Differentiated absorption capacity in ten public schools in Chile
Keywords:
Absorptive Capacity, School Improvement, Public Schools, Technical Assistance, Organizational Learning
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Abstract
The question that the study sought to answer is: What factors influence different public schools to have a different capacity to absorb knowledge from a school improvement project? To this end, the effects of a technical assistance project promoted by a university centre that sought to strengthen relational trust in ten public basic schools in two municipalities in Chile during the years 2020 and 2021 were studied. A qualitative methodology was used, based on semi-structured interviews and documentary review. A first finding was that the schools studied showed different levels of knowledge absorption, which could be classified into the following three: changes in beliefs and/or competencies of school leaders, development of new management and relationship practices, and institutionalisation of new practices. A second finding was the usefulness of having an analytical device that considers the characteristics of the absorbing school, as well as those of the external partner and the type of relationship between the two during the project, all factors that affect organisational learning capacity. The analytical device used, based on a pre- existing one on the absorption capacity of intermediate educational institutions, showed its relevance, but also revealed the need to integrate certain complementary factors.
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