Becoming a Principal in Chile: Learning the Role of School Improvement

This study is concerned with the ways in which newly appointed public school principals in Chile learn to understand and lead school improvement. Using a mixed methods approach combining qualitative and quantitative data sequentially, this study contributes to exploring the characteristics and perceptions of principals starting their careers, looking into their previous trajectories and work experiences before and after appointment, the actors and institutions supporting their learning about the role, as well as their understandings about leading school improvement. The design involved 12 qualitative interviews followed by the application of a survey (n=121). Findings suggest new principals enter the job with vast experience about the public school system, having occupied different leadership roles prior to appointment. In spite of previous trajectory and formal preparation, new principals still acknowledge the great difficulties and challenges confronted in the transition to the role, in five cases perceiving that ‘nothing really prepares you for the job’. In learning about leading school improvement, they value the supports of students and professionals in their personal networks, perceiving local authorities to have a less preponderant role, as they participate actively during selection processes, and less consistently after appointment. The study also explores the influence of principals’ individual characteristics and school context (i.e. gender, age, education, school size, urban context, SES) within the process of learning about their role. This study also illustrate how new principals understand and learn about their role in school improvement, and suggests that a great majority of them conceptualize school improvement as limited and influenced by the current education policy context and work experience, restricting their views to unidimensional notions related to students’ results. Finally, findings are discussed to provide comparison with the international socialization research of new principals, suggesting that Chileans novices share perceptions about a ‘shocking’ transition with principals in other countries and differ greatly in the importance given to local school authorities instead.Ph.D