ECEC teachers’ paradoxical views on the new Chilean System for Teacher Professional Development

ABSTRACT

This article presents the main findings of a mixed-method study that explored ECEC teachers’ views on the recently enacted STPD for Teacher Professional Development (STPD) in Chile. Relying on a mixed-method design, we gathered data from individual and group interviews and an online survey conducted with 268 ECEC teachers. Drawn from both a priori and emergent categories, our findings reveal that participants held four paradoxical views on the new System: salary justice versus monetizing of the profession; professional teaching recognition versus counter-pedagogical identity, rigorous evaluation versus inappropiate evaluation instruments, and palpable individual career advancement versus doubtful field development. These paradoxes show that ECEC teachers have a positive global view of the new STPD, despite their perception of its individualistic and counter-ECEC pedagogical nature, suggesting a claim for their right to professional development and decent working conditions, as well as a criticism of the STPD’s neoliberal foundation.

KEYWORDS:

• Early childhood education and care (ECEC)
• early childhood teachers
• professional development
• Chile
• teacher evaluation

Acknowledgments

Both authors are grateful of the permission for publication bestowed by the Undersecretary for Early Childhood Education.

Marcela Pardo gratefully acknowledges support from ANID/PIA/Basal Funds for Centers of Excellence FB0003.

Cynthia Adlerstein gratefully acknowledges the support and resources delivered by the Faculty of Education and the Transfer and Technological Development Department of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Disclosure Statement

We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Notes

1. Normal Schools were institutions initially created to prepare primary teachers in Chile, which operated between 1842 and 1974. Receiving students from 13 or 14 years of age, the Normal School program lasted six years (Rojas Flores 2010).

2. In Chile, ECEC provision is carried out by six main institutions: publicly subsidized private schools (42.3%), National Board for Early Childhood Education (JUNJI) (23.4%), municipal schools (15.3%), Integra Foundation (11.1%), Local Services of Education (1.3%), and privately funded schools (6.5%) (Ministerio de Educación 2019). Each of those institutions has been regulated by its own rules, regarding, for instance, requirements for provision, and ECEC teachers’ working conditions. Concerning professional development, ECEC teachers working for municipal schools, Local Services of Education, JUNJI and Integra Foundation are the only ones that have benefited from regulated professional development frameworks (Pardo and Adlerstein 2015).

3. This work was part of a larger study that was awarded to the authors under a public tender launched by the Chilean Undersecretary for Early Childhood Education and OREALC-UNESCO. Its main aim was to define criteria for the design of the instruments to be used for the evaluation of ECEC teachers in newly established System for Teacher Professional Development, conducted between 2016 and 2017.

4. In Chile, early childhood education is provided by two main types of institutions. On the one hand, ECEC centers, which mainly provide Nursery Level (0–1 year-olds), and Medium Level (2–3 year-olds). On the other hand, schools, which mainly provide Transition Level (4–5 year-olds) (Ministerio de Educación 2019).

5. The only teachers who are not entitled to join this new system are those who are within ten years of retirement as of 2016; also, the system excludes teachers working in privately funded schools (Ministerio de Educación 2019).

6. In Chile almost 100% of ECEC teachers are women (CPEIP 2019).

7. These outstanding ECEC teachers were part of the Teacher of Teachers Network (RMM, for its acronym in Spanish) -sponsored by the Ministry of Education- which gathers outstanding teachers, aiming to strengthen teaching in the classroom. Those who voluntarily take part in it have accredited pedagogical and disciplinary skills, and seek to contribute to the professional development of other teachers (Ministerio de Educación 2019).

8. It is important to take into account that many participants expressed their views colloquially, using traditional expressions, metaphors, and unstructured sentences, without strict attention to formal Spanish language rules, as frequently occurs in everyday language in Chile. Our translation of these quotes tried to preserve this style, at risk of seeming odd.

9. In the Chilean pedagogical context, a variable learning experience is a pedagogically scheduled time for children and ECEC teachers to engage in a planned learning opportunity. It is named ‘variable’ because its core purposes, duration and children groupings change accordingly to learning interests and needs. Variable learning experiences are linked to diverse teaching methodologies and learning outcomes, in contrast to the ‘regular learning experiences’ (such as lunch, outdoor play, hygiene and shared snack) that are planned with fixed timing and learning outcomes (MINEDUC 2019).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the MINEDUC & UNESCO-OREALC [ADM/2016-0160761];ANID/ PIA/ Basal Funds for Centers of Excellence [FB0003].