Researcher Claudia Matos has taken over as the new director of CJE

Associate Professor University of California College of EducationAnd Claudia Matos CanovasHe’s supposed to be the new director of Center for Advanced Study in Educational Justice (CJE) Effective December 27, 2021, a position he will hold for the next five years of the project.

The nomination of the Academy and Doctor of Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States, is included in the proposal to renew the center, which is part of the ANID Centers for Advanced Study in Education Program, CIE160007. It has been reviewed and approved by an international panel made up of academics from the field of education from important international universities, such as York University, Oxford University and SRI International.

Professor Matos’ experience leading this new CJE course is based on a solid track leading collaborative and interdisciplinary research projects.

As Director of the NDE Interdisciplinary Platform, she has led two of Anillos’ projects in the social sciences and humanities, as well as being a principal investigator in CJE’s Biocultural Integration Line for the past five years. In addition, in this period he developed research that focused on the relationships between biological, social, and cultural factors to explain how inequality occurs. She was also a member of the FONDECYT Teaching Group and Director of Research in the College of Education, among other notable assignments.

Professor Matos’ experience leading this new CJE course is based on a solid track leading collaborative and interdisciplinary research projects.

“Educational justice must be approached not only from the standpoint of describing the production of injustice and inequality, and striving to minimize harm in educational spaces, but we must also advance in answering how research can produce discrimination as well. In this sense, I am interested as researchers ask ourselves How can our research practices reproduce the same inequality structures that we are trying to overcome,” the academic explains.

The Center for Advanced Study on Educational Justice is currently working with six lines of research, in addition to sociocultural inclusion, that include educational inclusion, disability inclusion, psychosocial inclusion, inclusion for development and institutional inclusion.

“I am interested that we as researchers ask ourselves how our research practices can reproduce the same structures of inequality that we are trying to overcome” – Claudia Matos, Director of CJE

“Our goal is to promote interdisciplinary work between the six lines of research through joint small-scale research activities, to address the complex relationships between biological, social and cultural dimensions that fuel a culture of widespread inequality in Chile,” Matos adds.

In the second phase of the center, which is expected to start functioning in 2026, the main challenges are “to connect research centers in the social sciences with others in the fields of natural sciences, which is essential in the times we live in. Besides, I am interested in being able to communicate research findings to audiences beyond the academic audience, with the goal of democratizing research. On the other hand, it is important to rethink how we connect the research we do at CJE to isolated and remote areas in order to decentralize research,” the academic comments .

Claudia Matos succeeded Andres Bernasconi, a professor in the College of Education at the University of California, who during his five years of work managed to develop and strengthen the center.

Amid the processes of profound change that the country is undergoing, CJE will continue its work to place educational equity as a primary focus when conceptualizing and developing public policies in education.

Super CJE

The Center for Advanced Studies in Educational Justice (CJE) was born out of the association between Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, the Universities of Tarapacá, Magallanes and de la Frontera, and the Professional Institute and Technical Training Center DUOC-UC.
Its main funding comes from the Department of Strategic Targeting Initiatives (DIFE) of the Sub-Directorate for Research and Centers of the National Agency for Research and Development – ANID, and corresponds to the ANID CIE 160007 project of the 2nd National Competition for Advanced Research Centers in Education, 2016.