The opinion of Public and private school principals on educational policies in Chile

Abstract

The objective of this article is to compare the opinion of school principals from public and private subsidized schools on relevant topics of educational policy, during a period (2014-2018) in which important educational reforms were implemented in Chile. Based on an annual opinion survey, a descriptive analysis is carried out aimed at investigating the differences between these principals. The comparison between the opinions of both groups shows that, on the one hand, principals share a certain general vision of education and its challenges, visualize the need to improve initial teacher training, agree on the most relevant educational policies to improve quality education, and aspire to a similar leadership career. On the other hand, they show different perspectives with respect to the need for structural changes in the education system, differ in the main initiative of the government of President Bachelet (the "law of inclusion"), inform about a very different relationship with its administrators, and they pose different priorities and possible policies to enhance the performance of their position. The results obtained allow us to understand the difficulty that the principals of these two subsystems can be constituted as a relevant socio-political player for the educational policies in Chile.