Divergent tales of citizenship: Perspectives, display and promotion of Organisational Citizenship Behaviours of school districts' staff in Chile

Student thesis: Phd

Abstract

Chile has been recognised as one of the most unequal societies in the world, and its educational system is one of the most segregated (OECD, 2012). It has been explained that historical and economic causes have influenced this. Indeed, a long and violent dictatorship that suppressed civic and civil rights and implemented a neoliberal system has been perceived as one of the most critical factors. Back to democracy, Chilean citizens had to learn to live in a democratic society again, showing disconformity towards the system. In this regard, experts have suggested that education is key to overcoming inequalities and encouraging engaged citizens. However, most research has been dedicated to the school level and teachers, failing to acknowledge the pivotal role that school districts and their staff have in promoting and ensuring these. Accordingly, this research aims to identify citizenship perspectives encouraged in Chile's educative policies. Also, to analyse the forms of OCB manifested by staff from the new (LSPE) and old (DME) school districts in Chile and their outcomes for the district. The theoretical framework explores the construct, debates, and advantages of Organisational Citizenship Behaviours. Furthermore, when predictors of these behaviours are analysed, Organisational Justice emerges as a key factor that can impact them. Equally, different perspectives of citizenship are presented, reflecting the need for a contextualised approach that considers the particularities of Latin American societies. This qualitative research is developed through a Multiple Case Study in four school districts in Chile. The methods for data collection are mixed and include documents, textbooks, laws, semi-structured interviews, and surveys (Group Organisational Citizenship Behaviours and Organisational Justice scales). A total of 48 participants partook in the study. The first objective is to examine how Citizenship Education has been encouraged in national educative policies. In this sense, the findings expose that the legislation promotes citizenship through different instruments (such as plans and programmes). Also, this is encouraged through participative organisms for educative governance and the (discontinuous) module of Citizenship Education. However, different regulations per type of school district are exposed, evidencing that private administration is less regulated and instances for the promotion of citizenship are limited or non-mandatory. Following this, the curricular analysis unveils that the central encouragement during the Chilean dictatorship was National citizenship. Back to democracy, other conceptions have been introduced in the curriculum, including Post-national, Democratic and Social, Active, Multicultural, Intercultural, Ethnic and Digital citizenship. The second objective is to examine different manifestations of citizenship and OCB among DME and LSPE. Most citizenship perspectives are encouraged transversally, but only LSPE-2 unveils a genuine exercise of Intercultural citizenship. In terms of OCB, the findings unveil that participants manifest its five forms at the individual and group level. However, Civic virtue is mainly promoted at the school level. Finally, the third objective is to examine the main factors influencing citizenship and OCB among DME and LSPE. Barriers and facilitators at the societal and organisational levels are identified. Moreover, perceptions of unfair Distributive and Procedural Organisational Justice are exposed, but perceptions of fair Interactional Justice are mentioned and facilitated by the leaders. Regarding outcomes or consequences of these barriers and facilitators, the lack of articulation and tensions in employment relations are mentioned at the group level. At the individual level, participants mention burnout due to heavy workloads. Nevertheless, they feel engaged and manifest a long trajectory in the educative system. This study constitutes a unique contribution to the Chilea
Date of Award1 Aug 2023
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • The University of Manchester
SupervisorKate Rowlands (Supervisor) & Christopher Rees (Supervisor)

Keywords

  • Organisational Justice
  • School systems
  • Organizational Justice
  • Organisational Citizenship Behaviours
  • Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
  • Participation
  • Citizenship

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