Abstract

This study examines and compares educational collaboration in various Chilean schools previous and during the COVID-19 pandemic, to identify the influence of three dimensions: formal roles, gender, and years of experience of 354 educative actors. The analysis accounted for social network indicators, particularly the degree of centrality of the participants, through non-parametric tests of the dimensions. Among the actors, collaboration was higher among those with leadership roles (such as principals and department coordinators) over teachers, women over men, and by novice teachers or actors with less professional experience (over most experienced actors). The analysis also indicated an increase of collaborative interactions during the pandemic in comparison to a "normal" academic year. These results emphasize the influence of the aforementioned dimensions in collaborative structures during challenging scenarios such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, this could be indicative of an imminent increase in collaboration among all actors, in light of future challenges from a post-pandemic scenario, beyond the roles and attributes of educative actors. We discuss the potential for moving toward greater collaboration in schools both post-pandemic and in future crises.