Session Information
26 SES 16 A, School Leadership Success amidst Contemporary Complexities and Layers of Influence on Education (Part 2)
Symposium continued from 26 SES 14 A
Contribution
sThe case study that arises from the new ISSPP approach, has been carried out at the successful Secondary School Iliberis, located in the town of Atarfe at the province of Granada (Spain). The purpose of this case study is to deepen the knowledge about the difficulty of implementing a successful leadership in a school that fights for social justice, avoiding a mere descriptive, simplifying or reductionist approach. In this way, it shows the complex relationships between the structure and the process that school leadership implements to achieve the success of the Illiberis school. The methodology used is the one provided by the new ISSPP approach for the study of successful leadership from the theory of complexity and ecological system. It begins by creating a contextualization to base the case study of the Iliberis school within the context of the social, political and institutional framework of the Spanish educational system. The results obtained show complex relationships between the structure and process developed by the Iliberis school leadership to respond to the challenges highlighted in the macro contextual section. Complexity is resolved through “an easy and well organized school project” that “works”. The principal of Iliberis school faces the challenges derived from the current educational system and it does so with sense and vision, with solid structures and concrete strategies from which diverse leadership types are applied. It develops simple, realistic action plans, allowing time for transformation and change, without losing sight of the objective (students) and the engine of change, which is the teaching staff. The school principal takes great care of his teaching staff, recognizing their work, giving them prominence, agency, and freedom so that they become authentic leaders, and they contribute together to a process of innovation and constant educational improvement. The study has provided a leap of knowledge about the successful leadership obtained from the understanding of the practical wisdom of the Illiberis school's professionals. Therefore, this example about the Iliberis School serves as evidence of how it is possible to lead a school through a simple and coherent project that 'works', starting from the difficulties involved in the struggle for social justice within the complexity of the current Spanish educational system.
References
Authors, 2021. Author, 2020a Author, 2020b Author (2018). Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Harvard university press. Byrne, D., & Callaghan, G. (2013). Complexity theory and the social sciences: The state of the art. Routledge. Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications. Denzin, N. K. (2012). Triangulation 2.0. Journal of mixed methods research, 6(2), 80-88. Haggis, T. (2008). ‘Knowledge Must Be Contextual’: Some possible implications of complexity and dynamic systems theories for educational research. Educational philosophy and theory, 40(1), 158-176. Morrison, K. (2010). Complexity theory, school leadership and management: Questions for theory and practice. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 38(3), 374- 393. Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research & evaluation methods. Sage. Spillane, J. P. (2006). Towards a theory of leadership practice: A distributed perspective. In Rethinking schooling (pp. 208-242). Routledge.
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