Historical evolution of the head teacher's role and suggestions for a future handbook of the students counseling in the current chilean society

Abstract

In our country, the educational system has suffered many changes which have involved most of the contestants of that process. One of these is called “Head Teacher”, which today is not as relevant as past times. Consequently the education goal has been put on getting results more than helping students to reach their aims. Currently, in Chile many teachers are recognized as subject teachers (someone who teaches any particular topic in a school) rather than being Head Teachers. That is the reason why this research is based on Head Teachers` competences, qualities, and roles for the effective development of Students` Counseling at Chilean society. This study shows historical and transversal data of Head Teachers in three different periods of time in Chile (from 1957 to1973; from 1973 to 1990; from 1990 to2013). This information has the purpose to show specific background about the practicum in the classroom. The research approach is to apply a data collection instrument to nine Head Teachers with at least five years of experience; those teachers belong to three types of schools in Chile: public, private and, subsidized schools. The final goal of this study is to propose ten suggestions for a future Head Teacher’s Manual in order to create a potential handbook for the Head Teachers´ current Chilean society. Due to this, teachers will improve their labor inside the classroom and will have a concrete instrument to develop their job.