The participation of the private sector in the organisation of school provision has steadily expanded globally over the last decades (Verger et al., 2023), leading to mixed provision models characterised by the coexistence of a network of public and private subsidised schools in the organisation of school provision. This study is based on the analysis of a national educational reform that modifies the framework and guidelines that regulate mixed provision to raise the levels of equity and explores the variety of responses of the private subsidised network to changes in the conditions based on which its participation in school provision is arranged.

From a comparative perspective, reforms to mixed provision systems have focused mainly on three areas: the definition of the conditions for entrance and permanence in the subsidy regime, the mode in which school funding is organised, and the characteristics of school choice and admission processes (Zancajo et al. 2021b). These reform impulses aimed to standardise some of the regulatory dimensions of mixed models, defining a common structure for public and private schools. However, this does not necessarily include a principle of equivalence between them, nor does it imply convergence in all institutional aspects. In these institutional settings, regulators seek through educational policies to expand their capacity to influence the configuration of school provision, one of their main challenges being to align the network of private subsidised schools with the broader objectives of the education system.

Since 2015, School Inclusion Law (SIL) reform modifies at least three structural dimensions of the mixed provision in Chile: regulating practices of selectivity in the access to schools by a semi-centralised admission system, promoting to replace of obligatory charges to families including larger public funding and forbidding for profits incentive to educational administrators. The question that guides the research process consists of what are the factors that are linked to the variety of responses from the network of subsidized private centers regarding the changes in the regulatory context that the SIL promotes. The study’s main objective is to establish the patterns of interpretation and response of private subsidised schools’ networks to these regulatory changes introduced by the SIL in Chile between 2015 and 2020. Finally, the study examines how this variety of responses is associated with the problems of mixed school provision systems.

The concept of school responses pattern is operationalized, integrating elements of the literature about systemic change and logic of action (Bagley et al.,1996, 1998, Wood, 2000, Maroy & Ball, 2008, Van Zanten, 2008). In this sense, the notion of response generation is inherent to the quasi-market settings (Bagley et al., 1996) and is defined as the extent to which schools modify their practices and policies because of changes in the institutional context. For Bagley, et al. 1996, the generation of school responses is not straightforward but there are barriers that interact in complex forms that can negatively influence inhibiting the capacity of schools. 

The generation of responses from schools does not constitute a simple adaptive process with respect to external conditions but rather a complex one, which is endowed with its own logic and includes, on the part of educational actors, a moment of active interpretation. It is in this intermediate zone where the actors negotiate a framework for understanding the problems, mobilizing a network of meanings, resources, and practical knowledge.On the other hand, this perspective should not lead to overestimating the response generation capacity of schools or neglecting the influence of structural factors that may either inhibit its generation or induce a unique type of response (Bagley et al. al. 1998, Zancajo, 2017, Moschetti, 2018). 

To respond to the stated objectives, the empirical strategy was based on a mixed sequential explanatory design (Cresswell, 2014, Bazeley, 2018). This design is organised in two main phases: a first component is based on quantitative data analysis that seeks to characterise the response patterns of schools. Subsequently, a second qualitative component is structured based on educational actors’ interviews, both of which are organised sequentially. This first phase allowed an initial exploration of the interaction of the variables, to operationalise more specific conjectures and to define the criteria for the selection of factors or covariates. Subsequently, a multiple correspondence analysis was carried out which allowed for the elaboration of an "attribute space" related to private subsidised provision. Based on the multiple correspondence analysis, the structural typology is used to observe the variety of school responses (López-Roldán & Fachelli, 2015). The advantage of this type of approach lies in the interpretative capacity to connect the analysis of the results of the first phase to the design of the second phase and subsequently integrate the results of each stage in a broader interpretation, for which the qualitative data generation process is structured directly on the results of the quantitative analysis (Cresswell, 2014). As will be detailed, the integration of the analytical process between the two components is of an expansive type (Bazeley, 2018), i.e., through qualitative analysis, the aim is to deepen the understanding and explanatory structure obtained from the first phase, rather than generalising to a broader sample or testing new hypotheses. The analysis plan follows the sequential structure of the study: quantitative data generation and analysis, qualitative data generation and analysis, and the integration stage of the analytical process based on expanding or deepening the understanding gained through the progression of the study (Bazeley, 2018). In this type of analytical integration, one component more directly informs another. In this sense, the qualitative component responds to the need to expand the interpretation of the data already generated during the first phase. However, this does not imply that the qualitative component has only a confirmatory or subsidiary purpose, as it offers interpretative elements and emerging aspects that can enrich the overall findings of the study.

From the analysis of the data, it is observed that the process of expansion of subsidised private provision has been segmented and hierarchical, giving way to complex dynamics in the organisation of school supply. Its dynamism was driven by the implementation of a quasi-universal competitive demand-side financing scheme, which generated stable incentives for the participation of private actors. The configuration of private subsidised provision responds preferably to a continuous cycle supply, not complex and with the integration of pre-school levels. Therefore, selection and admission processes are concentrated in the first years of schooling and a relationship with families is promoted based on extensive schooling trajectories. The case study examined highlights that the variety of responses of educational centres to new regulatory requirements can be very diverse, from a rather passive assimilation of the changes posed by educational policy to forms of action that seek to preserve autonomy for part of the subsidized private network. The variety of responses from schools is organized based on a matrix that includes four types of trajectories: conversion, transition, consolidation, and reception processes. Additionally, for these types, different modalities are proposed according to their orientation. Factors that are connected to this variety of responses include the status attributes of schools, engagement with education policies and the characteristics of school provision. Through these responses, schools negotiate decision-making spaces by modifying their legal framework, composition or type of funding. The reform analysed is aimed at moderating the competitive-oriented framework of schools, but this effect is ambivalent, as it corrects and makes the competitive scheme and school choice viable.

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