Mónica del Carmen Meza-Mejía, Claudia María García-Casas, Claudia Fabiola Ortega-Barba and Sara Elvira Galbán-Lozano
This qualitative research articulates the perspective that educational institution directors have on the meaning of management action and the need for training in this area. Significant research findings include the importance of training in three specific aspects: technical knowledge, virtues, and managerial competencies. Study participants emphasized that experience alone is insufficient to run a school, which is an important job not only for educating students, but also for the impact it has on the entire educational community (i.e., managers, administrative and service staff, teachers, and parents).
Literature Review and Conceptual Framework
There is a growing body of research regarding the development of school principals. Many of the studies show that the quality and performance of an educational institution not only depends on teaching competencies, but also on the way an institution is managed by its director. It is the director who articulates the efforts of all the educational actors involved in students’ learning. Principals are able to intervene in all dimensions of institutional life; they “test” educational policy based on everyday practice and according to institutional particularities. It is a principal’s critical and creative capacity that leads an institution along a path that allows for the convergence of educational policy, the specificity of its institution, the characteristics of teachers and students, and community culture (Sandoval, 2008).
As Zepeda, Bengstone, and Parylo (2012) affirm, the previous 30 years have witnessed notable changes to principals’ duties and responsibilities. As a result, the number of studies in this area has increased globally. Studies like those from Bush (2017), Day and Sammons (2016), Akpan (2015), Uchendu, Anijaobi-idem, and Odigwe (2014), Uchendu (2015), Fink (2010), Catano and Stronge (2006), and Behar (1995) indicate worldwide changes in principalship. Pertinent studies of leadership include Nguyen, Ng, and Yap (2017), Ho, Chen, and Ng (2016), Lim, Atencio, and Lee (2016), Hallinger, Wang, Chen, and Liare (2015), Hallinger and Ko (2015), Hallinger and Chen (2015), Murphy (2015), Ng, Nguyen, Wong, and Choy (2015), Pan, Nyeu, and Chen (2015), Walker and Hallinger (2015), Walker and Qian (2015), Bush (2014), Koh, Ponnusamy, Tan, Lee, and Ramos (2014), Klimek and Thurner,(2013), Hallinger and Huber (2012), Halverson and Clifford (2013), Hallinger and Lee (2012), Klar (2012), Lee, Hallinger, and Walker (2012), among others.
Mexico is not an exception. Due the educational reform of 1993, research on school management has focused on basic education, embodied in the “Educational Development Program 1995–2000,” which recognizes that supervisors and directors are key change agents for school transformation (Vallejo, 2006). The 2006 “Strategic School Transformation Plan” (PETE for its initials in Spanish) articulated that the school director exercises academic, administrative, and social leadership for the transformation of the school community (Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP), 2006). In 2008, the “Alliance for the Quality of Education,” the federal government and the national union of teachers (SNTE) set a national priority for the professionalization of school principals and other school authorities (Gobierno Federal y Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación, 2018). In 2016, the federal government established the profile, parameters, and indicators for personnel with management and supervision functions criteria (SEP, 2016). However, none of these initiatives defined criteria for the training of school principals. Therefore, it is not surprising that García, Slater, and López (2011) conclude novice principals do not feel sufficiently prepared to face the administrative work, relationships with teachers, students, and parents, or other matters of school organization. Effective handling of problems and challenges is more about experience and stages of professional and organizational socialization. As Antúnez (2000) states, studies on principals provide a fascinating journey and a review of the often precarious and uncertain directive function.
In this sense, a set of factors determines the general tasks that a school principal must fulfill, which differ according to conditioning factors, requirements, obligations, competencies, and situational factors (Antúnez, 2000). Tasks are diversified according to the actions they promote: achieving objectives, managing resources, aligning activities to the educational model, promoting and facilitating change and innovation, and maintaining institutional culture. Principles that govern managerial tasks often correspond to the ideas from technicians typical of “management engineering.” Those that govern human tasks often correspond to ideas typical of management; pedagogical tasks are reflected in the educational model, symbolic ones are typical of leadership, and cultural ones are reflected in the institutional mission and vision. Depending on the activity, tasks and management functions will be technical-pedagogical, administrative, social, governmental, or related to sustainability and institutional quality (Antúnez, 2000). Fig. 1 outlines the general tasks of school management.
Fig. 1. General Tasks of School Management. Source: Adapted from Antúnez (2000, p. 45).
The directive function is not a spontaneous practice, but a discipline based on theories and confirmed by action (Drucker, 2006). Whoever assumes directive functions in an educational institution must prepare generally, but also must receive further training with regard to school management. Experience alone is not enough to respond to the complexity of directing an educational institution. Directing implies a series of aspects that have a lasting impact on students, their learning, and their lives after schooling. Therefore, in this study the managerial function is defined as management’s action that aims to influence other people’s work. This type of management generates the necessary institutional conditions to achieve established learning objectives and the ultimate goal of any educational institution, that is, the integral education of the human being (Antúnez, 2000, 2004; Sandoval, 2008).
According to Cardona and García-Lomardía (2005) the necessary competencies include (1) behaviors associated with directive action; (2) observable behaviors that can be evaluated according to their development, as well as in terms of progress and learning; and (3) habitual behaviors incorporated into the director’s daily action that lead to success in the managerial function. Building on Cardona and García-Lomardía (2005), it is appropriate to identify school principals’ competencies, which fall into three categories. The first brings together competencies aimed at achieving greater economic value for the institution. The second integrates the skills that allow for the development of employee capabilities and their correct functionality at work. The third incorporates skills that develop trust and the identification of employees that are aligned with the school’s mission.
The competencies aimed at adding economic value to the institution require a principal to have six abilities: (1) ability to identify opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses that may impact organizational effectiveness; (2) the principal should understand the institution beyond the limits of the function itself to carry out strategic relations and develop interfunctional cooperation; (3) a willingness to meet the expectations of the different actors in the educational community; (4) a capacity to use material and economic resources in the most efficient way possible in order to obtain desired results; (5) the principal should strive to reach agreements that are satisfactory for all parties involved, discovering or creating elements that produce benefit for the relationship(s); and (6) ability to develop, maintain, and use a wide network of relationships with key people within the organization and the educational sector.
The competencies that enable the development of employees and their effective work performance require six abilities: (1) an ability to listen and convey ideas effectively; (2) a capacity to diagnose, confront, and resolve interpersonal conflicts without damaging the interpersonal relationship; (3) the principal should motivate collaborators’ commitment, inspiring their confidence, giving meaning to their work and encouraging them to achieve their objectives; (4) the ability to delegate duties and responsibilities; (5) the school principal should help to develop each person’s potential; and (6) a commitment to fostering an environment of collaboration, communication, and trust among the members of the educational community.
Finally, the competencies that build trust and align collaborators with the mission of the institution require four abilities: (1) proactivity, which implies initiative, tenacity, and establishing high goals; (2) an ability to personally manage time, information, and stress; (3) encourage personal improvement, in terms of self-knowledge, self-criticism, and learning; and (4) the principal shall promote sel...
