Promoting collaboration in a competitive context: school improvement networks in Chile

Published date05 December 2019
Pages208-226
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-11-2018-0213
Date05 December 2019
AuthorMauricio Pino-Yancovic,Constanza Gonzalez Parrao,Luis Ahumada,Alvaro Gonzalez
Subject MatterEducation,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy,Educational administration,Leadership in education
Promoting collaboration in a
competitive context: school
improvement networks in Chile
Mauricio Pino-Yancovic
Centro de Liderazgo para la Mejora Escolar, Lideres Educativos,
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Valparaiso, Chile
Constanza Gonzalez Parrao
Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK
Luis Ahumada
Leadership Center for School Improvement,
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Valparaiso, Chile, and
Alvaro Gonzalez
Centro Lideres Educativos,
Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Valparaiso, Chile
Abstract
Purpose Chile has developed the school improvement networks (SINs) strategy to support the work of
school leaders. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the functioning and effect of the SINs strategy as
perceived by principals and curriculum coordinators across the country.
Design/methodology/approach An adapted version of the Educational Collaborative Network
Questionnaire was applied to a sample of 1,723 participants from 1,375 schools distributed in 398 networks.
Descriptive, factor and sub-group statistical analyses by school performance categories and by different roles
within these schools and networks are presented.
Findings Results indicate that school leaders perceive SINs as an opportunity to work effectively in shared
projects that can later be implemented in their own schools. Participants indicate that they can share
knowledge in their networks and use it to solve problems in their own schools, which is especially relevant for
secondary school leaders who work in difficult circumstances. Results suggest thatit is important to facilitate
greater autonomy for school leaders in their networks, especially regarding decision making about network
goals and activities that are more significant to their contexts.
Originality/value This is a national study of a recent school improvement strategy, which provides
evidence, from the perspective of school leaders, of its strengths and improvement areas. This study shows
that despite being in a competitive context, principals and curriculum coordinators value the opportunities to
learn from and with others. These results can be of value for other contexts attempting to promote school
networks as a means for school and system improvement.
Keywords Collaboration, School improvement, Professional capital, Networked improvement,
School networks
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Networking has been advanced as a promising strategy for urban school reform and
continuous improvement by promoting collaboration between professionals and organizations
(Leithwood and Azah, 2016; Rincón-Gallardo and Fullan, 2016; West, 2010; Wohlstetter et al.,
2003). Chile has echoed this international trend, and recent educational reforms have focused on
promoting collaboration between schools through a networked approach. However, this implies
an important cultural change, since competition is a prominent feature of the Chilean school
system due to its market-oriented principles, inspired by Milton Friedmans (1962) neoliberal
approach to social policy.
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 58 No. 2, 2020
pp. 208-226
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-11-2018-0213
Received 13 November 2018
Revised 14 April 2019
26 July 2019
15 October 2019
25 October 2019
Accepted 26 October 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
208
JEA
58,2
The assumption of this neoliberal model, implemented in Chile during Pinochets
dictatorship (19731990), is that market forces would regulate educational institutions,
making them more efficient in response to local and global economic interests (Carnoy and
McEwan, 2001). Three key educational policies consistent with this market model have
pushed schools toward competition: the privatization of public education by transferring the
administration of public schools to municipalities and private for-profit and non-profit
organizations; a voucher system based on student enrollment and attendance, set up to
finance the educational system; and the creation of a national standardized test (SIMCE) for
high-stakesaccountability purposes.These policies, connected,foster a business capitalmodel
(Shirley, 2016)where schools from different administrators (municipal and private-subsidized)
compete againsteach other for studentsenrolmentin order to secure the necessaryresources
to enable them to subsist, while SIMCE results are expected to inform familieschoice of
schools for their children (Bellei and Vanni, 2015; Pino-Yancovic, 2015).
After the dictatorship, throughout the 1990s, the goal was to regulate the educational market
and support schools and teachers through a series of policies that did not challenge the
underlying assumptions of marketization. These policies improved issues such as infrastructure
and available resources for municipal and private-subsidized schools, but there were no
significant gains in educational outcomes as the system continued to reproduce its structural
segregation (Ahumada et al., 2012; Osses et al., 2015; Román and Murillo, 2012). A persistent
discontent emerged from students and the civil society in the first decade of the 2000s, having a
direct impact on the media and the public agenda for education (Fuentes, 2006; Pedreira
Elizalde, 2014; Pitton, 2012). Studentsdemonstrations in 2006 and 2011, and the ensuing
parentsand teachersmovements provided the momentum for proposing and enacting deep
reforms to the market model during President Bachelets second term (20142017).
In this context, in 2015, the Chilean Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) developed and
launched the school improvement networks (SINs) strategy. The goal of thesenetworks is for
principals and curriculum coordinators to learn collectively as peers, have the opportunity to
adapt national policies to their own context, discuss and analyze problems that they face in
their own school to jointly decide the best path of action, and share successful experiences.
That year, nearly 500 networks across all 15 regions of the country were created to support
the improvement of municipal schools and, in some cases, also included private-subsidized
schools. Thesenetworks currently consistof five to ten schools, represented bytheir principal
and curriculum coordinator, in addition to a Ministry supervisor that usually coordinatesthe
work of the network,and a representative of the municipal administrator. These SINsseek to
generate and transfer good educational practices and analyze processes and trajectories of
school improvement among school leaders, through collaborative work and collective
reflection (MINEDUC, 2016).
Chile has developed several networking initiatives in the past. A well-known program is
MECE RURAL, focused on improving rural education by creating networks of Rural
Microcenters (Moreno, 2007). Additionally, municipal administrators of education have also
formed and supported thematic educational networks to improve early childhood education,
English as a second language, Spanish language and mathematics (Fuentealba and Galaz,
2008). Other networks have focused on the professional development of teachers, such as the
Teachers of Teachers Network (Montecinos et al., 2014). Nevertheless, the SINs strategy is
the first networking initiative at the national level.
Despite schools being expected to collaborate with others in networks, the SINs strategy
has faced the challenge of being implemented without changing the core elements of the
market model of education, such as the high-stakes, individual accountability system
(Pino-Yancovic, 2015; Pino-Yancovic et al., 2016). The Education Quality Agency creates an
annual classification scheme where schools are individually categorized with a high, medium,
med-low or insufficient performance. These categories are constructed considering different
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SINs in Chile

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