The study of school principal leadership is considered a key issue for improving student learning, as demonstrated by studies coordinated by the Organization for Development and Economic Cooperation: 2006, 2007 and 2008. The reports presented by 21 affiliated countries contribute the state of the matter in their particular educational systems, highlight the role of school management leadership in improving quality and highlight some of the problems to be overcome in the face of a context of dizzying change; where, paradoxically, educational organizations are the slowest to change. The problem detected is related to factors of different kinds; for example, the redefinition of roles, tasks and managerial skills, the mandatory nature of training, accountability, the distribution of leadership and making management an attractive career. Another type of evidence is inferred from theoretical advances, the literature accounts for a diversity of conceptual and methodological approaches. In our perspective, the Transformative Leadership Model gives rise to an important discussion about the polysemy of the concept and its social character, in clear opposition to the perspective focused on individual capabilities where leaders are successful, regardless of the dynamics of the organization.
The present research is identified with the Transformational Model, it emerges from both a professional interest and the demands derived from the Comprehensive Reform of Higher Secondary Education in Mexico. The Reform establishes among one of its strategic lines the professionalization of management; understanding that for this it is necessary to apply an opposition exam and mandatory training. It should be noted that there has not been a diagnosis to identify the needs to be addressed with training actions. Therefore, it is highly likely that training responds from a technical logic, with low impact on the solution of the daily problems that managers face and that it is potentially one more of the tasks they must perform. In the case of the managers of the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), the training of managers has been defined as a component of institutional reform, they are expected to be agents of change.
The national context imposes on the IPN the professionalization of managers, but this must be based on knowledge of what they do and think about change, reflecting on the course of action to learn to exercise leadership at the educational center level – not only from individuals – and learn based on systemic and collaborative approaches.
Considering the arguments presented, the objective of this study is: Analyze managerial actions based on reflective practices, aimed at identifying daily actions and redefining their commitments and responsibilities in contexts of change, from a perspective of organizations that they learn.
The study is made up of eight chapters, Chapter I offers an overview of the process followed in the preparation of the research. Chapter II analyzes the conceptual scaffolding on which the research is formally supported; The idea of organizations open to learning is adopted as a horizon of action to which management leaders should aspire. The categories of leadership, transformative leadership, managers as agents of change, educational centers as organizations open to learning, vision, planning, teamwork and management are analyzed.
Chapter III is integrated into two parts, the first contextualizes the object of study in the socio-educational reality predominant in the Mexican high school, where curricular dispersion, the demand for greater coverage, low terminal efficiency and the incipient involvement of managers are its main characteristics. In the second part the topic of study is located in the IPN; The academic and structural changes are analyzed and the implications for managerial actions are discussed. Chapter IV constitutes the methodological core of the research, which explains the objectives of the field study, arguing that the mixed methods approach is the most appropriate due to its potential to obtain a quantitative and qualitative picture of data. It also explains the type of research design in the case study variant, outlines the study population and discusses the choice of qualitative and quantitative strategies. The qualitative ones are the focus groups, the researcher’s diary and the in-depth interview. The data collected is treated with content analysis. The quantitative strategy consists of a structured questionnaire to obtain a 180° online evaluation. With it they evaluated themselves, evaluated superiors and peers, the managers participated. The quantitative data are processed with SPSS 15 and Amos V software. All strategies investigate six dimensions defined for the identification of managerial actions, in congruence with the particularities of the IPN and the contributions of the literature.
Chapter V presents the findings, including those obtained in 104 questionnaires, where it is noted that managers who occupy a higher level in the organizational structure show less self-criticism when evaluating themselves, low collaboration and knowledge of the vision. The qualitative strategies allow us to corroborate the previous actions in the management team and identify that unassertive communication prevails, the entropy at the different levels of the organizational structure, being more evident at the level of the subdirectorates, the concentration of decisions in a few and therefore lack of autonomy for decision making. Particular importance deserves the priorities of the Director of the educational center -obtained with the in-depth interview-, for example, the emphasis on the care of the infrastructure, a priority not necessarily shared with the management team. Despite these findings, it must be recognized that as the field work progresses, particularly the focus groups, the members of the management team begin to reflect on their actions and consequently decide to establish collaboration mechanisms.
In Chapter VI, the relevance of the application of the mixed methodology for achieving the objectives of the research in general and the field study, in particular, is analyzed. Coming to confirm the value of reflecting on the conceptions of leadership and as a starting point for the redefinition of management roles, from an organizational culture perspective to respond to the new vision of the IPN. In short, mixed methods allow for a more complete knowledge of the reality that exists in the actions of school managers; in some cases the data are corroborated and in others they are complemented. The mixed approach is powerful for understanding the particular contexts of educational centers, so the six dimensions of analysis should be maintained and adapted to the vision of each organization in future research. A conclusion worth highlighting is the fact that reflection in the course of action and in the collective raises awareness of the challenges involved in assuming management as agents of change and promoting collaboration, systemic thinking and communication within the management team. Chapters VII and VIII contain bibliographic references and printed and photographic electronic annexes, respectively.