The perceptions of four school principals in Chile about their impact on student outcomes and opportunities: a phenomenological study

This thesis is a study of four school principals in Chile. It is a qualitative, phenomenological exploration of the experiences of these principals, how they may affect student outcomes and opportunities and the ways in which this might contribute to the lives of young people. The research posed four key questions: How do these four principals enact educational leadership within the Chilean context? How do the principals’ views of their role and influence compare with wider current conceptions of school leadership? What are the perceived consequences of each principal’s actions for student learning, opportunities and outcomes? Finally, how do principals engage with Chilean government policies to serve student learning and outcomes? The selection of the four principals was based on their consistent excellent results over time in national tests and also the local communities’ perceptions of their quality. The researcher visited each institution in Chile for two days over a two-week period, conducting semi-structured interviews with the principals and other participants in the project. In this way the key research questions were addressed as well as an opportunity provided for further findings to make themselves known. The data was collected via recordings, transcribed, translated where necessary, coded and then categorised via ATLAS TI 8tm software. This Computer Assisted/Aided Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) allowed the data to reveal emergent themes that represented the main findings, contributions and implications of this research for the general field of knowledge about educational leadership. The final observations serve to expose a possible connection between successful school leaders in Chile and that of the ISSPP (International Successful School Principalship Project) and the School Turnaround policy in the USA. This thesis argues that these four principals - regardless of system levels of development, funding and/or lack of training provision - seem to exhibit similar qualities presented in other international research about successful school leadership and what principals do to affect student learning