Collaborative inquiry as a facilitator of agency in a Chilean principals’ network: Implementing the formative assessment together

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to analyze the agency process of the members of two networks of elementary schools in Santiago, Chile, that faced challenges of evaluating distance teaching and learning during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The principals of these networks were able to redefine a context of high uncertainty as an opportunity to appropriate the new national policy on formative assessment, due to the implementation of the networked collaborative inquiry methodology. These networks formed three inquiry teams among four and six schools each, involving a total of 28 directors from 14 schools. A content analysis of the logs of each team, the personal reflections of each participant, and the field notes of the researchers was carried out. According to the results, it is evident the (1) process of construction of meaning, appropriation, and translation of formative evaluation; (2) the valuation of the networked collaborative inquiry for the collective appropriation of the formative evaluation policy; and (3) the existence of personal agency modulators, common to these professionals and contextual, highlighting the absence of restrictive guidelines from the educational authorities.