This experiential course explored how education has been used in Chile as a tool for advancing social change. To understand the higher education in Chile, students engaged in activities designed to help understand Chile’s historical, political, social, and economic contexts, and their relationship to educational policies and practices both past and present. As part of this learning experience, we met with Chilean students, faculty, institutional leaders and policy makers, consider a range of timely higher education issues being addressed at a variety of institution types. The group also learned from community members about their experiences, and honed skills as educators, researchers, policy influencers, and change agents. Along the way, we examined our own positionality, prior educational experiences, and current practices and considered how they inform our understanding of Chilean higher education. We also drew comparisons between higher education in Chile and the U.S. to come to broader understandings of higher education as a global enterprise.
After participating in this experiential learning course, students:
- Had a greater understanding of current issues in various sectors of Chilean higher education.
- Could describe how historical, political, economic, and social contexts inform the development and implementation of curriculum, policy, and practice in Chilean higher education.
- Could idenify various parties that are involved in developing and implementing policies and practices relevant to Chilean higher education.
- Recognized how Chilean public and institutional policies and educational practices affect students, staff, faculty, and community members.
- Appraised the strengths and limitations of various public and institutional policies and educational practices in Chile.
- Discussed how public and institutional policy and practice in Chile can be used as tools to inform and/or stifle change in service of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Compared and contrasted educational policies and practices in Chile and the U.S.
- Articulated how the information we learned from our Chilean partners is relevant to their careers of interest.