Negotiating Coupling Tools: A Study of Teachers' Agency in Effective Secondary Schools in Chile

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Agency for Instruction and Curriculum

Abstract

Teachers’ agentic actions were examined in two effective secondary schools that sharply differed in the model of vertical coupling through which senior leaders structured teachers’ collaboration for improving teaching and learning. At Forest Hill, senior leaders coordinated teachers’ work priorities through strong monitoring, whereas at Grand Valley all pedagogical decisions had been devolved to departments. Drawing from in-depth interviews with senior leaders, language and mathematics teachers, and department heads, we illustrate the resources used by teachers to negotiate work demands. The discussion focuses on how negotiating vertical coupling tools, simultaneously increased lateral coupling in highly collaborative departments.

Authors

• Carmen Montecinos, Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso

• Monica Cortez, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso

• Barbara Zoro, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso

• Juan Pablo Valenzuela, Universidad de Chile

• Isabel Zett, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso