Mobilizing continuous improvement in high-poverty effective public secondary schools in Chile: The contributions of subject departments

Abstract

Prior research conducted in the Global North has established that effective and less effective schools differ in their academic climate. This article examines the contributions of subject departments to sustaining a strong academic climate in four effective, high-poverty public secondary schools in Chile. Data were collected through individual interviews with senior leaders and department heads, group interviews with teachers and observations of meetings of the mathematics and language departments (N = 72). Findings from a thematic analysis of transcripts illustrate how the work conducted in the departments mobilized essential components of effective secondary schools associated with an academic climate: a culture of professional learning, collaboration, and accountability, high expectations and commitment to the success of all students, and distributed learning-centered leadership. Considering that public schools in Chile have high concentrations of low-income students and few public highpoverty secondary schools are deemed as high performing, this study sheds light on within-school practices that foster an improvement culture.