School management and organizational ethics in Catalonian early childhood and primary schools. Analysis of facilitators and barriers

The thesis addresses the ethical organizational development in early childhood and primary education centers in Catalonia. The realization and validation of a model and instrument of organizational ethical development for nursery and primary education centers is approached since the update carried out by the organization as well as by the school management.

Organizational ethics in educational institutions is presented as one of their main challenges, if they want to adapt to a changing, globalized, plural, relativistic society and increasingly sensitized by social issues like the current one. In addition to respecting and promoting their educational and social purpose, they are obliged to promote new practices and, among them, to guarantee the collective, reflective and responsible practice of organizational ethics by the entire educational community.

The present study aims to explore organizational ethics in schools. More specifically, study the conditions that may or may not facilitate the school management, as the head of the educational institution, the ethical organizational development in the school. In addition, the general objective of the research is to analyze the conditioning factors (barriers and facilitators) of school management for the promotion of organizational ethics in nursery and primary schools.

The research has been developed from a mixed sequential QUAL-how methodology. The methodological design has been characterized by the development of different phases (exploratory, definition and concretion, contrast, application and conclusion) that have been allowing to obtain results for the achievement of the final result: the Model of stages for Organizational Ethical Development in infant and primary education centers, the CADEO Institutional Self-Assessment Instrument and its Application Protocol.