PhD Extraordinary Award

On 8^th of April in a ceremony that took place in Hotel Campus of UAB’s Vila Universitaria, José Luís Muñoz and Marita Navarro, both EDO members and teachers in the Applied Pedagogy Department, received the PhD Extraordinary Award of the Educational Sciences Faculty of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Muñoz received the award for the class of 2011-2012 for his doctoral thesis “Participation and educational development in municipalities through City Councils”, directed by Professor Joaquín Gairín, and whose main contribution is the creation and assessment of a Model that allows to analyse the stage of educational development that municipalities get related to their possibilities of implication; and to guide change processes for educational change in order to improve the situation. Also, it highlights the importance of a close-to-citizenship education and developed through the territory.

Navarro, received the award for the class of 2012-2013 for her thesis called “Professional Development of Managers” directed by PhD Carme Armengol. The research study developed helps to understand the diverse perceptions that current head teachers and educational community have related to professional development of management. It describes features of access, developed and egress from the position. Moreover, the research study suggests changes in professional development, making it more efficient and consistent with reality. The methodology is a multiple case study that enabled to be closer to the context where leadership role is being developed, and in its development 3 public pre-primary and primary schools and 3 high school institutions of Catalonia participated.

The Award, which acknowledges academic excellence of the work and its scientific value, consist of a competitive call among the researchers that defended their Doctoral Thesis during the academic year 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 which where qualified Excellent “Cum Laude” unanimously from the Court.

José Luís Muñoz is a Pedagog and Doctor in Educational Quality and Innovation Processes. He is a researcher of the Organizational Development Team (EDO, UAB) and CRIE group (Curriculum, resources and Educational Institutions) from the, Universitat de València where he was a teacher of Didactics and school organization. He was a visiting professor in Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Université de la Sorbone in París (France) and his main research lines are improvement of educational institutions and inclusion and socioeducational development.

Marita Navarro Casanoves, Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Literature, Pedagogy section. Master’s Degree in Educational Research and Doctor in Education, UAB. Head Teacher, Associate Professor of the Applied Pedagogy Department and currently retired. She is a member of several organizations like EDO-UAB, European Forum of Educational Administrators (FEAEC) and editorial committee of the Journal Forum of educational management. She is an expert of educational management and direction and she was a head teacher for 30 years. She has coordinated and taught courses to head teachers and participated in Management Master. Moreover, she has published several papers about leadership role and other topics related to school organization and management.