Leadership and management in educational centers require community culture

SANTO DOMINGO. _ Management and leadership are two inseparable concepts in the educational field and to develop them it is necessary to implement a community culture and in educational centers that refers to transformational and distributed leadership, said teacher Adelaida Lorenzo, coordinator of the career and program of the Area of ​​Social Sciences and Humanities of the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC).

Lorenzo participated in the panel “Teaching Leadership in Action: Experiences that Transform Educational Centers,” together with teachers Anazario León Amparo, coordinator of the Network of Pedagogical Coordinators of Educational District 15-02 and of the Association Commission of the Antillas-Mexico South District; Emilia Guzmán Polanco, coordinator of Teacher Development of the Academic Development Division of INTEC, and Teresa de Jesús González, a PhD candidate in Communication and Education in Virtual Environments.

This activity brought to a close the Diploma in Educational Management and Leadership, an initiative promoted by the Ministry of Education and the National Institute for Teacher Training (INAFOCAM) and developed by INTEC, through the Area of ​​Social Sciences and Humanities.

León Amparo, who is also a teacher at INTEC, stressed that teachers must be aware that they are leaders through pedagogy. “The manager is a leader with certain functions and the teacher is one in the classroom,” said the teacher, while emphasizing that leadership without purpose has no mission. He pointed out that teachers are leaders in order to have better quality in education, as well as a quality school and educational community.

The teacher advocated for teachers to cultivate characteristics such as empathy, teamwork and ethics that are vital for the role of leaders in their educational centers. He also urged them to overcome the challenges they face in their work such as resistance to change, professional development and the adoption of technologies.  

For her part, Teresa de Jesús González, a PhD candidate in Communication and Education in Virtual Environments, considered that motivation is essential in teams. “Leadership without management loses meaning, but management without leadership does not achieve the proposed goals,” she said during her intervention in the panel.

The Diploma was completed by 200 scholarship holders: school principals, vice-principals, coordinators, teachers, psychologists or school counselors and technicians from different educational regions of the country committed to contributing to the country from the classroom.

The training programme consisted of five modules covering the areas of school work relating to the management and leadership functions in schools.

In opening remarks at the event, the dean of the Social Sciences and Humanities Department of INTEC, Dalul Ordehi, praised the fact that the university is INAFOCAM's strategic ally in developing initiatives that always seek to improve education at all levels.

“Today we celebrate not only the effort and dedication of each one of you, but also the commitment to a common cause, which is the positive transformation of our educational centers and, therefore, of the lives of the students who are educated there. Leadership in education is not an easy task, but rather a challenging one, because leadership is not about imposing, but about inspiring,” he said.

For his part, teacher Salvador Ramón Moreta, Director of the San Juan Regional, praised the “perfect combination” of INTEC and INAFOCAM to generate the continuing education program in which dozens of teachers participated, who in his opinion should become educational leaders in their communities.

Likewise, Reyna Martínez, National Teaching Technician of the Continuing Education Department of INAFOCAM, indicated that all teachers, directors of educational centers, as well as regional ones, senior managers, counselors, psychologists, all are committed to quality education.

Present at the event were teacher Monica Caram, coordinator of the INTEC Center for Educational Studies; Evelin Santana, director of the Nigua District, San Cristobal; teacher Randa Rosario, district director 04-06, Haina, San Cristobal; and Miguel Segura, INAFOCAM technician from Barahona.