Teacher Education in Chile: Policy Tensions Between Support and Control

• In Event: Struggles for Control: International Perspectives on Teacher Education

Abstract

The current scenario of teacher education in Chile illustrates the extent to which it has been the subject of policy actions that, in the name of quality assurance, have transited from support to control. Several contextual factors help to understand this situation. First, Chile inherited from the dictatorship period (1973-1990) a weak state apparatus especially in education, which has not substantially changed in the ensuing years. Second, from the nineties on there has been continuous concern for the quality of teacher education, connected to unsatisfactory school results in national and international tests. Third, over the last two decades the Chilean education system has opened to global influences through participation in most international tests and improvement advice from international bodies such as the OECD, of which it is now a member country.
Within this broader context, we distinguish several phases in how successive Chilean governments since the nineties have tackled improvement of teacher education. An initial phase of government intervention occurred between 1997 and 2002, aimed at producing a major overhaul of curriculum and practices, and teacher educator quality improvement, through the funding and support for improvement projects. A goal largely but not totally achieved (Avalos, 2005).
Following the end of this support, an enormous growth in private university teacher education of dubious quality took place (Cox, Meckes & Bascopé, 2010). To curb this situation, a law in 2006 established “compulsory” accreditation of teacher education programmes by private agencies, an exit examination for graduating teachers, and specific content standards. In addition, with a closer focus on selectivity, a new round of “improvement projects” was funded on a competitive basis requiring the use of the European Tuning Project competency framework.
More recently, a new funding scheme has been implemented on a competitive basis, with highly prescriptive terms of reference, benefitting an even more selective number of institutions, and including commitment to achieve specified quantitative results. On the whole Chilean policies and practices have evolved from support mechanisms aimed at institutional improvement to control mechanisms and highly specific conditions for competitive funding, destined to reward a limited number of selective teacher education institutions.
The paper critically discusses this process, using Chilean research data and comparing with processes elsewhere. It expands on the coexistence in the Chilean unregulated university market system, of valid concerns for teacher education quality together with control and incentive policies that narrow the institutional scope for reform, networking, sharing of experiences and experimentation.

References
Avalos, B. (2005). How to affect the quality of teacher education: A four-year policy-driven project implemented at university level. In P. M. Denicolo & M. Kompf (Eds.), Connecting Policy and Practice. Challenges for Teaching and Learning in Schools and Universities. London: Routledge.
Cox, C, Meckes, L. & Bascopé, M. (2010). La institucionalidad formadora de profesores en Chile en la década del 2000: Velocidad del mercado y parsimonia de las políticas. Pensamiento Educativo, Vols. 46-47, 205-245.

Author

• Beatrice Avalos, Universidad de Chile