The use of Indicators of Educational Quality: A Critical Discussion from the Chilean Case
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.26-3.32Keywords:
School, indicators, educational quality, problematizationAbstract
Introduction. Contemporary educational policies for school systems emphasize the evaluation of educational quality through results obtained from standardized tests or performance indicators. Purpose. To develop a problematization of the operationalization and standardization of the notion of quality in school education, taking as a case study the decision of the Chilean Educational Quality Agency to introduce indicators of personal and social development. Discussion. The essay uses the notion of audit culture from the socio-anthropological literature and the reflections of Hannah Arendt in order to problematize the use of indicators in the field of educational policies for primary and secondary schools. In the first instance, it is argued that these evaluation indicators are framed in what the scientific literature has defined as an “audit culture” and, in particular, in an aspect of it that has been coined as the “indicator game.” In the second instance, it is argued that these indicators are insufficient to account for personal and social development; this is shown by proposing a substantive definition of school education obtained from Hannah Arendt: a phenomenon that inserts the novelty represented by the students into the world. Conclusions. These measurement indicators of quality inevitably reduce the phenomenon to be measured. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the attention of educational policies to a substantive aspect such as personal and social development can be used to discuss what school education we are thinking about and designing.
References
Altrichter, H. y Kemethofer, D. (2015). Does accountability pressure through school inspections promote school improvement? School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 26(1), 32-56. https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2014.927369
Álvarez García, I. y Casas Haro, M. del C. (2008). Desafíos para la formación en gestión experiencias mexicanas. Investigación administrativa, 37(102), 30-45. http://www.scielo.org.mx/pdf/ia/v37n102/2448-7678-ia-37-102-30.pdf
Arendt, H. (2016). La crisis en la educación. En H. Arendt (Autora), Entre el pasado y el futuro. Ocho ejercicios sobre la reflexión política (pp. 221-250). Península.
Assaél, J., Albornoz, N. y Caro, M. (2018). Estandarización educativa en Chile: Tensiones y consecuencias para el trabajo docente. Educação Unisinos, 22(1), 83-90. https://doi.org/10.4013/edu.2018.221.09
Biesta, G. (2010). How to exist politically and learn from it: Hannah Arendt and the problem of democratic education. Teachers’ College Record, 112(2), 558-577. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811011200207
Biesta, G. (2016). Reconciling ourselves to reality: Arendt, education and the challenge of being at home in the world. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 48(2), 183-192. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2016.1144580
Carrasco, A. (2013). Mecanismos performativos de la institucionalidad educativa en Chile: Pasos hacia un nuevo sujeto cultural. Observatorio cultural, (15), 4-10. http://observatorio.cultura.gob.cl/index.php/2018/10/27/observatorio-cultural-15/
Falabella, A. (2015). El mercado escolar en Chile y el surgimiento de la nueva gestión pública: El tejido de la política entre la dictadura neoliberal y los gobiernos de la centroizquierda (1979 a 2009). Educação & Sociedade, 36(132), 699-722. https://doi.org/10.1590/ES0101-73302015152420
Falabella, A. y De la Vega, F. (2016). Políticas de responsabilización por desempeño escolar: Un debate a partir de la literatura internacional y el caso chileno. Estudios Pedagógicos, 42(2), 395-413. https://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0718-07052016000200023
Fochler, M. y de Rijcke, S. (2017). Implicated in the indicator game? An experimental debate. Engaging Science, Technology and Society, 3, 21-40. https://doi.org/10.17351/ests2017.108
Galioto-Allegra, C. y Flores-González, L. M. (2021). Dimensiones epistemológicas del accountability de la calidad educativa: Elementos para una interrogación crítica. Revista Brasileira de Educação, 26, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1413-24782021260079
Galioto Allegra, C. y Pérez Navarro, C. (2022). The educational quality tribunal and its influences on teachers’ careers: The chilean case. En K. Monkman y A. Frkovic (Eds), Belonging in changing educational spaces negotiating global, transnational, and neoliberal dynamics (pp. 216-232). Routledge.
González Rioseco, D. (2018). Visitas evaluativas de la agencia de calidad de la educación: Un análisis cualitativo de las visiones subjetivas de directivos [Artículo de Magister], Universidad Alberto Hurtado. http://repositorio.uahurtado.cl/handle/11242/24603
Hayden, M. (2013). Arendt and cosmopolitanism: The human conditions of cosmopolitan teacher education. Ethics & Global Politics, 5(4), 239-258. https://doi.org/10.3402/egp.v5i4.20271
Holloway, J., Sørensen, T. B. y Verger, A. (2017). Global perspectives on high-stakes teacher accountability policies: An introduction. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 25(85), 1-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.25.3325
Hood, C. (1991). A public management for all seasons? Public administration, 69(1), 3-19.
Irwin, A. (2017). If the Indicator Game is the Answer, Then What is the Question? Engaging science, technology and society, 3, 64-72. https://doi.org/10.17351/ests2017.110
Kauko, J. Rinne, R. y Takala, T. (Eds.). (2018). Politics of quality in education. A comparative study of Brazil, China, and Russia. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203712306
Koyama, J. P. (2012). Making failure matter: Enacting No Child Left Behind’s standards, accountabilities, and classifications. Educational Policy, 26(6), 870-891. https://doi.org/10.1177/0895904811417592
Latour, B. (1997). Ciência em Ação São. Como seguir cientistas e engenheiros sociedade afora. UNESP.
Latour, B. (1999). On recalling ANT. En J. Law y J. Hassard (Autores), Actor network theory and after (pp.15-25). Blakcwell Publishers.
Lingard, B., Martino, W., Rezai-Rashti, G. y Sellar, S. (2015). Globalizing educational accountabilities. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315885131
López-Merino, M. J. (2017). Educación, natalidad y poder en Hannah Arendt. En M. Figueroa (Ed), Ensayos en torno al sentido de la educación (pp. 53-68). Ril editores.
McHardy, J. (2017). Like cream: Valuing the invaluable. Engaging science, technology and society, 3, 73-83. https://doi.org/10.17351/ests2017.116
Ministerio de Educación de Chile. (27 de agosto, 2011). Ley 20529. Sistema nacional de aseguramiento de la calidad de la educación parvularia, básica y media y su fiscalización. Autor. https://www.bcn.cl/leychile/navegar?idNorma=1028635
Ministerio de Educación de Chile. (2014). Otros indicadores de calidad educativa. Autor. https://bibliotecadigital.mineduc.cl/bitstream/handle/20.500.12365/10447/OIC.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Normand, R., Liu, M., Carvalho, L. M., Oliveira, D. A. y LeVasseur, L. (Eds.). (2018). Education policies and the restructuring of the educational profession. Global and comparative perspectives. Springer.
Oyarzún-Maldonado, C. y Soto-González, R. (2021). The inadmissibility of standardizing the teaching work: An analysis from Chile. Alteridad, 16(1), 103-113. https://doi.org/10.17163/alt.v16n1.2021.08
Oyarzún Vargas, G. y Falabella, A. (2022). Indicadores de desarrollo personal y social: La ilusión de la evaluación integral de la calidad. Psicoperspectivas Individuo y Sociedad, 21(1), 1-14. https://dx.doi.org/10.5027/psicoperspectivas-Vol21-Issue1-fulltext-2194
Ozga, J. (2013). Accountability as a policy technology: accounting for education performance in Europe. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 79(2), 292-309. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020852313477763
Ozga, J. (2016). Trust in numbers? Digital Education Governance and the inspection process. European Educational Research Journal, 15(1), 69-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904115616629
Power, M. (1997). The audit society: Rituals of verification. Oxford University Press.
Sallis, E. (2014). Total quality management in education. Routledge.
Sellar, S. (2015). A feel for numbers: Affect, data and education policy. Critical Studies in Education, 56(1), 131-146. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2015.981198
Selwyn, N. (2015). ‘There’s so much data’: Exploring the realities of data-based school governance. European Educational Research Journal, 15(1), 54-68. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904115602909
Strathern, M. (Ed.). (2000). Introduction. New accountabilities. Anthropological studies in audit, ethics and the academy. En M. Strathern (Ed.), Audit cultures. Anthropological studies in accountability, ethics and the academy (pp. 1-20). Routledge. https://www.academia.edu/17642957/Audit_Cultures_by_Marilyn_Strathern_2000_
Strathern, M. (2017). Comment on Fochler and de Rijcke’s “Implicated in the indicator game? An experimental debate”. Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, 3, 134-138. https://doi.org/10.17351/ests2017.157
Tamboukou, M. (2016). Education as action/the adventure of education: Thinking with Arendt and Whitehead. Journal of educational administration and history, 48(2), 136-147. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2016.1144578
Thompson, G. y Mockler, N. (2016). Principals of audit: Testing, data and ‘implicated advocacy’, Journal of Educational Administration and History, 48(1), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2015.1040376
Tolofari, S. (2005). New public management and education. Policy futures in education, 3(1), 75-89. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250151957_New_Public_Management_and_Education
Webb, P. T. (2014). Policy problematization. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 27(3), 364-376. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2012.762480
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
1. In case the submitted paper is accepted for publication, the author(s) FREELY, COSTLESS, EXCLUSIVELY AND FOR AN INDEFINITE TERM transfer copyrights and patrimonial rights to Universidad Nacional (UNA, Costa Rica). For more details check the Originality Statement and Copyright Transfer Agreement
2. REUTILIZATION RIGHTS: UNA authorizes authors to use, for any purpose (among them selfarchiving or autoarchiving) and to publish in the Internet in any electronic site, the paper´'s final version, both approved and published (post print), as long as it is done with a non commercial purpose, does not generate derivates without previous consentment and recognizes both publisher's name and authorship.
3. The submission and possible publication of the paper in the Educare Electronic Journal is ruled by the Journal’s editorial policies, the institutional rules of Universidad Nacional and the laws of the Republic of Costa Rica. Additionally, any possible difference of opinion or future dispute shall be settled in accordance with the mechanisms of Alternative Dispute Resolution and the Costa Rican Jurisdiction.
4. In all cases, it is understood that the opinions issued are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position and opinion of Educare, CIDE or Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica. It is also understood that, in the exercise of academic freedom, the authors have carried out a rogorous scientific-academic process of research, reflection and argumentation thar lays within the thematic scope of interest of the Journal.
5. The papers published by Educare Electronic Journal use a Creative Commons License:
The articles published by Educare Electronic Journal can be shared with a Creative Commons License: 
