RESISTANT ARCHITECTURE DETERMINANT OF EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. Recent contributions to the field of educational leadership include the need to pay attention to the performance of the principals, because they are a key element in creating a community within the school, a community aimed at improving student learning. METHOD. In his paper we analyze the daily practice of 24 secondary school principals in the province of Granada (Spain), in order to describe the actions of the principals in their role of providing educational leadership and examine the processes they use to build a learning context. To collect the work of the principal we used a “self-observation script” that each participating principal filled out independently over two weeks during the academic year 2011-2012. In this script each principals collected daily information on the type of work done, the time spent on each task, the place of performance of the task and the positive and negative emotions resulting from the performance of the various tasks performed during the day. RESULTS and DISCUSSION. This study provides significant information about the “resilient architecture” that determines the spatial/emotional context where the principal tries to carry out his or her educational leadership roles, an essential piece of information that can be used to transform the context in which the principal of secondary education performs his or her task and to improve working conditions.