School Principals as Qualify Informants of Educational Policies. Their Opinions under Michelle Bachelet Chilean Government (2014-2017)

Abstract

School managers are often vindicated as executors of educational policies, recognizing a key role for their success or failure in the schools they lead. This article analyzes, from comparable annual surveys, the opinion that the directors of educational centers had regarding the educational policies developed in Chile under the reformist government of President Michelle Bachelet (2014-2017). The results show that the initiative that most marked the opinion of the directors was the law of educational inclusion, approved controversially at the beginning of the period. Around it there was greater initial pessimism regarding the future of national education, as well as a tendency to distance the opinion of managers working in the public sector with respect to the private sector. It can also be seen that the opinion of managers is dynamic, changing in the course of the government, which usually manifests the urgency of certain educational policies (such as improving initial teacher training) above the rest and also provides valuable information on the effects of policies in the educational centers themselves. Therefore, given their quality as qualified informants, decision makers should systematically consider their opinions in the design and implementation of policies.

Keywords

• liderazgo
• gestión de la educación
• política educacional
• gobierno.