Identidad profesional de liderazgo en la dirección escolar: Barreras, crisis y reconstrucción

Abstract

Researchers from around the world claim that leadership is a key factor in school improvement and educational quality. The focus is on school leadership and specifically on the school principal. This figure stands out for his or her great involvement in the school context and his or her ability to influence the joint vision of the other professionals. However, referring to the Spanish context, there are structural problems regarding school management and pedagogical leadership. There is a need to reflect on the management function, its professionalisation and training. In schools, there is a need for professionals with a consolidated leadership identity. This thesis tries to understand how the leadership identity is (re) constructed and developed in school principals, as well as to know how they do it and which are the factors that hinder and install crises or barriers in the process of their professional development. In addition, a particular aspect is taken into account: it is of interest to know and understand the perception of the other professionals and individuals who surround him/her in his/her daily work (inspectors, teachers, counsellors and family), in order to have a more complete and real vision of his/her identity. In this way, it is possible to detect from both an internal and external point of view what is happening in the construction of the head teacher's identity. In order to respond to this objective, a series of studies were carried out which resulted in ten research articles with particular qualitative methodological nuances. This doctoral thesis, which presented a sequential development and design, began with an exploration of the literature through three systematic reviews. Subsequently, with the entry into the field, an exploratory study and case study was carried out through a mixed methodology (QUAL-QUAL) from a (self-) biographical and narrative approach, with a high participatory and dialogical component. For the collection of information, semi-structured, in-depth and biographical-narrative interviews were carried out through cascades of reflexive deepening, participant observation and field notes. The analysis of information was carried out following grounded theory with information saturation and the process was supported by qualitative analysis software (Nvivo 12). In addition to complying with the ethical considerations characteristic of this form of research. During the thesis process, by way of contextualisation, particular studies were carried out which complemented the case study and added complementary understanding to the moments of identity crisis of the managers. This is the case of the film analysis, the general overview of school management or what happened during the COVID crisis phase. This research allowed us to uncover possible crises, barriers and identify potential keys to improving school leadership and making an impact on educational improvement. Our findings reveal how a strong and consolidated professional identity is associated with a personal and professional commitment to the school and its ecosystem. In addition, we discovered how a person's life path and experiences and the context that surrounds him or her influence this. In particular, we look at all the agents that surround you in your daily work, as a key point of influence in the construction of professional identity. In this sense, the perceptions of other agents, together with those of the participant himself, offered us clues about the barriers or crises encountered by managers in their construction of professional identity, the reconstruction of this identity and, finally, the successful leadership practices for educational improvement that can be carried out by a manager with a well-adjusted and consolidated professional identity. These aspects offered a broad perspective to be able to construct a proposal for improvement. In conclusion, a series of key points can be drawn from this doctoral thesis that are intended to serve as a guide for educational involvement and for future lines of research. We can affirm that educational success is the responsibility of each headteacher, which is why it is necessary to ensure that the headteacher develops a consolidated and recognised identity as a school leader. The administration must grant inter-relational trust, greater autonomy, improve initial and continuous training, simplify regulations, relieve the principal of bureaucratic aspects and carry out systematic and continuous evaluation. At the same time, principals must make a personal and professional commitment to society, education, the school and its ecosystem. At the same time, they must provide pedagogical, social justice, shared and caring leadership. In short, the school leader is in charge of identifying the difficulties and needs of the school and remedying them, leading in a pedagogical and shared way with his or her colleagues, listening and leading by example, being aware that the school is at the service of the community and being aware that the protagonist of the school is always the child.