Teachers’ Evaluation in Colombia: An instrumental and bureaucratic practice

Abstract

This article makes a critical analysis of public policy issued by the Colombian government to evaluate those teachers who work in State educational institutions in kindergarten, primary and high school. Referents for the analysis are, on the one hand, the model of educational administration adopted by the Colombian government which is based on the ideal type of legal domination with bureaucratic administration proposed by Weber (1977) in developing modern and rational ways of administrative organization and carrying out technical processes and procedures in order to get measurable results. On the other hand, Law 115 of 1994 or General Law on Education, Decrees 1278 of 2002, 2582 of 2003 and 3782 of 2007, which regulate teachers’ evaluation, and also main theoretical trends presented by teachers’ evaluation in the world which according to Niño (2001) include Evaluation as a Rendering of Accounts, Evaluation as a Payment for Merit, Evaluation as Professional Development and Evaluation for School Improvement.