher professional learning and identity building and to the specific tasks of teaching and student learning as well as the cognitive, emotional and social aspects involved. It is organised in three thematic sections: (a) subject-matter teaching, cognitive processing and concerns for relevance and student learning on the part of beginning teachers; (b) impact of the teaching and school community contexts and the social and emotional tensions experienced by new teachers, as well as opportunities for collaborative learning and (c) reconfiguration of professional identity from teacher education into classroom teaching, the impact of external policies and the quality of support structures. In relation to each theme, besides providing an overview of related research, two or three specific pieces of relevant studies are examined and used as evidence for conclusions.

Initial teachers' education in Chile: tensions between policies of support and control

The article examines Chilean national policies affecting teacher education and its effectiveness over the past fifteen year. The article uses as analytical categories those formulated by OECD (2004) and other international reports such as McKinsey (Barber & Mourshed, 2008) centred on “Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers. The policies are considered in the light of their main emphases directed to support, regulate, and provide incentives and control, and their framing within the broad purposes of quality assurance and accountability. The article notes that the policy frames studied make sense within the context of globalization and internationalization of policies, as well within the neo-liberal ideology and market concepts which have been present in Chilean policies and educational institutions in Chile since the 1980s.

Formação inicial de professores no Chile: Tensões entre política de apoio e controle

The article examines Chilean national policies affecting teacher education and its effectiveness over the past fifteen year. The article uses as analytical categories those formulated by OECD (2004) and other international reports such as McKinsey (Barber & Mourshed, 2008) centred on “Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers. The policies are considered in the light of their main emphases directed to support, regulate, and provide incentives and control, and their framing within the broad purposes of quality assurance and accountability. The article notes that the policy frames studied make sense within the context of globalization and internationalization of policies, as well within the neo-liberal ideology and market concepts which have been present in Chilean policies and educational institutions in Chile since the 1980s.