El liderazgo educativo y su papel en la mejora: Una revisiÓn actual de sus posibilidades y limitaciones

Abstract

The literature on school effectiveness and improvement has highlighted the critical role played by the principal in organizing sound pedagogical practices in the schools and increasing learning results. Current research is reviewed concerning how educational leadership is an important factor in improving outcomes. So far, both in Chile and Spain, principals have not been able to influence the improvement of teaching practice; however, the directions of current research and of educational policies now enhance pedagogical leadership. Managing for learning needs to go beyond school principal leadership, to broaden and move towards a distributed perspective, through teacher leadership and professional learning communities. We discuss the serious limitations that current school leadership has in designing environments aimed at improving the learning of all students.