Search

Purpose: This research paper explores the value of collaborative inquiry networks of headteachers and curriculum coordinators to cope with 2020's coronavirus pandemic in Chile. Specifically, the authors describe the main challenges that networks identify in their contexts, the collaborative practices performed by different schools to address these challenges, and the influence of the networks on the innovative responses of teachers in their own schools. Design/methodology/approach: This is a mixed-method study from a complementary stance using different methods and data of a project implemented with a total of 54 headteachers and curriculum coordinators. The data sources were participants' individual reports, the network teams' reports of their collaborative inquiry projects, and a short open-ended questionnaire responded by teachers that did not participate directly in the networks but benefited from their work. The data were analyzed using content analysis, categories were created to organize and describe the main findings. Findings: Participants of the networks reported that their active participation in the collaborative inquiry allows them to share knowledge among different schools and has helped them to support innovative practices in their own schools. Specifically, they have reported that collaborating has permitted them to maintain a pedagogical focus, foster distributed leadership within the school communities, provide them with greater autonomy, and develop skills to favor the emotional containment of their teams. Inquiry teams perform diverse collective practices; they designed and applied virtual surveys, planned and implemented virtual workshops with teachers, and generated meaningful reflection about formative assessment and pedagogical practices. Originality/value: This work offers insights into how the Chilean school system has responded to COVID-19 challenges and shows how despite the negative aspects of the pandemic, it has become an opportunity to recognize and enhance teachers' professional development through the collaboration among different schools. Most headteachers and curriculum coordinators reported that an active collaborative inquiry changed how they used to think about their leadership and strengthened the value of professional relationships to address extremely difficult challenges as a result of the pandemic. These lessons can be taken for the future, to rethink and rebuild educational systems.

Public education in Chile has been steadily losing students as a result of the implementation, for the last 35 years, of a market model. In this paper we exemplify how a structural problem (public schools' declining enrollment) created by neoliberal educational policies is transformed into an individual problem to be managed by the public school principal. Principals must sign a performance-based contract that specifies sanctions and incentives for meeting enrollment targets. The current paper examines, through data produced by in-depth interviews and shadowing, how 19 principals worked toward that target. Findings show that to manage enrollment principals spent, on average, 24% of their time performing marketing tasks. Principals, thus, have developed an entrepreneurial self, which is promoted by quasi-market school governance models. Through this entrepreneurship they manage various threats that represent barriers to the possibilities for meeting enrollment targets.

A challenge to support school networks in Chile is the competitive culture promoted by market-oriented educational policies that have harmed school leaders' capacities to work and learn together. This is an empirical research about a Collaborative Inquiry Networks (CIN) strategy to support the development of networked leadership capacities of headteachers and curriculum coordinators from one district during a 1-year educational period. Each session of the program was systematised, local authorities were interviewed and a survey was conducted with participants at the beginning and at the end of the year. Findings indicate that leadership team members improved their inquiry abilities and collaborative practices with others. This type of work has contributed to increasing achievement expectations of their teachers concerning their students, highlighting that it is possible and useful to advance from a culture of competition to a culture of collaboration. This paper offers a concrete and practical methodology to develop leadership capacities to lead collaborative inquiry projects between and within schools in a South American context such as Chile.

In a context characterised by triple sources of accountability demands, principals in Chile are required to mobilise change to raise performance indicators. School improvement is a complex endeavour--a complexity that is intensified for newly appointed principals, particularly when placed in a high-poverty, ineffective school. This article explores changes introduced by newly appointed principals placed in elementary public schools that were struggling (n = 4) and in schools that were sinking (n = 5). Findings show that all participants converged on actions to promote changes in: staffing, redesigning the organisation, and managing instruction. The quality of the actions, however, differed by type of school, highlighting the importance of defining policies for strengthening school leadership that take into account differences among schools. Induction will provide needed support at the individual level, but it might be insufficient support if other measures at the district level fail to create conditions, such as staffing, so the arrival of a new principal is indeed an opportunity to reverse a downward trajectory of an ineffective, high-poverty school.

Objective: This prospective cohort study aimed to investigate the association between head impact exposure (HIE) and neuropsychological sequelae in high school football and ice hockey players over 1 year. Setting: Community sample. Participants: A cohort of 52 adolescent American football and ice hockey players were enrolled in the study, with a final study sample of 35 included in analyses. Design: The study followed a prospective cohort design, with participants undergoing neuropsychological screening and accelerometer-based measurement of HIE over 1 season. Main Measures: Changes in cognition, emotions, behavior, and reported symptoms were assessed using standardized neuropsychological tests and self-reported questionnaires. Results: Cumulative HIE was not consistently associated with changes in cognition, emotions, behavior, or reported symptoms. However, it was linked to an isolated measure of processing speed, showing inconsistent results based on the type of HIE. History of previous concussion was associated with worsened verbal memory recognition (ImPACT Verbal Memory) but not on a more robust measure of verbal memory (California Verbal Learning Test [CVLT]). Reported attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder history predicted improved neurocognitive change scores. No associations were found between reported history of anxiety/depression or headaches/migraines and neuropsychological change scores. Conclusion: Overall, our findings do not support the hypothesis that greater HIE is associated with an increase in neuropsychological sequelae over time in adolescent football and ice hockey players. The results align with the existing literature, indicating that HIE over 1 season of youth sports is not consistently associated with significant neuropsychological changes. However, the study is limited by a small sample size, attrition over time, and the absence of performance validity testing for neurocognitive measures. Future studies with larger and more diverse samples, longer follow-up, and integration of advanced imaging and biomarkers are needed to comprehensively understand the relationship between HIE and neurobehavioral outcomes. Findings can inform guidelines for safe youth participation in contact sports while promoting the associated health and psychosocial benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last 10 years, research into schools facing challenging circumstances has attracted the attention of researchers around the world. The aim of this study was to understand the challenges that school leaders face as they per form their work, the nature of the context in which these challenges arise, the strategies school leaders adopt to deal with the complexities of their work and the reasons behind these strategies. For this purpose, we investigated a single case study of a Chilean K8 school achieving extraordinary success despite its adverse circumstances. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with the principal, the vice-principal, the teachers, the students and the management team of the school. The interviews were focused on the challenges experienced by the school community, and on the strategies implemented in order to face them. The findings are organized around three key themes: first, the importance of nurturing high expectations among students and staff; secondly, the importance of enhancing teachers' morale; thirdly, the importance of setting and sharing a common vision for a preferred future. These key themes have been instrumental to the success of the school may be enlightening to other schools, that are facing comparable challenging circumstances, especially in Chile.

Technical and vocational education has promoted both on the basis of its potential to support the equity, productivity, and sustainability of countries and for its importance for employability and social mobility. The objective of this article is to understand distributed leadership and the culture of collaborative work in technical and vocational high schools. The research followed a qualitative, multi-case study methodology based on a selection of eleven vocational schools with a history of sustained improvement. The results describe various leadership practices centered on increases in administrative staff, a decentralization of responsibilities, collective and collaborative work between departments, professional and personal collaboration networks, common goals, and group decisions with the productive sector. This study is relevant for the promotion of educational policies that value and guide the distribution of leadership to strengthen technical and vocational education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined the goal orientations that could be inferred from how teachers from six municipal schools in Chile described their understandings, emotions, and behaviors during their participation in the assessment phase of the School Management Quality Assurance System. Content analysis of focus group interview transcripts evidenced three school-level patterns of participation, associated with distinct goal orientations. Projective participation to judge the quality of the school's practices was associated with a learning orientation (one school). Consultant participation to demonstrate competence to external inspectors was associated with a performance-approach orientation (one school). Simple participation to complete tasks imposed by administrators was associated with a performance-avoidance orientation (four schools). School-level differences highlighted teachers' perceptions of the characteristics of their school's culture associated with the adoption of these goal orientations. These included existing internal accountability practices, the social capital the school could leverage to implement self-assessment and use external feedback, and the existing structures for teacher participation in decision making. These factors may prove to be a useful guide for the development of induction strategies to support the use of school assessment in ways that foster, rather than diminish, teachers' motivation.

Copyright of Profesorado: Revista de Currículum y Formación del Profesorado is the property of Profesorado: Revista de Curriculum y Formacion del Profesorado and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study used portable technology based on Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM log) to register workday practices of school principals and heads from Chilean schools who were implementing school improvement plans aimed at developing a culture of organizational learning. For a week, Smartphone devices which beeped seven times a day were given to School Principals and Heads of Technical-Pedagogical Units, who then answered closed questions about their current agenda. Six municipal schools in a district of the V Region of Chile participated in the study. The main results support the notion that, at the time of data collection, most school Principals and Heads of Technical-Pedagogical Units were working alone, and if they were interacting with other people, they were always in command. Following underlying assumed roles, most school principals reported performing administrative tasks, while Heads of Technical-Pedagogical Units mainly addressed instructional issues, fostering a rigid framework for the assignment of tasks. Follow-up semi-structured interviews confirmed that participants were not working as a team but rather alone on important issues and urgent matters. Participants regarded the use of the device as a very practical and useful tool to analyze their daily practices. Results are discussed focusing on the use of portable technology to address methodological issues faced when approaching research on educational leadership from a distributed leadership perspective. (Contains 2 figures and 11 tables.)