Teacher Agency for Inclusion: Contrasting Experiences of Teachers in Two Schools in Chile
摘要
This chapter considers the properties and scope of teacher agency at the school level in Chile. Previous literature has shown the diverse conditions constraining teaching practice and relationships with other school actors from a neoliberal perspective. The chapter draws on a model of teacher agency for social justice to consider the conditions that enabled collective teacher agency in the Chilean context, given its highly neoliberalised structure and exclusionary culture. The chapter explores the footprints of teachers’ agency for inclusive education in two schools in Santiago, Chile, during COVID-19. The pandemic made the cracks in the system visible and increased the adversarial conditions that create risks of exclusion and disadvantage. At the same time, the emergency context provided examples of initiatives led by teachers to respond to the challenges. We examined teachers’ actions and interactions aimed at addressing these exclusionary conditions, considering the specificity of each school and the national education system.