The networked school leader in Ecuador: Examining the role of Professional Learning Communities for school leaders’ professional development and school development

Moreno, Oscar;März, Virginie;Frenay, Mariane
(2018) Conferencia Internacional de Investigación Educativa (ASEFIE) — Location: Guayaquil, Ecuador (25.October.2018)

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The last years, the educational landscape in Ecuador has been facing several educational reforms to strengthen school organizations and its professionals (i.e., school leaders, teacher leaders, teachers) as well as increase student results and well-being. It is important to provide empirical evidence that appraise the reality of the current educational landscape. The goal of this study is to identify how the implementation of a specific educational reform ‘Professional Learning Communities (or PLCs) for school leaders (i.e., principals and vice principals)’ contributes to school leader professional development, teacher professional development as well as school development in general. In order to evaluate the impact of this professional development program for school leaders, it is, in the first instance, necessary to consider the role of school leaders as primary actors in the construction of a school’s institutional identity. When talking about the role of school principals and leadership practices more recent leadership models are recommended. Contrary to an individualistic perspective (i.e. the school leader as the only one being in charge), collaborative leadership models such as organizational, collective and particularly distributed leadership are being presented as promising practices. This distributed leadership model defines school leadership in terms of a process of internal organization of a certain group where each member shares responsibilities and decisions that allow to go towards a common goal. Accomplishing this type of joint work involves taking into account two factors related to each other: school leaders’ professional development focused on educational leadership, and the formative work within the professional learning communities for school leaders. The first one (leadership professional development) strengths the leadership skills; while the second one (professional learning community) strengthens the educational practice through an active learning that promotes the processes of individual interaction and collective collaboration by teaching the community how to work as a team to improve the school environment. In order to address this study, the following research questions have been formulated: What role do PLCs fulfill in school leaders’ professional development? How do PLCs lead to school development? How does participation in the PLCs has changed the school policy on teacher professional development? In order to answer these research questions, a qualitative multiple case study design will be developed using observations of PLC meetings, in-depth semi-structured topic interviews with school principals participating in the PLC’s, PLC coaches, and teachers, as well as a document analysis (of school policy documents). Finally, it is worth mentioning that the results that are expected to be obtained will be evident in the short, medium and long-term during the investigative process. It is also important to emphasize that due to the lack of empirical data related to this topic in the Ecuadorian context, this research will contribute to the scientific literature regarding school leaders as promoters of educational and social change.
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Moreno, O., März, V., & Frenay, M. (2018). The networked school leader in Ecuador: Examining the role of Professional Learning Communities for school leaders’ professional development and school development. Conferencia Internacional de Investigación Educativa (ASEFIE), Guayaquil, Ecuador. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/223149