Abstract

Chile's policy for Teacher’s Professional Development System modified quality assurance processes and requirements for teacher education programs, defining joined strategies for both teacher education and teachers' professional practice, including mandatory program accreditations and consequences for teacher education programs. This study used mixed methods to explore the perceived impact of compulsory accreditation in teacher education programs. Results point to a higher perception of impact for self-evaluation than external evaluation and associate the perceived impact to contextual features of programs (university´s historical origin and geographic location). Moreover, installed structures for responding to accreditation requirements do not necessarily evidence an evaluation culture in the programs.