This article discusses the type of organization and leadership that underlies a competency-based management rule established in Mexico (2008) applicable to principals in public upper high schools. This rule, identified as the 449 Agreement, describes competencies and communicates expected behavior. Implementation, however, is mediated by the principals’ interpretation, as found in the semi-structured interviews conducted with a group of selected acting principals. The analysis of this management rule is based on a theory of decision-making and a theory of organizations where different assumptions on peoples’ behavior are made. We provide evidence to support the contention that each school principal acts according to its context, and that compliance with the Agreement is not facilitated by its rules design. We conclude that the rules design of the competency-based management model in question is dominated by a perspective of personal heroic leadership that assumes an omniscient and omnipresent manager and that also promotes a centralized management model for all schools. In future research, inquiry could focus on the question of whether transformational leadership based on motivation and instructional leadership based on guidance and coaching for teachers could also be nurtured by rules compatible with the pervasive normative leadership type.
Este artículo explora la presencia de sesgos cognoscitivos en las percepciones de docentes y estudiantes con base en conceptos de la psicología de las decisiones (Kahneman, 2002; Sunstein y Thaler, 2017). El propósito es valorar el alcance de esta teoría para orientar el diseño de la política pública en educación. Este análisis no verifica esta teoría sólo analiza sus condiciones necesarias, es decir discute la naturaleza de las percepciones, y sesgos, que los docentes y estudiantes tienen de las prácticas en el aula con trascendencia para la gestión escolar. Se revisan entrevistas a docentes que provienen de estudios de caso en primarias públicas y las percepciones recabadas en la encuesta de contexto que complementa la prueba estandarizada de aprendizajes aplicada a estudiantes de 6to de primaria en México. Estos estudios y encuestas no se basan en la teoría de los sesgos por eso este artículo tiene un carácter exploratorio. Se concluye que en el sector educativo los sesgos se presentan como percepciones parciales de la realidad educativa y que éstos son relevantes para la gestión escolar y destacan perspectivas omitidas en el diseño de las políticas públicas en educación.
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