New Teacher Associations: Comparative Analysis of Teachers’ Political Participation in Chile and Spain Ortiz Mallegas, Sebastián Carrasco Aguilar, Claudia Luzón Trujillo, Antonio Torres Sánchez, María Mónica Teacher associationism Political participation Teacher trade unionism Comparative education Struggles The authors would like to thank the Research Support Network of the Universidad de Playa Ancha - agreement UPA 21992 - and the National Agency for Research and Development, in its program for the Strengthening of Doctoral Programs Call 2022-Number 86220041. Teacher associations have historically been important agents of teacher advocacy. However, they are now facing challenges due to the crisis of traditional structures. This has allowed the emergence of new teacher associations that seek other forms of participation in educational governance. Via a comparative qualitative analysis of education between Chile and Spain, this study examined the repercussions of associationism in two forms of regulating teacher participation in educational governance: regulated and de facto. The results show how in Chile, a new social force has been created to overcome the political ineffectiveness of associations, whereas in Spain, independence from political parties has been sought through the technification of trade unionism. These findings highlight critical differences in the political strategies of teacher associations in both countries, with implications for the future of educational governance. The study also discusses the broader consequences of associationism in the context of labor market shifts and the changing landscape of teaching professionals. 2025-04-01T09:21:19Z 2025-04-01T09:21:19Z 2025-02-26 journal article Ortiz-Mallegas et al. New Teacher Associations: Comparative Analysis of Teachers’ Political Participation in Chile and Spain. SAGE Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251320833 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/103365 10.1177/21582440251320833 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ open access Atribución 4.0 Internacional Sage