Preparation of school leaders in Chile: Current situation, evolution and challenges

Abstract

The article describes the current situation of the preparation of school leaders in Chile, through a characterization of the master's programs specialized in this area and their comparison with an initial observation made in 2010. The main source was the results of a questionnaire applied to the people responsible for a sample of the training programs in force in Chile in 2017. The evidence gathered allows us to conclude that the preparation of school leaders in Chile has experienced an important curricular change, consistent with educational policies in this country. This has resulted in a greater prioritization of knowledge and skills such as the theory and practice of educational leadership, tools for school improvement or the management of professional teacher development. This interesting change coexists, however, with a clear stagnation at a methodological level: an essentially theoretical training model still prevails, and the programs lack practical instances of professional development, which limits the possibilities that this training will have a substantive impact on the learning and performance of the school leaders. The Chilean case provides, at the level of the training and preparation but also the policies that promote it, relevant learning for the challenge of preparing with quality school leaders in Latin America.