Results of the 2024 National Diagnostic Assessment in Philosophy Teacher Education in Chile

Abstract

The standardization of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) poses particular challenges for disciplines with a strong critical-reflective orientation, such as Philosophy Teacher Education. This study analyzes the results of the 2024 National Diagnostic Assessment (NDA) administered to students enrolled in Philosophy Teacher Education programs in Chile. Its main objective is to identify the principal strengths and weaknesses of teacher preparation and to examine whether performance patterns vary by institutional type, administrative dependency, or gender. A quantitative, comparative, and cross-sectional design was employed using official census data from the Chilean Ministry of Education. The analysis included 102 preservice philosophy teachers evaluated across nine pedagogical standards. Descriptive statistics and Mann–Whitney U tests were used to examine group differences. The findings reveal a clear structural pattern. The highest achievement was observed in Standard 10 (Professional Ethics) (M = 0.81), whereas the lowest corresponded to Standard 5 (Respectful and Organized Learning Environment) (M = 0.48). These results should be interpreted as an absence of evidence of differences rather than as evidence of homogeneity within Chilean Philosophy Teacher Education. More broadly, they point to a tension between the technical demands of standardized teacher education and the critical-reflective vocation of philosophical education. Although future philosophy teachers show solid ethical knowledge, their preparation appears weaker in translating these principles into effective classroom practice. Thus, the main limitation lies in insufficiently integrating ethical reflection with practical pedagogical competence.

1. Introduction

Initial Teacher Education in Philosophy in Chile faces increasing pressure to respond to standardized evaluation frameworks while preserving its critical-reflective identity. In this context, analyzing the 2024 National Diagnostic Assessment results becomes relevant for identifying strengths, weaknesses, and possible structural patterns in the pedagogical preparation of future philosophy teachers.

1.1. Pedagogical Standards in Philosophy Teacher Education in Chile

The process of institutionalization of education within the State, heir to the Enlightenment project, and the expansion of coverage due to educational demands (Serrano et al., 2013; Abbagnano & Visalberghi, 1975), has generated an increasing standardization. The modern imperative of forming rational subjects that integrate a universal order (Kant, 2006) requires an institution that systematizes its ends and methods. However, the operationalization of such principles in education has precise material consequences. The necessity for increasingly predictable, calculable, and efficient forms of organization derives from a standardized rationalization (Weber, 2005), which perhaps finds its most pessimistic critique in the writings of Horkheimer and Adorno in the postulate of the predominance of instrumental reason over the development of the subject’s critical capacities (1998). Transformative educational practices, thus, are stifled by the excess of technical tasks that fall upon the teacher and that result in normalized teaching for students.

The topic of the failure of the Enlightenment project is, without a doubt, commonplace in philosophy, and entrenching oneself in the critique of its results contains nothing new. The bibliography regarding education is abundant in confirming the growing neglect of the development of the subject’s autonomy in favor of competencies of a technical character for the optimization of efficiency and development (Freire, 2023; Habermas, 2008; Grundy, 2013). For this reason, the necessary critique is not a matter of dismantling and rejection of that which has been instituted as norm. It is a matter of the sharpening of examination and evidencing grey zones that permit the reappropriation and the creation of transformative educational practices (Tejeda, 2022). To have a notion of critique akin to this, we need not go far. Already Kant (1998) pointed out that the concept of critique is possible upon understanding the limits and possibilities of reason for knowing. However, not everything resides in the cognitive dimension; its necessary complement is the examination of the difficulties and opportunities for changing one’s own educational environment (Tejeda, 2022). For this reason, critique is linked both to the intellectual dimension as well as the material one. The latter corresponds closely to the classical philosophical concept of phronesis (φρόνησις), understood as the practical wisdom required to discern what a particular situation demands and to act accordingly, beyond the mere application of abstract theoretical principles.

The great question, then, does not reside in the mere localization of the actors and elements that disturb educational institutions, but in establishing what new practices could generate a remodeling of the principles that found school curricula in their own material contexts of appearance. From there it follows that we defend a first theoretical thesis: standards should not be simply rejected, but thought of as devices that fix what by nature is irreducible: pedagogical practice as a field of production of singular subjectivity. In the second place, a practical thesis: it is in the very context of production of pedagogical practices where the elements must be found that allow one to foundedly create new practices of transformation of pedagogy. In the case of this article, what is attempted to be understood are the results of the National Diagnostic Assessment (NDA) 2024 of students enrolled in Philosophy Teacher Education programs in Chile, with the purpose of identifying strengths and weaknesses in their initial teacher education. Attempting to identify whether the patterns of performance are transversal to the system or are influenced by variables such as the type of institution or gender. The foregoing will help us to think and orient the formative models in the face of the demands of the classroom and with respect to transformative pedagogical practices that are required.

Accordingly, the theoretical framework outlined above does not merely serve as an intellectual backdrop but rather as the analytical lens through which the empirical evidence is interpreted. Weber’s (2005) concept of rationalization is embodied in the very pedagogical standards assessed by the National Diagnostic Assessment (NDA). Likewise, the tension between instrumental reason and critical capacities identified by Horkheimer and Adorno (1988) anticipates a potential disconnect between ethical-reflective standards and those concerned with the practical management of classroom environments—a distinction that the present findings allow us to examine empirically. Kant’s (1998) conception of critique, understood as an inquiry into the limits and possibilities of reason and extended here through the Aristotelian notion of phronesis, provides the conceptual basis for exploring the gap between mastery of normative principles and their practical enactment. Finally, Freire’s (2023) commitment to transformative educational practice gives normative meaning to the present diagnosis by directing attention to the ways in which the current model of teacher education either enables or constrains such transformative potential. These conceptual categories are revisited explicitly in the Discussion to interpret the findings of the 2024 National Diagnostic Assessment.

To address this issue, and in line with our second argument, it is necessary to outline the institutional and pedagogical context in which philosophy teachers develop their professional practice. This context is particularly relevant because the standards applied to Initial Teacher Education shape not only what is assessed, but also the type of professional performance expected from future teachers.

First, we contextualize Initial Teacher Education (ITE), describe the institutional and policy framework within which it operates, present the overall structure of the National Diagnostic Assessment (NDA), and examine the philosophical field from the perspective of gender. This contextual overview establishes the conceptual and institutional foundations necessary to address the three research questions while highlighting the distinctive features of Philosophy Teacher Education within the Chilean educational system. Next, we describe the materials and methods employed in the study, with particular attention to the pedagogical standards that constitute the assessment framework and their role within the Chilean context. We then present the results based on a sample of 102 preservice philosophy teachers, reporting overall performance as well as analyses disaggregated by gender. The subsequent discussion interprets these findings by identifying the principal strengths and weaknesses of Philosophy Teacher Education programs in Chile and examining whether performance varies according to gender, institutional affiliation, or administrative dependency. Finally, we conclude by discussing the broader implications of the findings and outlining the main conclusions drawn from the empirical evidence.

1.2. Characteristics of the Chilean Initial Teacher Education System

To understand the necessity of this analysis, we must consider that in Chile, curricular coverage of Philosophy was expanded as a mandatory subject of the common curriculum for all students in the final two years of secondary education, both in the Scientific-Humanist area as well as in the Technical-Professional area. The foregoing requires that this ITE possess robust pedagogical competencies to mediate critical thinking and classroom work at both formative levels, ensuring educational inclusion. In this context, the NDA positions itself as a relevant instrument for thinking about ITE and its contribution to the demands of the educational system (Núñez-Valdés et al., 2022; Maturana-Castillo et al., 2025). Within this framework, the university institutions that teach the Philosophy Teacher Education program are of three types: public State universities, private universities with the appellation of traditional, and private universities proper (Labraña-Vargas & Rodríguez-Cisternas, 2017). This classification is of analytical relevance, given that the Chilean educational system is defined by a complex and, often, contradictory interaction between coverage in higher education and the persistence of deep structural inequalities (Villalobos et al., 2020; Alarcón-López & Falabella, 2021).

Although there is a tendency towards the convergence of the processes of evaluation of ITE and their respective formative institutions (Miranda et al., 2025), the universities also face the permanent challenge of implementing curricular innovations that manage to make compatible the needs of the educational environment and the regulatory demands of the Ministry of Education (Castillo Armijo et al., 2025). In consequence, ITE in Chile has been the object of constant revisions and reforms, oriented towards optimizing its real impact on the school system and towards responding to criticisms regarding the gap between its theoretical formation and pedagogical praxis. Thus, the analysis of the results of the NDA not only permits evaluating teachers in formation, but also offers a radiograph of the capacity of the curricula to face the challenges of each educational context and of the standards.

1.3. Structure of the NDA in General and with Specificity for Philosophy Teacher Education

The NDA is elaborated considering some general pedagogical standards that are evaluated across all teacher education programs, including Philosophy Teacher Education, which act as the guiding and regulating framework of the competencies that every professional must possess for their practice in the Chilean school system (Maturana-Castillo et al., 2025). This part of the Evaluation, beyond measuring abstract contents, seeks to evidence the capacity of the future teacher to transpose the complexity of their disciplinary knowledge to the context of secondary education, considering the development of cognitive, procedural, and attitudinal dimensions in their learning (Rivero-Castro & Medeiros, 2023).

On the other hand, the NDA also considers some disciplinary standards; however, Philosophy Teacher Education constitutes an exception within ITE in Chile, given that it still does not have these. Their elaboration began only in 2022 and, during 2024, the Center for Teacher Development, Experimentation and Pedagogical Research (CPEIP) carried out a participatory review process at the national level; nevertheless, they have been rejected by the National Council of Education and will need to be adjusted (CNED, 2026). In consequence, the student body evaluated by the NDA 2024 was exclusively based on general pedagogical standards, without an approved disciplinary referent that would gather the specific competencies of philosophical knowledge and its particular didactics.

The NDA applied to students of Philosophy Teacher Education incorporates dimensions of classroom management and civic education. The creation of a respectful and organized environment constitutes one of the principal structural challenges of initial teacher education and its subsequent practice (CPEIP, 2026). To this are added social and personal development, which seeks to be articulated with thinking skills, competencies very relevant for situating philosophy as a tool of democratic coexistence, complemented by professional ethics as a measure of the teacher’s commitment to equity and social transformation (Sánchez-Sánchez et al., 2024).

1.4. Gender and Philosophy Education

Philosophy has historically reflected masculine intellectual traditions, while feminist scholarship has challenged the presumed neutrality of dominant frameworks (Peschke-Castillo & Ávila-Schiaffini, 2025). Yet these asymmetries do not stem from educational preparation: women and men construct philosophical arguments using comparable reasoning (Mizrahi & Dickinson, 2022).

Latin American studies instead identify structural inequalities in academic and professional trajectories. In Colombia, gender segmentation separates professional philosophy from philosophy teacher education (Acevedo-Zapata & Rivera-Sanín, 2023). In Brazil, men remain overrepresented among postgraduates and thesis supervisors, central to academic legitimacy (Fanton et al., 2024). Women’s supervision participation has grown more slowly in Philosophy than in most disciplines (Jemielniak & Wilamowski, 2025), suggesting historical biases remain structural barriers despite equivalent educational opportunities (Churcher, 2024). These findings distinguish assessment-captured educational equity from structural inequalities shaping philosophy beyond teacher education and frame the Discussion’s gender findings.

Despite the NDA’s relevance, the literature on Philosophy ITE remains limited. Unlike Mathematics (Gaona et al., 2024) or Physical Education (Flores-Ferro et al., 2025), Chilean Philosophy ITE lacks studies on specific didactic challenges irreducible to generic competencies and curricula’s capacity to meet school-system demands.

Given the descriptive-comparative scope of the study and the limited prior evidence available for Philosophy Teacher Education in Chile, no strong directional hypotheses were formulated. Instead, the study was guided by the following research questions: (1) What strengths and weaknesses can be identified in the pedagogical performance of preservice philosophy teachers in the 2024 National Diagnostic Assessment? (2) Are there significant differences in performance according to gender? (3) Are there significant differences in performance according to institutional type or administrative dependency?

2. Materials and Methods

The National Diagnostic Assessment (NDA) is the official instrument administered by the Center for Improvement, Experimentation and Pedagogical Research (CPEIP), the technical agency of the Chilean Ministry of Education responsible for evaluating preservice teachers nationwide. Its psychometric development is based on Item Response Theory (IRT), which is used to estimate and equate scores across assessment administrations, as well as to establish achievement levels using the 30th and 80th percentiles of the national score distribution as cut-off points. As the technical body responsible for the development and administration of the assessment, the CPEIP does not publicly report cohort-specific reliability coefficients. Consequently, the present study relies on the standardized achievement scores and performance levels previously validated and released by the agency (CPEIP, 2025). For the purposes of this study, the NDA results were drawn from the official 2024 open-access database released by the Ministry of Education and correspond to the full national cohort of Philosophy Teacher Education students who sat the assessment that year (n = 102), rather than to a sample; therefore, the data are fully representative of the observable population for 2024, although not intended for longitudinal generalization. The assessment includes multiple-choice items and open-ended tasks aligned with pedagogical standards and is designed as a formative instrument for institutional improvement. For international readers, the participating institutions belong to three segments of the Chilean university system: state universities, traditional private universities with public orientation (G9), and private universities. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Mann–Whitney U tests after non-normality was verified with the Shapiro–Wilk test. Because the database is anonymized and publicly available, no informed consent was required from participants.

The present article is inscribed in the framework of a broader research project oriented towards the analysis of the NDA 2024 from different levels of disaggregation. In this context, the study focuses on examining the global performance of students of Initial Teacher Education in Philosophy (ITE in Philosophy), considering both the results by pedagogical standards as well as the differences associated with the types of institutions and their administrative dependency. Specifically, the achievement percentages reached by the student body of the Chilean universities that teach the Philosophy Teacher Education program in the 9 pedagogical standards that configure the national referents of performance for the teaching profession in Chile were analyzed, which articulate the knowledge, skills, and dispositions expected in the initial formation of teachers:

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Standard 1: Learning and development of students;

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Standard 2: Disciplinary didactic knowledge and school curriculum;

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Standard 3: Planning of teaching;

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Standard 4: Planning of evaluation;

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Standard 5: Respectful and organized environment;

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Standard 6: Personal and social development;

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Standard 7: Teaching strategies for the achievement of deep learning;

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Standard 8: Learning strategies for the development of thinking skills;

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Standard 10: Professional ethics.

* Standard 9 is not part of the set of standards reported in this database.

In Chile, university institutions are organized into three broad categories according to their administrative dependency: state (public) universities, private universities, and traditional private universities belonging to the so-called G9. These latter, although they are of a private character, possess a public orientation and are part of the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (Alarcón-López & Falabella, 2021). Considering this structure, the study adopts a quantitative approach of cross-sectional design and comparative scope (Zuleika & Legiran, 2022), centered on the analysis of the results obtained by the students in the pedagogical standards evaluated by the NDA.

For data processing and analysis, the statistical software R 4.3.2 was used (R Core Team, 2021), along with the packages dplyr, tidyr, readxl, and openxlsx, which allowed for managing, transforming, and exporting the information in a systematic manner. Descriptive statistical analyses were developed, including measures of central tendency (mean), dispersion (standard deviation), and distribution of frequencies, with the purpose of characterizing the behavior of the variables under study. In particular, the achievement percentage reached by the students in each of the evaluated standards was estimated, as the central indicator of performance. Also, inferential analyses were carried out. Previously, the assumption of normality was evaluated by means of the Shapiro–Wilk test, whose results indicated the absence of normal distribution in the analyzed variables (The Shapiro–Wilk test was used only as a preliminary diagnostic step to support the choice of subsequent analyses; therefore, its results were not included in the tables). In light of that, the use of non-parametric tests was chosen; descriptive statistics were calculated for all variables, including means and standard deviations. The distribution of the data was assessed using the Shapiro–Wilk test (Shapiro & Wilk, 1965). Since normality assumptions were not consistently satisfied, non-parametric group comparisons were performed using the Kruskal–Wallis test as an omnibus procedure, followed by pairwise Mann–Whitney U tests (Mann & Whitney, 1947). In order to assure greater robustness in the comparisons, those universities with sample sizes equal to or less than three cases (n ≤ 3) were excluded from the inferential analysis, due to the statistical instability that reduced samples generate, as reported in Table 2, and work was done only with the cases that were actually reported. The U statistic, the level of significance (p), and the effect size, estimated from the coefficient r derived from the Z value, were reported; practical significance was assessed using the correlation coefficient (r) as an effect size measure. According to conventional guidelines, r values of 0.10, 0.30, and 0.50 represent small, medium, and large effects, respectively. The threshold of statistical significance was established at p ≤ 0.05 (Cohen, 2013).

The dataset constitutes a census, integrated by the totality of students who are enrolled in the penultimate year of ITE in Philosophy (n = 102) at the national level that took this evaluation, for which probabilistic sampling procedures were not applied, Although the dataset corresponds to the entire national cohort rather than a sample, significance tests are reported as an analytical tool to assess the stability of subgroup differences, treating the observed cohort as one possible realization of a broader hypothetical universe of comparable cohorts (a superpopulation perspective). All records with complete information and identifiable institutional affiliation were included and the achievement percentage refers to the IRT-derived score obtained for each pedagogical standard, expressed on a 0–1 scale, where higher values indicate greater achievement. Although the cases corresponding to reduced institutional sample sizes were maintained in the descriptive presentation, in order to safeguard the integrity of the census character of the study, statistical comparisons among institutions at the level of individual institutions were avoided. Finally, this delimitation allows situating the results within the framework of quality assurance policies and curricular decision-making within the formative institutions.

3. Results

The sample analyzed was composed of 102 students (61 men and 41 women) from the penultimate year of ITE in philosophy in Chile. The universities included in the study are: Pontifical University Catolica of Chile (PUC); Pontifical University Catolica of Valparaiso (PUCV); University Alberto Hurtado (UAH); University Andres Bello (UNAB); University Catholic Silva Henriquez (UCSH); University Metropolitana Educational Sciences (UMCE); University of Chile (Uchile); University of Concepcion (Udec); University of Playa Ancha (UPLA University of Santiago de Chile (USACH); University of Valparaiso (UV); in Table 1 the performances of university students in general and divided by sex are appreciated.

Table 1. Achievement percentages for each standard.

	Total Sample (n = 102)		Male (61)		Female (41)
	M.	sd.	M.	sd.	M.	sd.
Stan. 1	0.66	0.16	0.65	0.19	0.68	0.12
Stan. 2	0.58	0.27	0.6	0.26	0.55	0.29
Stan. 3	0.66	0.19	0.64	0.18	0.68	0.19
Stan. 4	0.62	0.22	0.63	0.21	0.62	0.24
Stan. 5	0.48	0.26	0.5	0.26	0.46	0.27
Stan. 6	0.62	0.15	0.65	0.15	0.59	0.14
Stan. 7	0.61	0.2	0.62	0.19	0.6	0.22
Stan. 8	0.65	0.2	0.68	0.19	0.61	0.21
Stan. 10	0.81	0.16	0.82	0.14	0.78	0.18

M. = Means; sd. = standard deviations; Stan. = Standard.

The standards with the highest performance (Table 1) correspond to Standard 10 (M = 0.81; SD = 0.16), and to Standards 1 and 3 (M = 0.66) and Standard 8 (M = 0.65), which show relatively solid results. In contrast, Standard 5 presents the lowest average (M = 0.48; SD = 0.26), evidencing a gap with respect to the rest. Likewise, Standard 2 (M = 0.58; SD = 0.27) also presents low values, reinforcing the idea that there exist areas where formation is weaker. The rest of the standards (4, 6, and 7) are situated at intermediate levels (M ≈ 0.61–0.62), which reflects moderate performance. Of the total sample, 61 correspond to men (59.8%) and 41 to women (40.2%); in general terms, the results show a relatively balanced pattern, without broad or consistent gaps. In both groups, Standard 10 presents the highest levels of achievement, with values of M = 0.82 (men) and M = 0.78 (women), which indicates that the competencies associated with this standard constitute a transversal strength. Likewise, relatively high performances are observed in Standards 1, 3, and 8, where the differences between men and women are minor, although with a slight feminine advantage in Standards 1 (0.68 vs. 0.65) and 3 (0.68 vs. 0.64). Standard 5 presents the lowest values in both groups (0.50 in men and 0.46 in women); in the same way, Standard 2 shows relatively low levels (0.60 in men and 0.55 in women), accompanied by greater dispersion, which suggests lesser stability in performance. The results suggest that gender does not constitute large gaps in performance on the pedagogical standards.

In Table 2, the achievement percentages of students enrolled in Philosophy Teacher Education according to the university where they pursue their formative process are presented.

Table 2. Achievement percentages by university standards.

University	n		Stan. 1	Stan. 2	Stan. 3	Stan. 4	Stan. 5	Stan. 6	Stan. 7	Stan. 8	Stan. 10
PUC	4	M.	0.75	0.69	0.62	0.75	0.58	0.64	0.71	0.82	0.89
		sd.	0.23	0.24	0.21	0.20	0.17	0.07	0.20	0.07	0.14
PUCV	5	M.	0.72	0.60	0.63	0.70	0.53	0.60	0.66	0.49	0.77
		sd.	0.10	0.34	0.18	0.11	0.38	0.10	0.22	0.24	0.13
UAH	8	M.	0.69	0.72	0.60	0.72	0.46	0.61	0.57	0.55	0.77
		sd.	0.12	0.16	0.20	0.21	0.25	0.11	0.17	0.16	0.23
UNAB	13	M.	0.65	0.60	0.68	0.69	0.41	0.64	0.59	0.63	0.75
		sd.	0.09	0.30	0.17	0.23	0.28	0.18	0.20	0.26	0.18
UCSH	4	M.	0.72	0.50	0.71	0.50	0.33	0.66	0.61	0.71	0.82
		sd.	0.19	0.29	0.21	0.20	0.27	0.16	0.39	0.20	0.07
UMCE	14	M.	0.63	0.57	0.65	0.62	0.50	0.56	0.60	0.57	0.72
		sd.	0.21	0.27	0.21	0.19	0.22	0.14	0.20	0.22	0.15
UChile	8	M.	0.66	0.50	0.65	0.66	0.63	0.58	0.66	0.71	0.86
		sd.	0.15	0.30	0.24	0.23	0.12	0.14	0.23	0.19	0.17
UdeC	9	M.	0.57	0.61	0.74	0.53	0.44	0.60	0.63	0.76	0.83
		sd.	0.24	0.28	0.17	0.29	0.37	0.17	0.19	0.14	0.19
UPLA	8	M.	0.62	0.34	0.56	0.50	0.42	0.65	0.55	0.59	0.84
		sd.	0.09	0.27	0.12	0.30	0.24	0.18	0.14	0.21	0.16
USACH	10	M.	0.61	0.58	0.68	0.62	0.47	0.59	0.61	0.70	0.86
		sd.	0.14	0.26	0.17	0.18	0.36	0.12	0.24	0.20	0.15
UV	9	M.	0.72	0.58	0.56	0.58	0.41	0.69	0.62	0.62	0.81
		sd.	0.19	0.28	0.19	0.22	0.28	0.12	0.17	0.14	0.16

M. = Means; sd. = standard deviations; Stan. = Standard.

The sample analyzed presents sizes that range between 4 and 14 students, highlighting institutions such as the Metropolitan University of Educational Sciences (n = 14), the Andrés Bello University (n = 13), and the University of Santiago of Chile (n = 10), along with others with reduced sizes. The results evidence a heterogeneous pattern in performance among universities, without an institution that stands out consistently across all standards. At a general level, Standard 10 positions itself as the principal strength of the system, presenting high levels of achievement in the majority of the analyzed institutions (for example, UChile = 0.86; UPLA = 0.84; UdeC = 0.83; UV = 0.81), which suggests a transversal consolidation of this competency in the formation of Philosophy teachers. In contrast, Standard 5 emerges as the principal weakness, with results systematically low across various universities (for example, UNAB = 0.41; UV = 0.41; UPLA = 0.42), evidencing a shared difficulty in the development of the competencies associated with this standard. Likewise, relatively outstanding performances are identified in specific institutions, such as the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile in superior standards (S8 and S10), the University of Concepción in Standard 3, and the University of Chile in Standard 10; nevertheless, these results do not configure a uniform pattern, but rather reflect punctual strengths in determined competencies, more than structural advantages among institutions.

In Table 3, the comparisons of the achievement percentages among universities according to administrative dependency are presented.

Table 3. Achievement percentages by standards according to administrative dependency.

	P (26)		Pg9 (17)		PUB (49)		P vs. Pg9			P vs. PUB			Pg9 vs. PUB
	M.	sd.	M.	sd.	M	sd.	U.	Sig.	r.	U.	Sig	r.	U.	Sig.	r.
Stan. 1	0.68	0.13	0.67	0.21	0.65	0.16	345.5	0.78	0.04	731.5	0.45	0.08	433	0.44	0.09
Stan. 2	0.64	0.26	0.62	0.26	0.53	0.28	310	0.71	0.05	608.5	0.05	0.22	400	0.22	0.15
Stan. 3	0.68	0.18	0.69	0.17	0.63	0.19	359	0.58	0.08	700.5	0.29	0.12	391.5	0.18	0.16
Stan. 4	0.66	0.22	0.62	0.24	0.60	0.22	307	0.66	0.06	692.5	0.25	0.13	451.5	0.59	0.06
Stan. 5	0.46	0.25	0.50	0.32	0.48	0.26	348.5	0.72	0.05	832	0.81	0.03	476.5	0.85	0.02
Stan. 6	0.65	0.16	0.62	0.13	0.61	0.14	298.5	0.56	0.08	693	0.27	0.12	456.5	0.65	0.05
Stan. 7	0.60	0.23	0.65	0.18	0.61	0.20	371	0.45	0.10	838	0.78	0.03	447.5	0.57	0.07
Stan. 8	0.64	0.21	0.71	0.20	0.63	0.20	414.5	0.11	0.22	794.5	0.90	0.01	358.5	0.08	0.21
Stan. 10	0.79	0.17	0.84	0.16	0.81	0.16	381.5	0.33	0.13	850.5	0.68	0.05	443	0.52	0.08

P = Private University; Pg9 = Private University G9; PUB: Public University; U = Mann–Whitney U test; r = effect size.

Considering the contextual characteristics of the Chilean university system, an analysis by pedagogical standards was carried out considering the achievement levels of ITE students grouped in each of the three types of institutions according to administrative dependency present in Chile: private universities (n = 33), private G9 universities (n = 20), and public universities (n = 49). In the standards with the highest performance, Standard 10 stands out, where the G9 universities (M = 0.84) present the best result, followed by the public ones (M = 0.81) and the private ones (M = 0.79). A similar pattern is observed in Standard 3, where the G9 again leads (M = 0.69). In contrast, Standard 5 presents the lowest levels in all types of institutions (Private: M = 0.46; G9: M = 0.50; Public: M = 0.48), confirming that it is a structural weakness of the formative system rather than a problem associated with a specific type of institution. Likewise, Standard 2 evidences a relevant gap, where the public universities present the lowest average (M = 0.53) in comparison with the private ones (M = 0.64) and the G9 (M = 0.62), suggesting a possible disadvantage in this specific competency. In intermediate standards, such as 4, 6, and 7, minor differences are observed, although with certain advantages of the G9 in some cases (for example, Standard 7 with M = 0.65). Nevertheless, upon incorporating inferential analysis, it is observed that these differences only reach statistical significance in Standard 2 for the comparison between public and private universities (* p = 0.05), which indicates that the identified gap must be interpreted with caution. In this case, the associated effect size (r = 0.22) is situated in a small to moderate range, suggesting that, although the difference is statistically detectable, its practical magnitude is limited. In the rest of the standards, the comparisons among dependencies do not present significant differences (* p > 0.05) and are accompanied by low effect sizes.

4. Discussion

The results point to a paradox in ITE in Philosophy: on one hand, Standard 10 (Professional Ethics) reaches the highest average of the sample (M = 0.81), while Standard 5 (Respectful and Organized Environment) results in the lowest (M = 0.48). This gap may not be mere coincidence, but rather signals a structural tension between two types of rationality that coexist in this formative process which do not necessarily articulate themselves in ITE; we refer to an ethical–critical rationality (Freire, 2023; Giroux, 2018; Apple, 2019), expressed in the capacity to deliberate and argue about principles; and a technical–operative rationality (Horkheimer & Adorno, 1988), which is related to the concrete management of learning contexts in the classroom. At a deeper theoretical level, this tension may be interpreted, in Habermasian terms (Habermas, 1981a, 1981b), as an unresolved relationship between communicative rationality, oriented toward mutual understanding, and strategic rationality, concerned with the effective organization of practical action. The comparatively low performance observed in Standard 5 may be understood as an empirical manifestation of this unresolved tension. From the perspective of Critical Theory, a further interpretive dimension emerges. The contradiction between emancipatory reason and instrumental reason, which Horkheimer and Adorno (1988) located at the macro level of modern social systems, appears here to be reproduced within the very subject undergoing professional formation. Future philosophy teachers demonstrate a sophisticated capacity to critique this contradiction at the theoretical level, yet their preparation does not adequately equip them to resolve it in the concrete context of classroom practice. The marked structural homogeneity of the findings reinforces this interpretation, suggesting that the divide is not attributable to particular institutions but rather reflects a characteristic of the teacher education model as a whole.

The evident proximity of ITE in Philosophy students with the ethical domain results comprehensible, since their disciplinary formation is very close to the analysis of moral dilemmas, to reflection upon justice, and to the construction and critique of normative judgments (Fernandes, 2023). We could point out, with Da Silva et al. (2021), that the ethical dimension of the teaching labor and also of these teachers requires that they anticipate and address complex dilemmas, fostering just and subject-centered educational environments; thus, this competency in the formation of philosophy teachers would develop in a robust manner. In the same line, Yépez-Verduga and Correa-Verduga (2024) underscore that the integration of values such as justice, empathy, and responsibility is a necessary condition for creating inclusive environments, although they warn that these values should not remain subordinated to institutional pressures for results, which reinforces the necessity of interaction of these rationalities (Grundy, 2013) so as not to generate a formative imbalance.

However, the low performance in Standard 5 suggests that this ethical–critical strength does not translate automatically into competencies for managing the classroom environment. The management of school climate requires procedural and attitudinal aspects that are scarcely developed only from the cognitive dimension; it demands systematic, sustained, and situated practical experiences (Božović et al., 2024). In this sense, the results are coherent with a tendency identified internationally by Kelesidis (2025), who ascertains that it is relevant to make explicit a formation for classroom management; otherwise, a formative deficit will manifest in this important area of professional performance. This type of lack could be inscribed in a broader type of gap between university theoretical formation and the practical demands of management of diverse classrooms, a gap that da Costa Venturini et al. (2025) identify as one of the principal factors of deficit in initial teacher education and which, in the final instance, would compromise the transformative potential of education (Paz, 2023).

Addressing this paradox does not imply subordinating or suppressing ethical–critical formation with respect to technical imperatives, but rather, it obliges articulating them. As proposed by da Costa Venturini et al. (2025) and Silva et al. (2025), the reforms of the curricula of ITE must incorporate active methodologies, development of socioemotional competencies, and a progressive and continuous practical formation, to assure that the future teachers have clarity in their reflection, possess an ethical acting as well as the procedural tools for an effective management of the classroom environment. In the case of ITE in Philosophy, this balance is especially urgent, since a teacher who masters the ethical foundation of democratic coexistence, but lacks the competencies to manage it in the classroom, reduces their capacity to face, in practice, the principles that they aim to teach.

Another relevant finding of the analysis is that the differences in performance by administrative dependency (whether these are private universities, private G9 universities, or public universities) do not reach statistical significance in the majority of the standards, with the only exception of Standard 2 (p = 0.05), whose effect size is too small (r = 0.22). In this context, the results suggest a structural homogeneity of ITE in Philosophy that does not discriminate according to the type of institution; regardless of the institution where the future teacher is formed, the performance results on the NDA are very similar. This could indicate that there would not exist a distinctive institutional seal among the formative universities, which could be due to the influence of a mandatory national curricular framework that tends to homogenize the formative process.

This finding is consistent with the accumulated evidence in the Chilean context. Maturana-Castillo et al. (2025) ascertain that, although the results of the NDA are used to ground processes of self-evaluation and mandatory accreditation of pedagogical programs in Chile, as well as to permit curricular improvements of the curricula; nevertheless, its impact on the effective results of the curricula is habitually minimal, which reinforces the thesis of a structural homogeneity among formative institutions. In the same direction, Gaona et al. (2024) point out that the weaknesses in disciplinary and didactic knowledge detected in the NDA, in other ITE, do not respond to isolated problems of universities of a specific type, but to a systemic deficit that crosses the entirety of the university formative system. Additionally, Miranda et al. (2025) indicate that institutional factors associated with university selection scores and levels of accreditation show only a weak correlation with respect to formative results, which would indicate a disconnection between institutional prestige and effective educational quality.

This tendency is not only observed in the Chilean context. In Colombia, the analysis of the results of tests such as the one called Saber Pro reveals that the type of institution, public or private, explains only a part of the variance in student performance, being mostly explained by individual factors (Cardenas & Mora, 2014). On the other hand, in Brazil, the results of the Exames Nacionais de Desempenho dos Estudantes (ENADE) show a similar behavior; the differences between modalities and institutions are less determinant than broader systemic conditions that structure formation (Cortelazzo & Elisei, 2022). Both compared evidence points to the fact that the effects of systems of higher education are modest with respect to the effect of the general social/educational system.

In the case of this ITE in Philosophy in Chile, this homogeneity has a direct and, in our view, relevant theoretical implication. The strengths and weaknesses identified, that is, ethical mastery as a strength and classroom management as a structural weakness, are not attributable to curricular decisions of any institution, but rather reflect conditions and limits of the formative model as a whole. This would reinforce the idea that any significant transformation of ITE in Philosophy requires being thought at the level of the system, and not only as an adjustment to the curricula. Likewise, the results obtained do not evidence significant gaps with respect to the gender of the students in the achievement of the pedagogical standards, which could be interpreted, hastily, as an indicator of equity in this ITE. However, this apparent parity requires being analyzed with care, since the absence of formative differences in this dimension does not necessarily equate to the absence of inequality in the philosophical field in a broader sense.

Philosophy has historically been a discipline structured from masculine perspectives, with a tendency to ignore or diminish the importance of the contributions that women philosophers have made throughout history, as the feminist critique points out regarding the purported neutrality of its dominant conceptual frameworks (Peschke-Castillo & Ávila-Schiaffini, 2025). Nevertheless, this historical asymmetry does not seem to necessarily translate into an inequity in the formative processes such as the one we are analyzing. Mizrahi and Dickinson (2022) sustain that women who perform in philosophical domains at the moment of constructing arguments comparable to those of their male peers do so without significant differences in the types of reasoning utilized, which suggests that the persistent gender gaps respond not so much to differences in formation, but rather to structural and cultural factors that operate beyond the classroom.

This difference between formative equity and structural inequality can be seen in other contexts on our continent. For example, in Colombia, only 24.8% of philosophy teachers are women; nevertheless, this figure reflects a difference not in formation, but rather in the roles that they occupy. In professional philosophy programs (associated with theoretical prestige), the feminine presence falls to 21.36%, while in pedagogical formation programs (linked to teaching and care) it rises to 33.09%, evidencing a greater gender segmentation in the professional realm (Acevedo-Zapata & Rivera-Sanín, 2023). In the philosophical postgraduate formation in Brazil, the task of thesis direction reveals a relevant and worrying gender inequality. Women are a minority among those who graduate (29.26%) and, above all, among those who direct academic works (19.77%). This research points out that, besides, even when women can direct a thesis, they do so predominantly to men (1.95 times more). Male directors, for their part, direct 2.56 times more works of men. Thus, thesis direction to students results in being the principal channel of transmission of networks and legitimation in the professional philosophical field, operating also as a mechanism of reproduction and probably of a male overrepresentation (Fanton et al., 2024). At a general level, Jemielniak and Wilamowski (2025) point out that, although feminine authorship in academia has increased in general terms, said advance is comparatively slower in philosophy than in other disciplines, which reinforces the idea that this discipline and its historical biases act as structural barriers that persist even when the formative opportunities are equivalent (Churcher, 2024).

In the case of ITE in Philosophy in Chile, these antecedents invite a prudent reading regarding that men and women obtain similar performances on the NDA, which does not mean that the formation is neutral with respect to gender. The inequalities that affect the future philosophy teachers operate in dimensions that this instrument cannot measure, such as those relative to curricular representation, models of reference, or the conditions of professional insertion of these.

It is significant to problematize the greater coverage of the teaching of Philosophy as a mandatory subject in all modalities of secondary education in Chile, which apparently represents a significant advance in terms of curricular equity. Nevertheless, this expansion can become a source of new inequalities if it is not accompanied by an ITE that considers the challenges that teaching philosophy in more heterogeneous contexts implies. The teaching of Philosophy in the secondary school curriculum has not historically been implemented as a linear process nor exempt from tensions, especially in contexts of social polarization such as the one we are living in. Authors such as Lemos (2023) point out that the critical nature of this discipline has been perceived at times as subversive by the dominant educational policies, which has been translated into an unstable curricular integration and with frameworks of support somewhat weak. In this sense, the tardiness in the approval of the specific disciplinary standards for ITE in Philosophy in Chile could be an expression of this structural tension; on one hand, we have a subject that is demanded to be taught to all, but that does not yet have the clear curricular referents regarding the expected formative results; it can leave this ITE in a fragile condition. Herrera-Urízar et al. (2025) ascertain that, although there exists a certain convergence between the curricula of ITE in Philosophy and pedagogical formation, gaps persist that compromise the development of effective teaching practices and the promotion of critical thinking among students.

These gaps become especially problematic in the face of the demands of an education that needs to be more inclusive. Oyarzún-Roasenda (2024) warns that the rigidity of educational frameworks would hinder the implementation of teaching that attends to circumstances such as interculturality and inclusivity, in order thus to respond to the diversity that manifests in the classrooms. In that sense, Slutsky (2024) underscores that Philosophy can perform a central role in teacher formation precisely because it favors reflective practices and the taking of ethical decisions, essential conditions for constructing more inclusive classrooms. However, this potentiality can be lost when ITE does not manage to articulate the intellectual identity of the future teacher with the practical competencies that the management of those diverse classrooms demands. Silva-Peña et al. (2025) warn that, in addition, the lack of coherence between inclusion policies and the effective preparation of teachers constitutes one of the factors that most contributes to deepening inequalities in educational results.

To this we can add the epistemic dimension of the problem; Báez Vizcaíno (2023) in this regard sustains that addressing epistemic injustice, that is, recognizing and valuing the distinct systems of knowledge present in the classroom, is equally a necessary condition for constructing more equitable educational environments. In Philosophy, this implies that the future teacher not only must master the canonical contents of the discipline, but also develop the capacity to make them dialogue with the knowledge, experiences, and formation contexts of their students (Golus, 2025), for example, whether these are of the scientific-humanist modality or technical-professional. The greater coverage of Philosophy in the Chilean curriculum is a valuable opportunity, but its transformative potential depends directly on an ITE in Philosophy capable of preparing teachers who not only know the discipline, but who can teach it in a pertinent, inclusive, and effective manner in the diverse contexts that the new curricular scenario demands.

Despite these contributions, the findings of the present study should be interpreted in light of several methodological limitations. First, the analysis is based on a single cohort and one administration of the National Diagnostic Assessment (NDA), corresponding to the 2024 assessment cycle. As the NDA constitutes a standardized evaluation applied across all Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs in Chile, the data provide a cross-sectional snapshot of student performance at a specific point in time. Consequently, the study does not permit longitudinal or causal inferences regarding the evolution of Philosophy Initial Teacher Education (PITE). Second, although the sample includes students from the majority of Chilean universities offering Philosophy Teacher Education programs, thereby providing broad institutional coverage of the national ITE system in this field, the absolute number of participants remains relatively small. This reflects the historically low enrollment in Philosophy Teacher Education programs in Chile rather than limitations in the sampling procedure. Furthermore, the use of official secondary data meant that the authors had no control over either the design of the assessment instrument or the pedagogical standards upon which it was based. Finally, another limitation is that it relies on the scores officially reported by the CPEIP, assuming each standard is an equivalent unit of representation of performance. Since detailed information on item difficulty calibration and score equating across standards is not publicly available, we cannot entirely rule out that part of the observed differences between standards may be influenced by the psychometric characteristics of the instrument rather than solely by differences in teacher preparation.

Accordingly, the findings should be interpreted as a system-level diagnosis rather than as an evaluation of individual teacher education programs. Future research could extend this line of inquiry in several ways. First, analyzing multiple consecutive NDA cohorts would make it possible to identify temporal trends and assess the stability of the patterns reported here. Second, quantitative findings could be complemented by qualitative approaches, such as curriculum analysis and interviews with program graduates, to explore the mechanisms underlying the structural homogeneity identified in this study. Third, comparative analyses could be expanded to include other teacher education disciplines assessed by the NDA, such as Mathematics and Physical Education, in order to determine whether the patterns observed are unique to Philosophy Teacher Education or reflect broader characteristics of the Chilean Initial Teacher Education system. Finally, future studies could undertake a systematic documentary analysis of university curricula and the national secondary-school Philosophy curriculum, integrating these findings with previous research on teacher competencies and teacher education in Chile. Such an approach would help identify the curricular origins of the strengths and weaknesses documented in the present study and provide a stronger empirical basis for future reforms.

5. Conclusions

The findings of the present study extend beyond describing the performance profile of Philosophy Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Chile in the 2024 National Diagnostic Assessment (NDA). Rather, they reveal a particular form of philosophical incompleteness embedded in the very structure of the current teacher education model. Philosophy teacher education in Chile appears to produce graduates who have reached the threshold of praxis without fully entering it: teachers who command the ethical language of educational transformation, yet whose ethical understanding remains, in the most literal sense, abstract, detached from the material and relational conditions in which it ought to be embodied.

The marked contrast between the high level of achievement in Professional Ethics (Standard 10) and the comparatively low performance in Creating a Respectful and Well-Organized Learning Environment (Standard 5) should not be interpreted as either a random disparity or a deficiency attributable to technical shortcomings in pedagogical preparation. Rather, it points to a deeper fracture between knowing what ethics is and knowing how to enact it in the only place where, for teachers, ethics truly becomes meaningful: the concrete classroom, inhabited by particular students and shaped by circumstances that no abstract ethical principle can fully anticipate.

This fracture is by no means unique to teacher education. However, its particular manifestation in Philosophy Teacher Education warrants a specifically philosophical interpretation because it echoes a classical distinction articulated with remarkable clarity in the Aristotelian tradition. A distinction must be drawn between knowledge of universal principles and phronesis, practical wisdom that discerns what justice requires in a given situation, with these particular individuals, here and now. A teacher may possess a sophisticated understanding of the ethical foundations of student dignity and yet remain unable to create the conditions under which that dignity can genuinely be realized. This is not due to a lack of theoretical knowledge but because professional preparation has failed to reach the practical dimension of ethics, where what is required is no longer reflection on abstract principles but the capacity to organize time, space, relationships, and the conflicts that inevitably arise in every classroom.

What is philosophically significant, therefore, is not simply the existence of a gap between theory and practice, since that gap has been extensively documented in the literature on teacher education in Chile and across the region (da Costa Venturini et al., 2025; Paz, 2023). Rather, what is significant is the distinctive form that this gap assumes within Philosophy Teacher Education. Whereas the separation between theory and practice in Mathematics Teacher Education is, fundamentally, a problem of didactic transposition, in Philosophy Teacher Education it becomes a genuinely philosophical problem. The very discipline that has most systematically reflected on the relationship between knowledge and action appears to prepare future teachers who have not yet reached the point at which that relationship is ultimately tested in educational practice.

The remarkable consistency of the findings across public and private institutions makes it impossible to attribute this shortcoming to any particular university and instead locates it within the structure of the teacher education model itself. No distinctive institutional profile differentiates future philosophy teachers according to where they were trained; rather, all appear to share the same underlying form of incompleteness. Consequently, any intervention confined to revising individual curricula is likely to reproduce the very problem it seeks to resolve, because what is ultimately at stake is not a technical adjustment but a philosophical question: what does it truly mean to have completed a pedagogical education in philosophy? Does it mean having learned to argue convincingly about justice, or does it mean reaching the point at which those arguments are put to the test in the only context that cannot be simulated—the classroom itself?

The absence of disciplinary standards for Philosophy Teacher Education in Chile, a process initiated in 2022 and still unresolved at the beginning of 2026, should not necessarily be understood as a bureaucratic delay attributable merely to administrative inefficiency. Rather, following Lemos (2023), it may be interpreted as symptomatic of a broader structural ambivalence within educational policy toward philosophy. On the one hand, philosophy has been incorporated into the compulsory secondary-school curriculum because of its recognized contribution to democratic education; on the other, it continues to be regarded with a degree of suspicion because of its inherently critical and potentially disruptive character. Consequently, philosophy is expected to play an increasingly important role in Chilean secondary education, while the nature of that contribution remains only vaguely defined and lacks clear disciplinary coordinates.

The result is a teacher education model without well-defined disciplinary benchmarks, in which preservice philosophy teachers are assessed exclusively through generic pedagogical standards that do not necessarily capture those dimensions that are distinctive and ultimately irreducible to the teaching of philosophy, such as Socratic dialogue, epistemic disruption, or the cultivation of argumentative autonomy. Within this context, the findings of the National Diagnostic Assessment merely reflect this conceptual indeterminacy. Although future philosophy teachers achieve satisfactory levels of performance in broad pedagogical competencies, they appear less likely to develop those competencies that are specifically philosophical, largely because the system itself has neither clearly defined nor consistently assessed them.

A further conclusion concerns the gender dimension of the analysis, an aspect that is often overlooked in studies based on standardized assessment. The absence of statistically significant differences between male and female students in NDA performance should not be interpreted as evidence of gender equality within the philosophical profession. As comparative evidence from Colombia and Brazil demonstrates (Acevedo-Zapata & Rivera-Sanín, 2023; Fanton et al., 2024), parity in educational achievement can coexist with profound structural inequalities in professional careers, academic recognition, and curricular representation.

The National Diagnostic Assessment measures only those dimensions encompassed by its pedagogical standards. It cannot capture the conditions under which women teach philosophy, the models of philosophical authority to which they are exposed or from which they may be excluded or the disciplinary culture they encounter, negotiate, or resist throughout their professional lives. Educational equity and structural inequality are therefore not mutually exclusive; rather, they coexist, with the former often concealing the latter. After graduation, women continue to face barriers that remain invisible to standardized assessments, including a lower likelihood of occupying leadership positions, reduced representation within high-impact academic production, and the persistence of stereotypes that associate philosophical authority with a predominantly masculine intellectual tradition. Accordingly, any policy aimed at strengthening Initial Teacher Education should explicitly incorporate a gender perspective capable of addressing not only equality of educational outcomes but also the structural conditions that continue to shape professional opportunities within the philosophical community.

This article has argued that the results of the 2024 National Diagnostic Assessment (NDA) for Philosophy Teacher Education reveal more than a simple performance profile. They delineate the contours of a teacher education model facing significant structural challenges. Any attempt to reform this model solely through curricular adjustments is likely to reproduce the same divide between ethical knowledge and pedagogical practice, between abstract principles and the concrete realities of classroom management. What is required instead is a reconfiguration of the philosophical identity of the preservice teacher, one that does not separate ethical reflection from practical teaching competence but understands classroom management as simultaneously a political, ethical, and philosophical act: the construction of a shared educational space in which critical thinking can genuinely flourish. Ultimately, the challenge is not merely to prepare more effective classroom managers but to enable future teachers to recognize that managing a classroom is itself a fundamentally philosophical task, since it entails making daily decisions about the kinds of human relationships and forms of knowledge that education seeks to cultivate.

These findings also have important implications at multiple levels of educational policy and practice. At the program level, Philosophy Teacher Education should integrate ethical reflection and classroom practice rather than treating them as sequential stages of professional preparation. This integration could be strengthened through earlier and more intensive supervised school placements, situated case-based learning, and microteaching experiences that make the enactment of ethical judgment not merely the study of ethical principles an explicit object of teacher education. Because performance patterns are remarkably homogeneous across institutions, isolated curricular reforms within individual universities are unlikely to be sufficient. The response must instead be systemic, involving teacher educators as well as national education policy.

In this regard, the still unresolved process of developing disciplinary standards for Philosophy Teacher Education, initiated in 2022, represents a critical opportunity to ensure that future assessment frameworks capture the distinctive nature of philosophy as a school subject rather than relying exclusively on generic pedagogical criteria. At the national level, the findings reported here provide empirical evidence that can inform both the development of disciplinary standards and the curricular redesign of Philosophy Teacher Education programs. From an international perspective, the pattern identified in this study a model of teacher education that successfully develops ethical understanding while leaving its practical enactment comparatively underdeveloped may extend beyond the Chilean context to other systems characterized by standardized approaches to Initial Teacher Education. This possibility invites comparative research across countries and disciplines, including Mathematics and Physical Education, to determine whether the tensions identified here are specific to Philosophy Teacher Education or reflect broader dynamics affecting teacher education systems more generally.