Interactive leadership in turbulent school climates. An exploratory study of high school principals from the City of Buenos Aires

Abstract

School leadership has been identified as a key function to assuring quality in education. Principals’ leadership can have a direct effect on students’ learning by improving teaching, or an indirect effect by creating conditions that foster learning. This exploratory study aims to understand how school principals exercise their leadership and its relation with the learning climate of their schools. We analyzed two dimensions: principals’ agendas and school climate perception, using the questionnaire provided by the TALIS examination, in a sample of 82 principals from secondary schools in the City of Buenos Aires. Administrative and leadership tasks and meetings occupy first place in the agenda of the principals from our sample. However, principals devote almost half of their time to interactions with non-teacher members of the school community. This suggests the preponderance of an “ interactive leadership”, which appears as a response towards “turbulent school climates”. Nevertheless, it is precisely the instructional role of principals that can effectively improve learning conditions by operating on the academic dimension of school climate. This requires training policies and professional development opportunities that improve the instructional role of school leaders so that they can develop a more proactive leadership.

Systematic review of research on educational leadership and management in Latin America, 1991–2017

“…As indicated in Figure 5, empirical studies represented a large majority (79%) of the Latin American corpus (e.g., Cervini, 2009; Collado et al, 2015; Romero and Krichesky, 2017; Shin et al, 2013; Walbe Ornstein et al, 2009). Conceptual papers and commentaries comprised 19% of the Latin American studies (e.g., Gvirtz and Minvielle, 2009; Javier Murillo and Hernández Rincón, 2002; Ornelas, 2000; Schiefelbein and Schiefelbein, 2000; Vicente, 2016).…”

“…We identified 21 studies that evidenced an explicit focus on leadership. These included: studies of instructional leadership (Borden, 2011; Fromm et al, 2016); ethical and social justice leadership (Cuellar and Giles, 2012; DeMatthews et al, 2016; Silva et al, 2017); transformational leadership (Cuadros et al, 2016; Slater et al, 2003); leadership responses to the particular school contexts (e.g., Ahumada et al, 2016; Romero and Krichesky, 2017; Santizo Rodall and Ortega Salazar, 2017; Slater et al, 2002; Weinstein and Muñoz, 2014); and analyses of the policy context for school leadership in Latin America (Flessa et al, 2017; Weinstein and Hernández, 2016).…”

The School Principals’ Role in Education Management at the Regional Level: An Analysis of Educational Policy in the Industrial Revolution 4.0

“…School leadership has been recognized in a few international papers [14] and research [15] and [16] the main function is to ensure the education quality . Referring to the literature on effectiveness and development of a school, the principal is very important in administering advancement processes [17] developing effective schools [15] and promoting equity in education [18].…”

El director escolar en Argentina: Un actor clave pero (aún) invisible. Un estudio sobre las normas, condiciones laborales y formación de los directores escolares de escuelas públicas

“…Para atender a los objetivos del presente estudio se consultó la información estadística disponible en la Dirección Nacional de Información y Evaluación de la Calidad Educativa [DINIECE]; DINIECE, 2008aDINIECE, , 2008b, se analizaron las leyes, estatutos docentes y reglamentos escolares de las cinco jurisdicciones seleccionadas y las escalas salariales de todas las jurisdicciones. Se revisó también la literatura existente para relevar políticas de formación y capacitación (Aguerrondo et al, 2011;Braslavsky & Acosta, 2001;Mezzadra & Bilbao, 2011;Nicastro, 2014;Poggi, 2001;Romero, 2017bRomero, , 2017cRomero, , 2018bVeleda, 2016) Una primera caracterización de los directores escolares en el país, según los datos provistos por la DINIECE y basados en el último Censo Nacional de Docentes (2004) 2 , el 83% de los directores son mujeres, lo que representa uno de los porcentajes más altos de la Región. De hecho, las directoras mujeres siempre son mayoría, aunque en el nivel inicial son el 99% mientras que en el nivel secundario dicha cifra es del 62%,.…”

“…La sobrecarga de funciones atenta además con la concentración en los aspectos pedagógicos. Esto ha sido verificado en dos investigaciones recientes que relevaron el uso del tiempo en directores de escuelas secundarias (Romero, 2017b;Romero & Krichesky, 2017c) Por tanto y como señalan diversas experiencias exitosas (Pont et al, 2008) es necesario delinear políticas tendientes a redefinir las responsabilidades del liderazgo escolar, distribuirlo, desarrollar las competencias necesarias y convertirlo en una profesión atractiva. En simultáneo se requiere de una agenda de investigación sobre el liderazgo directivo escolar para diseñar y monitorear esas políticas de fortalecimiento y sus efectos de mejora escolar.…”