Becoming a school head, training for the directive function in the school: the case of Tarragona (Catalonia)

Abstract

INTRODUCTION.The professionalization of School Heads and their training occupy the international agendas because they have a critical influence on educational success, from pedagogical and distributed leadership. In this context, we ask ourselves the following research questions: How is the training (pre-service and in-service) of School Heads being organized? And, what training needs do they express? To answer these questions, we review the state of the art and the Spanish-Catalan legislative development in oder to contrast it with the assessment made by primary School Heads on the training for the directive function received, as well as their training needs. METHOD. As part of a wider investigation on school management in Primary Education, an ad hoc questionnaire was applied to a representative sample of School Headss in Tarragona. The analysis performed combines descriptive statistics with chi-square tests. RESULTS. The legal advances would be promoting a progressive professionalization of School Heads and models of training aligned with the pedagogical leadership. In opinion of the newcomer School Heads, the preeminent training needs are school management, legislation and personnel management besides the instructional methodologies. Nevertheless, in more advanced stages of professional development, training needs of School Heads are diversified and more orientated towards distributed leadership. DISCUSSION. The training should address both administrative and managerial needs as well as those inherent in each professional stage and the various leadership models through collaborative training methodologies based on experience sharing, mentoring and coaching.