Practice-Based Leadership in Educational Policy: Exploring the Role of the Middle Tier during the New Public Education Law Implementation

• In Event: Leveraging the middle-tier of education systems for teaching, learning, and equity in Latin America

Proposal

The middle tier in education systems plays a crucial role in fostering organizational conditions that enhance teaching and learning outcomes (Anderson et al., 2021; Leithwood et al., 2008; Starr, 2019) by managing emotional and relational dynamics between stakeholders and aligning external policy demands with school realities (Louis & Murphy, 2017; Honig & Hatch, 2004; Park et al., 2022). However, this role in driving organizational change during system-wide reforms remains underexplored and lacks robust theoretical grounding (Anderson et al., 2021; Author et al., 2023; Bush, 2021; Childress et al., 2020).
This ongoing study examines the mediating role of the middle tier in connecting legal mandates with school resources, capacities, and specific contexts during the implementation of Chile’s New Public Education Law (NEP). Launched in 2018, this reform aims to demunicipalize public schools by transferring their management to 70 new Local Public Education Services (SLEP) operating at the district level. The study explores the leadership practices of SLEP officers as they mediate between NEP mandates and the management of school resources and capacities, using a comparative case study methodology. Employing a leadership-as-practice framework (Nicolini, 2009; Raelin, 2020; Simpson, 2016), the research focuses on how these officers navigate the implementation of NEP mandates and manage resources and capabilities within schools.
A Comparative Case Study (CCS) approach, which emphasizes context and culture in educational policy (Bartlett & Vavrus, 2017), is applied to two SLEPs through in-depth interviews, focus groups, non-participatory observations, and critical policy analysis. Data analysis follows the principles of Grounded Theory and is organized into three phases independent for each SLEP, followed by a transversal comparison of both Services. Phase one examines policy discourse, interviews, and focus group transcriptions using NVIVO for coding. Phase two focuses on non-participatory observation reports and interviews with school principals, triangulating actions and perspectives. Phase three analyzes Critical Incident reports comparing themes across phases to assess leadership practices. A fourth phase includes transversal comparisons across three key axes in the two SLEPs.
In this panel, we will present the preliminary findings from the first SLEP. Initial results point to key organizational socio-technical factors that shape leadership practices during the NEP implementation. SLEP officers serve as essential mediators between the NEP guidelines and the specific needs of schools, with their leadership practices heavily influenced by local social, political, and historical contexts. These practices, particularly in managing resources and fostering school-level improvements, vary depending on territorial and institutional settings. The preliminary data suggests that effective mediation by SLEP officers facilitates smoother NEP implementation and positively influence school performance, offering insights for the ongoing refinement of the reform.

Author

• Isabel Nunez, OISE - University of Toronto