EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN THE SPANISH LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Miguel Ángel Sancho. President of the European Foundation Society and Education

From the Right to Education Act to the Education Act: a change in four aspects of management functions

These studies relate taking on greater responsibility to improving the learning process for students. They place emphasis on a better distribution of leadership to encourage and foster participation by intermediate groups. They implement specific training to provide the abilities and skills required. And they promote everything that makes performing this function attractive with the resulting social recognition, economic valuation and professional development.

The new Organic Education Act (2006), by regulating management functions in the framework of Heading V entitled "Autonomy, participation and governance of schools", outlines a new way to conceive educational leadership. This is a significant change that arises as consequence of establishing an interrelation between the two elements. The provisions of the new law also comprise a new way of conceiving school governance, relating to other laws and particularly to the Right to Education Act. In short:

1. 1. The management team is specifically mentioned as the basic management body, with greater functions and an associative sense of work in the distribution of tasks.
2. 2. The team is now proposed by the head and appointed by the education authorities. The School Council is informed of the proposal.
3. 3. The head is no longer selected by the School Council but by a committee, made up of representatives from the authorities and from the school.
4. 4. Initial training is required if the candidate lacks management experience and only after surpassing it is the candidate appointed y the authorities.

A challenge: the autonomy necessary for effective leadership

Spain is significantly decentralised in educational matters and, according to international indicators, has one of the lowest rates of school autonomy. Autonomy is necessary for the flexibility of the educational system and to respond to the principles of fairness and quality for everyone, taking into account the diversity of situations and personal circumstances of each student and their interaction with the environment.

An important aspect, which appears in the regulation of many articles of the Education Act affecting school governence, is the role assigned to the education authorities in determining the scope of competences they should have. It will be these authorities who determine competence in the areas of personnel, organisation and financing, according to the level of autonomy that they assign. Accordingly, each Autonomous Community is faced with the challenge of establishing how far the scope and nature of leadership in schools must go, because the real autonomy assigned to them is a determining factor.

An opportunity: participation as shared leadership

The Organic Education Act provides a concept of participation that admits a new model of leadership, overcoming personalism and seeking to involve the educational community with regard to the challenges in achieving the goals of education and in addressing diversity. It also seeks greater personalisation in education.

More and more involvement by parents in education is required. Faced with complex environments, the combination of family and school is more necessary than ever and this can be achieved without blurring or watering down the management functions corresponding to the head and his team.

From this perspective, participation refers to a shared vision of the school project and a way of exercising leadership that scientific literature has described as mission leadership. By encouraging a school climate where the educational community assumes the role that this project assigns it, with initiative and responsibility, the mission is carried out by sharing the goal of placing students at the centre of the educational process.