School principals faced to the school inclusion law in chile: Between engagement, conformity and resistance

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a study carried out in Chile on the attitudes of principals to the School Inclusion Law, legislation that promotes the desegregation of schools and which went into force in 2016. Considering the approach of inclusive leadership and social justice, the study was conducted based on an online survey of 157 principals from four cities. Because of its exploratory nature, the study followed a non-experimental quantitative design with a descriptive scope. The results show that principals agree with the provisions of this policy, but they anticipate that they will have problems due to the lack of training of teachers and the tensions involved in implementing inclusion policies in the context of a school system that measures quality based on results on standardized tests. Therefore, school principals show commitment to the principles of the policy, but, at the same time, they demonstrate conformity with and resistance to its more specific implications, since they do not believe that it structurally changes the operating logic of their schools.