Teachers’ perspectives on education under the impact of New Public Management : Exploring public policy effects on the teacher profession in Chile 

Abstract:

This paper provides a qualitative evaluation of the impact that educational policies of new managerial nature have had on Chilean secondary-school teachers’ profession. The study adopts a teacher-centred perspective, arguing for the importance of considering this professional angle in the study of educational policy impact given the teachers’ role in the policy process. Teaching professionals’ perceptions and ideas are collected with semi structured interviews, for the exploration of patterns and clusters of ideas, opinions and perspectives on how they consider having been affected by New Public Management (NPM) policies. The study was carried out in the capital of Chile, as a Minor Field Study funded by SIDA, and reveals that this professional group has been affected by NPM in what regards their working conditions, but that the principles behind these policies have not been accepted by the group, revealing resistance to adopting new managerial ideas.