Leadership in schools categorized as insufficient in Chile: perceptions of principals
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22458/ie.v23i34.3420Keywords:
Quality assurance policy, Performance categories, School leadership, Principals’ perceptions, Chile, EducationAbstract
Principals are a key player in school improvement, especially in schools categorized as insufficient by performance inspection systems. This study uses an exploratory and qualitative approach, the objective of which is to describe the perceptions of the principals who lead the “most critical” schools in the Valparaíso region, Chile. To do this, according to the qualitative methodology, in-depth interviews were conducted with seven school principals, in order to describe the reasons why they consider that their schools are in a deteriorating situation. It is concluded that the persons conducting this study report that the chronic deterioration situation is explained in a multifactorial manner. These factors can be grouped into five categories: (1) socioeconomic level of students and their families, (2) high rotation of top positions, (3) quality of pedagogical practices, (4) teachers´ commitment, and (5) idiosyncratic characteristics of the Chilean educational system. Recommendations are submitted for the national public policy on how to provide professional support to leaders tasked with leading in the midst of complexity.
References
Referencias
Ahumada, L., Galdames, S., & Clarke, S. (2016) Understanding leadership in schools facing challenging circumstances: a Chilean case study, International Journal of Leadership in Education, 19(3), 264-279
Bellei, C. (2013). Supporting Instructional Improvement in Low-Performing Schools to Increase Students’ Academic Achievement. The Journal of Educational Research, 106(3), 235–248.
Bellei C, Morawietz L, Vanni X, & Valenzuela, JP. (2015). Nadie dijo que era fácil. Escuelas efectivas en sectores de pobreza, diez años después. Santiago, Chile: LOM Ediciones.
Bush, T., & Glover, D. (2012). Distributed leadership in action: Leading high performing leadership teams in English schools. School Leadership and Management, 32(1), 21-36.
Cai, Q. (2011). Can principals' emotional intelligence matter to school turnarounds? International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice, 14(2), 151-179.
Chapman, C., & Harris, A. (2004). Improving schools in difficult and challenging contexts: Strategies for improvement. Educational Research, 46(3), 219–228.
Cosner, S., & Jones, M. F. (2016). Leading school-wide improvement in low-performing schools facing conditions of accountability. Journal of Educational Administration, 54(1), 41–57.
Creswell, J. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Day, C. (2014). Resilient principals in challenging schools: the courage and costs of conviction. Teachers and Teaching, 20(5), 638–654.
Duke, D. L., Tucker, P. D., Belcher, M., Crews, D., Harrison-Coleman, J., Higgins, J., Lanphear, L. et al. (2005). Lift-off: Launching the School Turnaround Process in Ten Virginia Schools. Charlottesville, VA: Partnership for Leaders in Education.
Duke, L. (2015). Leadership for low-performing schools: A step-by-step guide to the school turnaround process. Laham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Duke, D. L. (2006). What We Know and Don’t Know about Improving Low-Performing Schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 87(10), 729–734.
Duke, D. L., & Hochbein, C. (2008). Rising to the challenges of studying school decline. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 7, 358–379.
Finnigan, K. S. (2012). Principal Leadership in Low-Performing Schools. Education and Urban Society, 44(2), 183–202.
Herman, R., Dawson, P., Dee, T., Greene, J., Maynard, R., Redding, S., & Darwin, M. (2008). Turning around chronically low-performing schools: A practice guide (NCEE #2008 4020). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
Hitt, D. H. (2015). “What it takes” for a turnaround: Principal competencies that matter for student achievement. A guide to thoughtfully identifying and supporting school leaders. San Francisco, CA: WestEd.
Hitt, D. H., & C. V. Meyers. (2017). Promising Leadership Practices for Rapid School Improvement that Lasts. San Francisco, CA: Center on School Turnaround at WestEd.
Hitt, D. H., Woodruff, D., Meyers, C. V., & Zhu, G. (2018). Principal Competencies that Make a Difference: Identifying a Model for Leaders of School Turnaround. Journal of School Leadership, 28(1), 56-81.
Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Strauss, T. (2010). Leading school turnaround. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Hopkins, D. (2019). Seven strong claims about successful school leadership revisited, School Leadership & Management, DOI:10.1080/13632434.2019.1596077
Llorent-Bedmar, V., Cobano-Delgado, V., & Navarro-Granados, M. (2019). School leadership in disadvantaged contexts in Spain. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 47(1) 147–164.
Lumby, J. (2015). Leading schools in communities of multiple deprivation: Women principals in South Africa. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 43(3), 400–410.
Meyers, C., & Hitt, D. (2018). Planning for school turnaround in the United States: an analysis of the quality of principal-developed quick wins. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 18(3), 362-382.
Meyers, C., & Darwin, M. (2018). International perspectives on leading low-performing schools. North Carolina: Age publishing.
Meyer, M. J., MacMillan, R. B., & Northfield, S. (2009). Principal succession and its impact on teacher morale. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 12(2), 171-185.
Mintrop, R., Órdenes, M., & Madero, C. (2018). Mejora Escolar en Chile: El énfasis de la lógica “desde afuera hacia adentro” y el desplazamiento de la lógica “desde adentro hacia afuera”. Cuaderno de Educación, 78, 1-10.
Montecinos, C., Ahumada, L., Galdames, S., Campos, F., & Leiva, MV. (2015). Targets, threats and (dis)trust: The managerial troika for public school principals in Chile. Education Policy Analysis Archives 23(87), 1-29.
Morales-Inga, S. & Morales-Tristán, O. (2020). Viabilidad de comunidades profesionales de aprendizaje en sistemas educativos de bajo desempeño. Educación y Educadores, 23(1), 91-112
Moss, R. (2004). Confidence. New York: Crown Business.
Murphy, J., & Meyers, C. V. (2008). Turning around failing schools: Leadership lessons from the organizational sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Murphy, J., Neumerski, C., Goldring, E. Grissom, J. & Porter, A. (2015). Bottling Fog? The Quest for Instructional Management. Cambridge Journal of Education, 46(4), 1–17.
Murakami, E., & Kearney, W. K. (2019). Principals in high-performing, high poverty, minority-serving schools in Texas. Educational leadership, culture, and success in high-need schools, 3-24.
Nicolaidou, M., & Ainscow, M. (2005). Understanding Failing Schools: Perspectives from the inside. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 16(3), 229–248.
OECD. (2016). School Leadership for Learning: Insights from TALIS 2013. Paris: OECD Publishing. Epubahead of print 20 September 2016. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264258341-en.
Peck, C., & Reitzung, U. (2014). School turnaround fever: The paradoxes of a historical practice promoted as a new reform. Urban Education, 49, 8-38.
Shaked, H., Gross, Z., & Glanz, J. (2017). Between Venus and Mars. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 47(2), 291-309.
Shaked, H. (2019). Perceptual inhibitors of instructional leadership in Israeli principals. School Leadership & Management, DOI: 10.1080/13632434.2019.1574734
Stringfield, S. (1998). An anatomy of ineffectiveness. In L. Stoll & K. Myers (Eds.), No quick fixes: Perspectives on schools in difficulty (pp. 209 – 221). London: Falmer Press.
Taylor, S. L., R. Bogdan. & DeVault, M. (2016). Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods: A Guidebook and Resource. 4th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Valenzuela, JP. Bellei, C., & De los Ríos, D. (2014). Socioeconomic school segregation in a market-oriented educational system: The case of Chile. Journal of Education Policy 29(2), 217–241.
Vanni, X., Bustos, N., Valenzuela, JP. & Bellei, C. (2018). The role of leadership in improving low-performing schools: The Chilean case (pp. 149-170). En Meyers & Darwin (2018). International perspectives on leading low-performing schools. Virginia: Age Publications.
Ylimaki, R. M., Jacobson, S. L., & Drysdale, L. (2007). Making a Difference in Challenging, High-Poverty Schools: Successful principals in the USA, England, and Australia. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 18(4), 361–381.
Ahumada, L., Galdames, S., & Clarke, S. (2016) Understanding leadership in schools facing challenging circumstances: a Chilean case study, International Journal of Leadership in Education, 19(3), 264-279
Bellei, C. (2013). Supporting Instructional Improvement in Low-Performing Schools to Increase Students’ Academic Achievement. The Journal of Educational Research, 106(3), 235–248.
Bellei C, Morawietz L, Vanni X, & Valenzuela, JP. (2015). Nadie dijo que era fácil. Escuelas efectivas en sectores de pobreza, diez años después. Santiago, Chile: LOM Ediciones.
Bush, T., & Glover, D. (2012). Distributed leadership in action: Leading high performing leadership teams in English schools. School Leadership and Management, 32(1), 21-36.
Cai, Q. (2011). Can principals' emotional intelligence matter to school turnarounds? International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice, 14(2), 151-179.
Chapman, C., & Harris, A. (2004). Improving schools in difficult and challenging contexts: Strategies for improvement. Educational Research, 46(3), 219–228.
Cosner, S., & Jones, M. F. (2016). Leading school-wide improvement in low-performing schools facing conditions of accountability. Journal of Educational Administration, 54(1), 41–57.
Creswell, J. (2014). Research design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Day, C. (2014). Resilient principals in challenging schools: the courage and costs of conviction. Teachers and Teaching, 20(5), 638–654.
Duke, D. L., Tucker, P. D., Belcher, M., Crews, D., Harrison-Coleman, J., Higgins, J., Lanphear, L. et al. (2005). Lift-off: Launching the School Turnaround Process in Ten Virginia Schools. Charlottesville, VA: Partnership for Leaders in Education.
Duke, L. (2015). Leadership for low-performing schools: A step-by-step guide to the school turnaround process. Laham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Duke, D. L. (2006). What We Know and Don’t Know about Improving Low-Performing Schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 87(10), 729–734.
Duke, D. L., & Hochbein, C. (2008). Rising to the challenges of studying school decline. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 7, 358–379.
Finnigan, K. S. (2012). Principal Leadership in Low-Performing Schools. Education and Urban Society, 44(2), 183–202.
Herman, R., Dawson, P., Dee, T., Greene, J., Maynard, R., Redding, S., & Darwin, M. (2008). Turning around chronically low-performing schools: A practice guide (NCEE #2008 4020). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
Hitt, D. H. (2015). “What it takes” for a turnaround: Principal competencies that matter for student achievement. A guide to thoughtfully identifying and supporting school leaders. San Francisco, CA: WestEd.
Hitt, D. H., & C. V. Meyers. (2017). Promising Leadership Practices for Rapid School Improvement that Lasts. San Francisco, CA: Center on School Turnaround at WestEd.
Hitt, D. H., Woodruff, D., Meyers, C. V., & Zhu, G. (2018). Principal Competencies that Make a Difference: Identifying a Model for Leaders of School Turnaround. Journal of School Leadership, 28(1), 56-81.
Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Strauss, T. (2010). Leading school turnaround. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Hopkins, D. (2019). Seven strong claims about successful school leadership revisited, School Leadership & Management, DOI:10.1080/13632434.2019.1596077
Llorent-Bedmar, V., Cobano-Delgado, V., & Navarro-Granados, M. (2019). School leadership in disadvantaged contexts in Spain. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 47(1) 147–164.
Lumby, J. (2015). Leading schools in communities of multiple deprivation: Women principals in South Africa. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 43(3), 400–410.
Meyers, C., & Hitt, D. (2018). Planning for school turnaround in the United States: an analysis of the quality of principal-developed quick wins. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 18(3), 362-382.
Meyers, C., & Darwin, M. (2018). International perspectives on leading low-performing schools. North Carolina: Age publishing.
Meyer, M. J., MacMillan, R. B., & Northfield, S. (2009). Principal succession and its impact on teacher morale. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 12(2), 171-185.
Mintrop, R., Órdenes, M., & Madero, C. (2018). Mejora Escolar en Chile: El énfasis de la lógica “desde afuera hacia adentro” y el desplazamiento de la lógica “desde adentro hacia afuera”. Cuaderno de Educación, 78, 1-10.
Montecinos, C., Ahumada, L., Galdames, S., Campos, F., & Leiva, MV. (2015). Targets, threats and (dis)trust: The managerial troika for public school principals in Chile. Education Policy Analysis Archives 23(87), 1-29.
Morales-Inga, S. & Morales-Tristán, O. (2020). Viabilidad de comunidades profesionales de aprendizaje en sistemas educativos de bajo desempeño. Educación y Educadores, 23(1), 91-112
Moss, R. (2004). Confidence. New York: Crown Business.
Murphy, J., & Meyers, C. V. (2008). Turning around failing schools: Leadership lessons from the organizational sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Murphy, J., Neumerski, C., Goldring, E. Grissom, J. & Porter, A. (2015). Bottling Fog? The Quest for Instructional Management. Cambridge Journal of Education, 46(4), 1–17.
Murakami, E., & Kearney, W. K. (2019). Principals in high-performing, high poverty, minority-serving schools in Texas. Educational leadership, culture, and success in high-need schools, 3-24.
Nicolaidou, M., & Ainscow, M. (2005). Understanding Failing Schools: Perspectives from the inside. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 16(3), 229–248.
OECD. (2016). School Leadership for Learning: Insights from TALIS 2013. Paris: OECD Publishing. Epubahead of print 20 September 2016. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264258341-en.
Peck, C., & Reitzung, U. (2014). School turnaround fever: The paradoxes of a historical practice promoted as a new reform. Urban Education, 49, 8-38.
Shaked, H., Gross, Z., & Glanz, J. (2017). Between Venus and Mars. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 47(2), 291-309.
Shaked, H. (2019). Perceptual inhibitors of instructional leadership in Israeli principals. School Leadership & Management, DOI: 10.1080/13632434.2019.1574734
Stringfield, S. (1998). An anatomy of ineffectiveness. In L. Stoll & K. Myers (Eds.), No quick fixes: Perspectives on schools in difficulty (pp. 209 – 221). London: Falmer Press.
Taylor, S. L., R. Bogdan. & DeVault, M. (2016). Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods: A Guidebook and Resource. 4th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Valenzuela, JP. Bellei, C., & De los Ríos, D. (2014). Socioeconomic school segregation in a market-oriented educational system: The case of Chile. Journal of Education Policy 29(2), 217–241.
Vanni, X., Bustos, N., Valenzuela, JP. & Bellei, C. (2018). The role of leadership in improving low-performing schools: The Chilean case (pp. 149-170). En Meyers & Darwin (2018). International perspectives on leading low-performing schools. Virginia: Age Publications.
Ylimaki, R. M., Jacobson, S. L., & Drysdale, L. (2007). Making a Difference in Challenging, High-Poverty Schools: Successful principals in the USA, England, and Australia. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 18(4), 361–381.
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Published
2021-06-14
How to Cite
Aravena Castillo, F., & Madrid, R. (2021). Leadership in schools categorized as insufficient in Chile: perceptions of principals. Innovaciones Educativas, 23(34), 113–129. https://doi.org/10.22458/ie.v23i34.3420
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Scientific Articles