Abstract
In a digital era, characterized by shared decision-making, and where web-based management is increasingly widespread, the term school “leader” may also refer to the highest-ranking administrator, who manages a complex organization, leads teachers, as well as those who participate in school leadership activities, using and managing digital supports. The school leader is always the first and foremost person in ensuring the efficiency in running the school and the effectiveness of the educational politics application. Nowadays, this role includes new duties and needs an equipment for new skills. Education world and policy makers alike seek a frame for effective leadership that can produce sustainable school improvement and continuous teacher commitment. The research finality of this chapter is how to manage the educational change, to train principals/headmasters to be decision leaders, able to recognize and manage the change, choose right collaborators/coadjutors with the perspective of a factual team building.
TopBackground
Around the beginning of the twentieth century, as schools grew from one-room schoolhouses into schools with multiple grades and classrooms, the need arose for principals/headmasters 1 to manage these more complex organizations, responsible for a range of sectors, such as:
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To manage financial operations
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To supervise building maintenance
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To schedule students, their incoming and outbound orientation
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To manage numerous personnel (administrative, teaching and maintenance staff)
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To deal with public relations
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To keep watch school policy regarding discipline
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To coordinate the instructional program
The management role included some curriculum and instruction supervision.
Until the early 1980s, school management was the primary role played by principals. But, increasingly, the role of principal changed from school manager to school instructional leader, and finally to the school reform leader. This is because, in a society characterized by hyperactive dynamic shared knowledge, continuously subject to reviews and discussions, cross media based, with multiple confused reference points and overload of information, the school reform leader becomes a catalytic agent:
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To interpret innovative education policy
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To define new contextualized educational needs
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To improve didactics, based on flexible learning and computational thinking 2
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To select specialized educational human resources, techniques and technology of support, which are creative and at the state of the art of the development.