Teacher training for Chilean art education. The pending cultural challenge in primary schools

Abstract

This article addresses the situation of teacher training for those who teach Art in primary schools, based on an exploratory investigation carried out in 101 schools in three geographical areas of Chile (Los Lagos, San Antonio and Santiago). Findings are based on a crosstab analysis of the data extracted from the survey’s application to these teachers between 2014 and 2017, with the purpose of knowing their training in arts education. Among the most relevant outcomes are differences in training according to administrative dependence (municipal, subsidized, private), gender and geographic location. Thus, together with characterizing the training profile of 199 teachers who teach Visual Arts or Music in 24 communes of Chile, unpublished background is provided on the lack of teacher training in art education, situation that is sharpened in the case of female teachers and municipal education. The study results indicate that a high percentage of educators who teach Arts do not have the necessary training to carry out such teaching in primary education. This situation not only limits and impoverish the access and opportunities that boys and girls may have to know, cultivate and enjoy the enormous potential of the Arts, but also hinders the possibility of implementing an artistic and aesthetic education at the level required to promote the cultural development of the country.