Joaquín Gairín: “The fundamental thing is to have a project built among all”

  • 2015

Is the organization of schools, according to the current needs of the education system?

No, in the majority of cases. The current reality is very dynamic and the organizational systems have been stationed in very bureaucratic, non-participatory and slow formats and operating systems for decision making.

What characteristics should, in your opinion, have a good management team?

You must be cohesive (for being a team), share a common project, act in solidarity and guide your work towards improvement, a substantive aspect of management action.

Can there be, or is it positive that there is, more than one leader within a management team?

Normally we talk about shared leadership. Complex and changing realities cannot be addressed by a single person, which justifies the creation of management teams made up of professionals who dominate aspects of institutional management.

In recent years the education system has undergone constant changes. Some of them, such as the introduction of ICT, shake certain foundations. Do you think that the management teams, in general, have been able to assume and process these changes?

They have promoted, on their own or external initiative, the implementation of ICT in educational centers. However, and in many cases, no progress has been made beyond the computerization of aspects of administrative and economic management. The challenge continues to be the presence of ICT in the curriculum and in the tutorial processes.

Is it still a good way to organize the content department system for teachers?

Is the system consistent with a regulated curriculum established through subjects. If the curriculum project is organized through globalizing nuclei, problems or other modality, teacher coordination could and should be different from the traditional one.

In the field of ICT, what role does a management team have when integrating them in the centers?

Managers can act as promoters of change, intervening in the processes of planning, development and evaluation of improvements. In any case, its fundamental role is in creating new visions, working for them and promoting actions that favor the maintenance of innovations.

And the body of teachers?

Changes focused on educational improvements are made, many times, through the activity in the classroom and there the teacher has a fundamental role. Teachers can be an example in the use of ICT but, in addition, they favor or hinder their development through the type of activities they develop with students. Thus, they can carry out training in and with ICT, or other away from that possibility.

What role do they have in the integration of methodological innovations in the classroom?

A fundamental role, for being the executors of the methodological agreements that are adopted at the level of the educational center and responsible for the changes that the application of the same requires in a given context.

In some centers, we see how the management teams act as brakes for certain innovations while in others they become the main engine. What is the right attitude?

The substantive of managerial work is not to organize a reality but, above all, to do it to achieve the best realization of a specific pedagogical project. This includes not only ordering reality, but also evaluating its effects and making decisions that allow us to move forward in better responses to present reality. Your work, therefore, should not be as directed to maintenance as to change and improvement.

How should a management team motivate its body of teachers to cope with changes as profound as those we face in recent years?

Teachers, as professionals they are, are already or should be motivated for the task they have and for which they are paid. What characterizes a professional is the search for answers to professional problems, but also a permanent attitude of commitment (which includes updating, motivation, interest in innovation, etc.) with the activity they develop. Managers can and should reinforce the positive attitudes of teachers, highlighting their successes, encouraging them in the face of adversity and providing them with the support their work needs.

What guidelines would you give?

I understand that the fundamental thing is to have a project built among all to, from there, to inspire in the purposes, to reinforce the positive attitudes through the advances, to provide the necessary support, to maintain the morale of the group and to share the successes.

At the same time, managers should think and act for people, worrying about the professional problems of teachers and helping them in the search for solutions and alternatives. They must think that a good organization needs all people and a good direction is inclusive, looking for the best that each person can contribute to the educational center.

Source: http://blog.tiching.com/

Joaqu n Gair n: The fundamental thing is to have a project built among all

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