Organizational Gaps and Challenges in the Early Implementation of Chile’s New Public Education

The municipal public education model in Chile was based on decentralization, competition between educational establishments, and private entrepreneurship (Torche, 2005), with managerial leadership and a technical-instrumental rationale of standardization of processes in order to control and measure teaching outcomes, and with direct influence on the allocation of salaries and incentives (Anderson, 2009; Little & Bartlett, 2010; Sisto, 2011). In this vein, Soto et al. (2016) argue that the improvement in the effectiveness of the work of teachers was driven by the assessment of individual performance and competency, to the detriment of encouraging collective practices for collaboration among peers. This individualized focus was developed in the context of a discourse that extols the social significance and inspirational nature of the teaching profession. Through exaltation of the vocation to teach, the frustration and adversity faced by teachers in their day-to-day activities is obscured, concealing the structural and material failures of the public education system (Soto et al., 2016).

This type of work-related tension is manifested intensely in public sector institutions, where high standards of management, technical efficiency, and provision of social justice are required, often without the technical and economic resources needed to achieve them (Obholzer, 2003). The organization of work in the public sector is thus a space of conflict in which all the contradictions, tensions, and unresolved dilemmas of values at the level of public policy design are experienced and suffered by the employees (Hoggett, 2006).

These tensions are added to the demands imposed on SLEPs, in which the lack of essential resources to meet the objectives of the NEP (Uribe et al., 2019) is offset by a heroic view of the mission to improve education quality, which is expressed in the interviews carried out in this research.

In organizations subject to this type of stress, inevitable failings at work tend to be attributed to people’s lack of capabilities, often ignoring their precarious working conditions. Organizations thus sustain their production at the cost of the labor distress (Dejours, 2016) that they impose on their workers, who compensate by idealizing their role and magnifying their capabilities with notions of superiority and heroism, instead of facing their tasks with realism. This can lead to a deterioration of individual and group effectiveness in achieving the essential mission of the organization (Roberts, 2003).

Considering that the role of the SLEPs, as administrative support, is essential for the proper functioning of public schools, it is important to analyze the organizational tensions they experience, with the aim of identifying possible improvements in the course of the implementation of the NEP. This analysis has been carried out using the methodology described below.

Methodology

This study is based on qualitative evidence obtained from an in-depth investigation of the major milestones, conflicts, achievements, and challenges of the first two years of implementation of the SLEP under study. An interpretative qualitative approach has been used, analyzing the subjective experience of the interviewees by studying the narratives in their accounts. The narratives are the means by which subjective experience acquires meaning and is reflexively reconstituted and communicated (Brown et al., 2008).

The narratives were analyzed following the guidelines of grounded theory, a holistic methodology specifically designed to extract and reveal the main aspects in the narratives of the subjects interviewed (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). A process of continuous triangulation between the narratives collected throughout the data analysis enabled us to check for biases and increase the validity of the findings. Two research assistants analyzed all of the interviews, and their findings were recurrently reviewed and discussed by two experienced researchers until analytical consistency in the results was achieved (O’Reilly et al., 2012).

In the first phase of this study, we conducted 12 in-depth interviews with SLEP professionals between September and November 2018, including both authorities and employees equally. To do this, a semi-structured guideline was used that addressed the cultural, local, and institutional challenges involved in the process of change. The interviewees were selected using progressive sampling until a level of theoretical saturation was reached that was sufficient to complete the data analysis (Stern et al., 2017). All of the individuals involved signed an informed consent that authorized us to record and use the interviews.

In a second stage we interviewed all members of the Local Steering Committee, comprised of six people. This was done in June and July 2019 after completing the analysis of the first stage, adding a time perspective and going more deeply into the findings obtained previously. The longitudinal understanding of the reform process was enhanced by the Committee members’ extensive experience in this area. Similarly, we were able to contrast the previous analysis with the perspective of actors outside the SLEP.

The analysis began with open coding of the data, which enabled us to obtain first-order concepts representing the main themes described by the informants. Using axial coding, we subsequently contrasted the similarities and differences between the themes and phenomena that emerged from the analysis. This process allowed us to develop second-order categories that connect the findings of the previous level based on a higher level of abstraction of the concepts (Gioia et al., 2013).

Organizational dilemmas and tensions in the implementation of the SLEP

The main findings obtained from the interviews with members of the SLEP and the Steering Committee allow us to shed light on the main dilemmas, challenges, and learning from the implementation of the NEP law in this area. From the analysis of the interviews, it is clear that establishment of the SLEP under study was particularly complex, as it was one of two services that started operating in January 2018, followed by two others that began in July 2018. In addition to the experimental nature that this implied, the SLEP received limited support from the DEP, the agency in charge of guiding, supporting, and sharing best management practices between local services, as it first had to start its own administrative operations, select officials, and prioritize functions.

The SLEP analyzed covers the area of three low-income municipalities with high levels of socially vulnerability. This service has more than 100 employees to manage 54 schools and 23 kindergartens, in which more than 3,600 teachers and staff work, and which receive more than 23,000 kindergarten, elementary, secondary, and adult students. These figures give an idea of the great administrative complexity with which this service has to deal.

The process of establishing the SLEP under study was hindered by repeated changes in the leadership of the organization. After the inauguration of the new government in March 2018, its executive leadership was replaced and assumed on a rotating basis by five deputy directors until the current permanent director was eventually appointed in April 2019. On the other hand, the lack of internal organization of the service caused difficulties in defining the roles of all the professionals and formalizing its procedures. It should be noted that the three municipalities integrated in this SLEP previously operated under a private entity (CME), so the transfer to the public system generated significant problems in terms of budgetary spending.

Faced by these challenges, the perspectives of the interviewees at the SLEP and the Steering Committee are complementary. Both groups share a heroic view of the contribution they make to children and the country as motivations that allow them to overcome the precariousness of the deficient institutional design (Soto et al., 2016). Similarly, they are consistent in identifying critical problems that undermine the operation of the new system and the necessary learning to improve the quality of public education.

In the analysis of the narratives of the SLEP officials, we defined four second-order categories, connected between the individual or organizational and the positive or negative assessment that the interviewees give to their experiences. These categories were entitled construction of the SLEP, contradictions of the NEP, meaning of work, and labor distress (Table 1). From the analysis of the Steering Committee narratives, we formed categories with sharper temporal distinctions, which are as follows. In the past, the memory of processes and relationships; in the present, the role of the Steering Committee and institutional gaps, and looking towards the future, uncertainty in the face of the changes (Table 1).

In order to connect different narrative elements, we present the second-order categories chronologically in accordance with the time to which they refer. Due to the high consistency of the opinions between the members of the SLEP and Steering Committee, the categories in the present and at the organizational level are discussed together, according to the negative (institutional gaps and contradictions of the NEP) or positive (role of the Steering Committee and construction of the SLEP) opinions they express. The second-order categories identified at the individual level are interspersed with those at the organizational level, considering that the negative conditions of the organization generate labor distress, which is combatted by a sense of work, which acquires a heroic nature and allows the conditions of the organization to be improved.

To summarize, the second-order categories are shown below with the logic: past of the educational system → present organizational crisis → individual distress → individual motivation → present organizational improvement → expectations.

Memory of processes and relationships (1)

The category of memory of processes and relationships narrated by the members of the Steering Committee sheds light on the tension between the pre-existing and current conditions of the public school system in the territory. Going back to the municipalization of schools in the 1980s, the Committee members describe the contribution of municipalities and communities in the territory to support the schools in spite the scarcity of resources due to the low subsidies and the approval of laws that affected municipal education because of insufficient public funding, such as the teachers’ statute. This series of actions meant that around 10% of the annual financing of public education was paid for with direct contributions from the municipalities themselves, with even higher percentages among small and rural districts (Valenzuela, 2007).

The interviewees also highlight the importance of schools in the effective delivery of municipal services to families in the areas of health, sports, and community activities. In addition to this, they warn of the risk of losing these important spaces for community engagement when the system is moved away from municipal control.

The municipal representatives on the committee emphasize the work carried out to implement the municipalization in an orderly manner, despite the weak institutional design of the NEP. In this process, they underline the contribution of the coordination work carried out between municipalities 1 and 2 prior to the establishment of the SLEP. They also identify local organization problems caused by the late integration of municipality 3, which did not participate in the preparatory stage.

With [district 2] we worked for a full year previously, the teams got to know each other, the directors went through a process called anticipation ... I think that this is a particularly sensitive period for a successful transition (municipal representative).

The members of the Steering Committee share a critical view of the transition, mostly because the extremely high complexity and magnitude of the SLEP under study was not foreseen, nor the high organizational cost of managing a larger number of establishments. This complexity stems from the great heterogeneity of the districts and the number of enrollments managed by the institution. The interviewees also criticize the lack of anticipation of the greater bureaucratic complexity that transferring a school system administered by three private CMEs to a public agency that is part of Mineduc would involve.

That’s where the private and public is more noticeable, because schools and principals feel that they used to be able to solve lots of problems quickly and now, on the other hand, there’s a lot of bureaucracy, because, of course, they were private corporations and had much more freedom to manage their resources (regional representative).

Institutional gaps and contradictions of the NEP (2)

The critical opinions of the implementation of the NEP in the SLEP studied are shared by the officials and the members of the Steering Committee. Both groups of interviewees identify gaps in the system and the inadequacy of the NEP’s legal framework to meet the day-to-day needs of the administration of the school system. This is evident in the absence of procedures for carrying out the basic duties of the service and the lack of definition of roles, which leads to confusion in the work, dependence on the leadership, and little capacity for delegation.

We have staffing that is absolutely insufficient for the needs of the service. There are areas where there isn’t a single person assigned by the organizational chart (SLEP authority).

A hundred or so people arrived here and this place had no capacity. We had no desks, no chairs, no computer. The conditions were not in place to work (SLEP official).

I would say that [the most serious problems are], first, the issue of resources. Two, the issue of staffing and distribution of the staff (regional representative).

These shortcomings are aggravated by the lack of financial resources and equipment to carry out the work. This situation is made worse still by the pre-existing precariousness in one of the districts. Improving the educational system in this district has required focused investment that has reduced the resources available to maintain the establishments in the other two.

In the SLEP, it has been difficult to reconcile the work cultures between public sector employees and those from the private sector in terms of purchasing systems, salary payments, and pedagogical focuses. There is also tension between the territorial identities of the three districts, which is manifested by divergent practices and procedures.

There’s a problem here that’s related to the issue of public service, of understanding that you are in public service, you’re not in a corporation. And that leads to tension between the teams and culture clashes (SLEP authority).

With regard to the governance of the school system, the committee members note the weakness and informality of the links between agencies in the new system (Figure 1). The lack of internal SLEP procedures is symmetrical to the lack of protocols for coordination with other actors in the territory, which were previously organized around the municipalities. There are also no efficient protocols for coordination with Mineduc or technical support from the DEP.

Labor distress (3)

At the individual level, these shortcomings in the organizational design and implementation of the SLEP have produced high levels of labor distress (Dejours, 2016). According to the interviewees, precarious working conditions, high work pressure, and lack of clarity regarding roles have obliged the staff to work harder and have also created great emotional exhaustion, much disorientation, and lack of support from authorities.

We’re in a state of emergency ... and that [occurs] when there is no mold, there are no parameters, it’s double, triple the effort, perhaps quadruple (SLEP authority).

I found out on February 28 [2018] that I was going to work in accounting. My hair almost fell out, because I’m an English teacher ... I arrived at an accounting meeting, they were talking about accruals, payments, I don’t know what, and I looked at myself and said what am I doing here? (SLEP employee).

The interviewees also report continuous experiences of institutional abandonment both internally—caused by the rotation of the leadership—and externally, due to gaps in communication with other ministerial agencies. In addition, they report that there is a lack of engagement with other entities in the territory. This lack of organization leads people to postpone personal needs in order to respond to the shortcomings experienced by schools and the children educated there, increasing the fatigue, frustration, distress of the teams (Cornejo, 2009; Dejours, 2016).

Meaning of work (4)

In order to cope with work-related distress, SLEP professionals emphasize the meaning they give to their day-to-day work. They consider that the vocation of service becomes a central factor to excel in their work, through the positive impact they can generate in the school communities. For the SLEP authorities, it is essential to strengthen the public education system.

That’s what motivates me to be here every day ... public education from any point [at] which you’re working, whatever you’re doing there can have repercussions, so that’s why I continue (SLEP employee).

The interviewees show great concern for the children, who are represented as deprived and innocent subjects. This image gives their daily work a sense of importance that motivates them to make additional efforts. They also express an interest in contributing to the pedagogical development of school communities and to the progress of the country.

I think that we [the SLEP] were created to make the system truly mixed again, and for it to be mixed again we have to take out the children who are in poor, deficient schools, and for them to trust our schools again, which will start to be good, clean schools, with good infrastructure and good educational quality (SLEP authority).

On the other hand, being unable to meet these ideals due to the situations faced by the service becomes a source of frustration in these people’s work.

Building the SLEP and role of the Steering Committee (5)

At the organizational level, SLEP members develop a narrative of building the SLEP as the articulator of a new institutional framework to address the challenges of the NEP. This narrative is complementary to the view that Steering Committee members have of their role in achieving this reform.

The interviewees express the need to organize a cohesive service based on a new local identity, which has to be generated on two levels. Internally, it is essential to reconcile the different visions and practices of the three districts, and define roles and procedures for coordination among professionals. Externally, the SLEP must be recognized by other actors in the territory and the Mineduc as an intermediate agency capable of improving public education.

[We have to] build a new culture, which is the culture of the public sphere, of commitment, of public responsibility, and of overcoming all the difficulties of a territory such as the one in which we work (SLEP authority).

The members of the Steering Committee state that they have extended their predefined roles in order to fill gaps in the NEP law, helping to create procedures and relationships necessary to coordinate the system. The narrative of being a pioneering service is thus connected with the need to consolidate learning in order to make structural improvements to the NEP.

[The Steering Committee] is also a decision-making body, because it has the power, for example, to approve the local strategic plan, to make shortlists for the position of the executive committee, and can even approve the removal of an executive director, so it’s not just a consultative body (regional representative).

The narratives of building an unprecedented system converge among both groups of interviewees. They describe the creation of a complex system of roles, of links between communities and local entities, of their procedures for coordination through an emerging and co-constructed governance.

However, the ambition of building a New Public Education clashes with the failure to define essential administrative and financial aspects for the administration of the education system, such as budget management, financial sustainability, and efficient coordination procedures between agencies.

Uncertainty in the face of change (6)

After the difficulties in establishing the SLEP, the interviewees expressed great uncertainty about the change with regard to the future implementation of the NEP. There are doubts about the capacity of new institutions to assume their roles and there is no certainty that they will have sufficient financial resources to support public education in the territory.

One of [the SLEP director’s] big jobs is going to be precisely this issue ... the deficits, on which he, as we know, is taking steps; he’s trying to find more resources, more income, he has shown us some formulas that should be implemented (representative of parents and guardians).

With respect to the Mineduc, the interviewees feel that the DEP lacks sufficient capacity to provide the necessary technical support and that it is not prepared for the start of operations of new SLEPs. They also warn of a risk of co-optation of the Steering Committee’s role of oversight over the SLEP, considering the weakness of the statute and the low remuneration of the directors. This means there is a risk of the regulator being co-opted in areas that are remote or less subject to public scrutiny.

In short, it is feared that the shortcomings in the NEP’s organizational design may prevent it from meeting its fundamental purpose, which is to improve the quality of public education. On the one hand, there is no certainty that a more efficient and equitable administrative system is being built. On the other, there is concern that the possible deterioration of public education will accentuate the shift in enrollment towards private schools.

We are included in a concept of a New Public Education that is being talked about, but it’s not very clear what’s new and to what extent we’re going to be able to effectively provide higher quality and more equitable education than we did when we were a municipality (regional representative).

Finally, there is concern that poor performance on the part of the first four SLEPs could lead to opposition to the implementation of the NEP in new territories from communities, teachers, or political representatives.

It has not been possible to the [teachers’] union be an actor that pushes this process, but they are actors that are demanding the recognition of benefits that they feel they have lost (regional representative).

When [the schools] were under the municipality’s control, there were the same problems, so now I see parliamentarians delivering letters [in opposition to the NEP], I believe that there is a very strong political issue (representative of parents and guardians).

In contrast to these concerns, there is broad agreement in the interviews in terms of the main challenges that need to be resolved in order to improve the operation of the SLEP. First, it requires greater resources and optimization of financial management, which has become more rigid due to the transition to a bureaucratic state regime, in line with the flexibility necessary for the functioning of the school system. Second, a more specific definition of the identity and functions of each of the actors involved is also required, as well as the development of procedures that promote horizontal cooperation and collaboration between the different levels of the system. Third, the capacity for organizational learning in the public school system must be strengthened, systematically recording and assessing errors and successes in the implementation of the NEP, and creating the corresponding institutional innovations.

Conclusion

The NEP Law is an ambitious reform that is aimed at improving the quality of public school education in Chile, which has created great challenges in terms of cultural and administrative transformation in this educational system. However, multiple flaws in the institutional design have been evident in the early stage of implementation, producing significant gaps that could affect the success of the reform (Ball, 2017). In this respect, the interviewees’ opinions clearly identify financial, organizational, and institutional learning challenges. This diagnosis, made from their day-to-day experience is consistent with the conclusions of recent research on this reform in Chile (Dirección de Educación Pública, 2019; Raczynski et al., 2019; Uribe et al., 2019) and with comparative studies of educational reforms in other countries (Fullan, 2016; Mourshed et al., 2010, among others).

During the course of this research, we found that the aforementioned shortcomings have produced intense labor distress in the SLEP studied, which underlines the relationship that exists between the quality of the design of the educational reform and the subjective experience of the people who work in the system. On the other hand, we highlight the extraordinary motivation of these professionals and the exceptional dedication of the Steering Committee. Both groups show a heroic willingness to overcome any difficulty in order to provide better education to children and revive public education in Chile, which is an indispensable contribution to improve education. However, we believe that the success of a reform of this magnitude cannot rely on extraordinary individual performances and should be sustained by a more solid and coherent institutional design.

With regard to the objectives of this study, the identification of problems and learning, and analysis of the narratives in the SLEP and the Steering Committee make it possible to identify critical elements of the NEP’s organization that must be bettered in order to improve the quality of public education in Chile. It should be noted that the interviewees, in addition to identifying these critical problems, demonstrated the ability to devise specific solutions to them.

First, the interviewees express fear about the failure of the reform, due to the precariousness of the financial, human, and administrative resources. This could lead to a drop in the quality of public education, intensification of the exodus of students to the private system, and growing political opposition to the creation of new SLEPs. On the other hand, they manage to mobilize collective resources and maintain pre-existing support links with municipalities and educational communities. Similarly, the motivation for the children and for the future of the country is a significant symbolic resource, being a shared objective that drives the cooperation of heterogeneous actors (Hopkins, 2017).

Second, the lack of coherence in the institutional design of the NEP is demonstrated by the confusion in the roles and functions at work, the lack of definition of management procedures, and the inefficiency of mechanisms for coordination between administrative levels. This has been partially offset by the creative capabilities of professionals and managers, who have made progress with the adequate definition of roles and a complex system of links between communities and territorial entities.

Third, as one of the first services created, this SLEP was affected by improvisation during its establishment, which was aggravated by the late inclusion of a third district. The record of experiences in this and other pioneering services is being systematized, the preparatory stage for the establishment of new SLEPs has been strengthened, and their organizational design is expected to be improved (DEP, 2019).

In conclusion, the existence of embodied knowledge (Ignatow, 2007) in the organization is a valuable resource to improve the educational reform driven by the NEP. The findings made at this level enable us to contribute to the improvement of education quality from an organizational perspective. In this respect, we confirm the hypothesis that the observation of labor distress (Dejours, 2016) allows us to make an early diagnosis of failings in the institutional design. On the other hand, the collective knowledge accumulated by the teams participating in the process helps to identify relevant lessons learned for the improvement of educational reforms that are as ambitious and complex as the NEP Law in Chile.

Funding: Centro de Estudios del Conflicto y Cohesión Social, COES, CONICYT/FONDAP/15130009 and Basal Project FB0003 of the CONICYT Associative Research Program (Programa de Investigación Asociativa).

The original paper was received on May 19, 2020
The reviewed paper was received on January 14, 2021
The paper was accepted on January 14, 2021