On February 12th, the inaugural conference of the VII Conference of Secondary Education Directors of the Autonomous Community of Murcia was held in Murcia.
Under the title “Direction and Leadership: Two Sides of the Same Coin? Some Dilemmas and Challenges”, Joaquín Gairín, director of CRiEDO, addressed crucial topics for educational improvement and the role of directors in this process. During the conference, four key points were highlighted regarding the directors we need today:
- Importance of direction in educational improvement: International studies recognize that direction contributes between 20% and 25% to educational improvement, also emphasizing the relevance of teachers.
- Effectiveness of direction:It does not depend so much on its nature, but on the formats that its actions take. We need proactive directors who act as change agents to overcome dysfunctions in educational centers and respond to the changing needs of users and demands of the environment.
- Orientation towards collective needs: Management should focus on the institutional project and the promotion of educational communities as learning communities, rather than only attending to individual interests.
- Balance between tasks and attention to people: New approaches promote a balance between task resolution and attention to the people in the organization, analyzing the relationships between direction and leadership. The desirable synthesis is to have directors who are leaders or leaders who also act as directors.
This change in the orientation and functions of direction is consistent with other approaches related to initial and ongoing training, the selection of directors, and working conditions, highlighting the importance of management teams and management trajectories.
The conference was a success and allowed for reflection on the current challenges and dilemmas in educational direction and leadership, laying the foundations for future improvements in the educational field.
All the information about the conference can be found here.
