Legal and policy orientations of school leadership in Chile, historical trajectory from 1980 to 2025

Abstract

This article aims to review, from a historical–normative and interpretive perspective, the main laws and policy measures that have influenced school principals’ work in Chile, from the municipalisation reforms of the 1980s to the current New Public Education System. The study is based on documentary analysis of legislation, leadership frameworks and specialized literature, and reconstructs three connected stages: (a) school leadership as a “forgotten position” within the municipal management model and the Teacher Statute; (b) the emergence of competitive selection and a stronger idea of instructional leadership, linked to the Full School Day Law, the General Education Law and Law 20.501 on Quality and Equity in Education; and (c) the redefinition of principals’ roles within a multilevel governance structure associated with Law 21.040 and intermediate leadership frameworks. The article closes by discussing progress, enduring tensions and pending challenges to turn the formal centrality of leadership into real working conditions in schools.