Territorial Performance by Disciplinary Themes Assessed in Chilean Physical Education Teacher Education

Territorial inequalities in higher education systems remain a persistent challenge in highly centralized countries. In Chile, the concentration of academic resources and institutional capacities in the Metropolitan Region has historically shaped disparities in educational opportunities and outcomes. In this context, the National Diagnostic Assessment (END) serves as a standardized instrument designed to evaluate the achievement of professional standards in initial teacher education programs. This study aimed to identify and characterize the territorial patterns of achievement in disciplinary domains of the END assessment, examining whether significant differences between macrozones reflect structural inequalities in educational resources and institutional capacities. A quantitative approach was adopted using secondary data from the national open database of the Ministry of Education. Statistical analyses were conducted in R, applying Mann–Whitney U tests for independent comparisons between macrozones and Wilcoxon tests for paired comparisons between disciplinary topics. The results reveal a consistent territorial pattern in which the Metropolitan Region and the Central–North macrozone present the highest performance levels, while the Northern and Southern macrozones show comparatively lower averages. These findings suggest that territorial conditions and institutional resources may influence learning outcomes even within nationally standardized evaluation frameworks.