Acción Organizacional y Socioconstruccionismo

In this paper, it is discussed the notion of prospective rationality, the concept most diseminated around the idea of organization in our country. At the same time, it is inquired the introduction of social dispositives, administrative tools and agreements that are generated in foreign cultures and inserted in our culture with no reflection. Finally, a new understanding for the organization is proposed through the construccionism, that is positioned not only as a theory but also as a metodological tool able to generate new interpretations to improve local ways of life

School achievement and performance in Chilean high schools: The mediating role of subjective wellbeing in school-related evaluations

School achievement gaps and school failure are problematic issues in Latin America, and are mainly explained by the socio-economic status (SES) of the students. What schools can do to improve school achievement and reduce school failure is a critical issue, both for school management and teacher training. In this study, we present the association of individual and school-related socio-emotional variables with school achievement and performance, controlling for the effects of SES. A probabilistic sample of 4,964 students, drawn from 191 schools enrolled in year 10 in urban areas of Chile, answered questionnaires assessing subjective wellbeing, social wellbeing in school, school climate, school social wellbeing and students' perceptions of teachers' wellbeing. Using structural equation modeling, and controlling for SES, we modeled subjective wellbeing as a mediator of the relationship between school-related variables, such as school climate and perception of teacher's wellbeing, and (a) school achievement, and (b) school performance. School achievement was computed as a product of (a) the probability of passing the school year, and (b) the percentage of yearly attendance at school. Data on school achievement was drawn from administrative registries from the Chilean Ministry of Education. School performance was computed as the estimated grade point average (GPA) at the end of the school year, based on the students' previous 5-year GPAs, and was also obtained through administrative data of the last 5 years. Findings reveal the mediating role of subjective wellbeing in the relationship between school-related evaluations (students' social wellbeing at school, their perception of teachers' wellbeing and school climate) and school achievement. For school achievement, two variables were mediated (students' social wellbeing at school and school climate). However, for school performance, no significant mediations were found. We conclude that, on the one hand, after controlling for SES, students' individual subjective wellbeing is associated with their achievement and performance in school. We discuss the importance of improving school experiences that may protect and promote students' subjective experience and school achievement and performance, and reduce the probability of school failure and dropout

Relationship between segregation and school climate in Chilean schools with high scores PISA 2009

Chilean education is highly segregated, making it difficult to construct cohesive and democratic societies. Through a mixed-method sequential design we explored the relationship between segregation (selection and socioeconomic level) and quality of school climate, taking as example the 200 Chilean schools who participated in the PISA 2009 test. The results evidence worst school environments in public, non-selective and low socioeconomic status schools, where students feel stigmatized and discriminated by academic, social, family and political variables. We discuss the need to revise the education policy that encourages competition among schools for academic performance and training in civics to move towards more integrated schools and more democratic societies

Peer Victimization and Mental Health Risk in Chilean Students

Children who exhibit mental health problems are more likely to be targets of peer victimization. However, little is known about how mental health risk interacts with other individual and school-level factors in this relationship. In the current study, we explored the associations between peer victimization and mental health in 10,532 Chilean sixth grade students attending 405 of the lower SES schools in the country. Children were screened for mental health and classroom adaptation problems using standardized parent and teacher rating scales at the beginning of the school year, and completed questionnaires on self-reported peer victimization, classroom climate, and school climate at the end of the year, as part of an ongoing national school mental health program, which includes monitoring for school violence and school climate. Data were analyzed through logistic regression and multilevel analyses, incorporating sex, absenteeism due to physical health, school attendance, and individual SES as covariates. Results showed that the odds of being victimized by peers were five times greater for students who were identified at risk for mental health problems based on parent reports, and one time greater for students identified by teachers with attention and concentration difficulties. However, multilevel analyses showed that the relative contribution of mental health risk to peer victimization significantly diminished when other individual and school-level variables were included. Particularly relevant was the contribution of individual SES, classroom climate, and absenteeism due to physical health; and of school-level SES. These findings suggest the complex nature of the influence of mental health on peer victimization and the relevance of the social context interacting with student’s mental health problems

Cross-Cultural Patterns of Student Victimization in Israel and Chile

School violence is a global concern that calls for international research using cross context methods. Although there are several international surveys that compare school violence across countries, they do not clearly address issues of similarities and differences in relative prevalence of different types of victimization and their relations with age, sex, and cultural group. We explored these questions among Israeli-Arab (n = 13,606), Israeli-Jewish (n = 10,637), and Chilean students in poor schools in a large Chilean city (n = 4557), using the same self-report questionnaire that measures verbal-social victimization, victimization by threats, physical victimization, and sexual harassment. As hypothesized, we found similarities in the patterns of relative prevalence of victimization types, as well as study group, sex, and age main effects and interactions. These effects were evident even when the lowest third SES group in Israel was compared with the Chilean students. These findings suggest group differences in prevalence of student victimization, and at the same time cultural invariance in relative prevalence of victimization types and their relations with sex and age. We discuss the need for more international comparative research in this field that takes into account cultural values and the structure and organizations of schools within the different educational systems

Policies of educational inclusion in Chile: Three critical nodes

Having achieved the coverage challenges following compulsory policies and a financing system via demand subsidy conditioned to enrollment and attendance, but faced with the scenario of school segregation, Chile has set itself the goal of advancing towards the right to an inclusive education and of quality. In this article we identify and analyze three critical nodes that affect the possibilities of achieving this goal: a) a tension between the logic of integration and educational inclusion, b) a market-based model that does not consider public values, and c) a new educational architecture, based on the logic of individual accountability, which places the possibility of educational improvement in individual incentive systems tied to the achievement of high performance tests. We discuss the need to address and unlock these nodes through transdisciplinary research

School and community factors involved in Chilean students’ perception of school safety

Identifying and understanding predictors of school safety perceptions is important due to its consequences for students. However, it is not clear what school-related factors most contribute to explaining students’ perception of school safety, and how they relate to community-related factors such as neighborhood safety. The purpose of this study was to understand the factors associated with Chilean elementary and middle school students’ perceptions of school safety. We used a sample of 5,455 students from low socioeconomic status public schools, and analyzed the predictive value of peer physical and verbal victimization; teacher and school staff victimization; teacher's social support; and perception of safety in the students’ neighborhoods on perceptions of school safety. Findings showed that although different forms of school violence, particularly peer physical victimization and physical and sexual victimization from teachers and school staff, contribute to students’ perception of school safety, the highest contribution came from students perceiving their neighborhoods as unsafe. In contrast, teacher social support contributed to increased levels of perceived school safety. We discuss the need for school-based interventions that address physical victimization and engage teachers in prosocial and less punitive approaches to foster a positive and safe school climate, and in fostering school–community partnerships

Prevalence of victimization from school staff to students referred to school integration programs

This study analyzes and compares the experience of school victimization by peers and school staff, between students with and without diagnosis of special educational (SEN). 5,527 elementary school students studying in public schools with School Integration Programs (SIP) in one city of Valparaíso, Chile, participated in this study. Of these, 77 were students with SEN partici-pating in the SIP. Odds-ration and logistic regression analyses revealed higher levels of peer and school staff victimization for the subgroup of students with SEN in SIP programs, as compared to their non-SEN peers. The odds ratio was 2 to 1 for peer victimization and 3 to 1 for school staff victimization. Whereas for the general population of students, the odds that a student might inform at least one type of peer victimization increased 3 times if that student informed some type of school staff victimization, the same odds increased 18 to 20 times for the SEN students in SIP. These results suggest that students with SEN are an at-risk population with respect to school victimization, both from their peers as well as from school staff. Of special concern is the protective role that school staff is able to provide, if they themselves actively participate in victimizing these students. The results are discussed considering the need to focus on promoting protective factors that may favor the development of a caring and protective community for all students

Peer victimization and life satisfaction: The influence of teacher and peer support

Violence among peers has a negative effect on students' mental health. The literature indicates that life satisfaction is one of the factors on which peer violence could have a major effect. Nevertheless, some factors may attenuate this negative impact. This study analyzed the influence of teacher and peer support on the relation between students' peer victimization and life satisfaction. The sample included 5,527 students from grades 4 through 8 attending municipal schools in one district of the Region of Valparaíso, Chile. Using self-report questionnaires taken from the survey "Coexistence in my School", whose data was analyzed with structural equation modeling, it was observed that teacher social support has a greater effect than peer social support as a mediator in the inverse relationship between students' peer victimization and life satisfaction. These findings are discussed in terms of the mediating role of teachers in reducing the effects of peer victimization

Chilean management education: rhetoric of pragmatism, consumerism, individualism and elitism

The aim of this paper is to understand the character and the role of higher education in business in relation to the wider institutional and structural contexts within which they function. Being loyal to that widespread background, business schools in Chile have become efficient providers of appropriate goods and services for their respective clients and consumers, behaving more like corporations and businesses rather than educational institutions. From this perspective, business education's alignment with the wider political and socio-economic shifts associated with the developments of market economies and economic globalization is a necessary reflection. In this paper we will provide an account of our problematization of management education practices in Chile. This practice was pictured as one of the main characters at the forefront of the Chilean neo-liberal revolution during the final years of the last century. In particular, we will unravel more closely the chain of signifiers articulating the meaning of Chilean higher business education. This articulation is recuperated mainly around how those involved in the management education practice talk about (our)themselves. As well as specialised press writings, some academic accounts and fragments from our own 'ethnographic' involvement are used for this purpose. Particular attention is paid to the social, political and fantasmatic logics (GLYNOS; HOWARTH, 2007) as key elements of our own explanation of this practice, which in turn informs our critical standpoint