Liderar una escuela inclusiva en contextos educativos estandarizados

At the educational policy level, school principals and management teams are expected to lead the school transformation and consolidate processes of inclusion within the school. However, this is a complex task in a system where the quality of education is measured by standardized tests and schools are ranked. The objective of this article is to understand the tensions and limitations that school leaders face and overcome when implementing inclusion processes in a highly standardized educational system such as Chile’s. Through four case studies, 40 interviews and 18 focus groups were conducted with school leaders from four inclusive schools. The results show that (1) SIMCE stresses inclusion as a cultural process; (2) the standardization of the national curriculum affects the flexibility of teaching; (3) there are inclusive policies focused on and dependent on school performance; (4) school principals adopt discourses and practices typical of a management style beyond their leadership style. The findings support the account of an inclusion with excellence, i.e., an inclusive school model that emphasizes academic outcomes.