The present work deals with the conceptualization of the different components of Educational Management, understanding it as a continuity of elements that have a logical relationship (processes), likewise, on the different experiences both locally and internationally on the hot topic of educational management.
educational-management-studies-colombiaIn this conceptualization, it will be seen that some terms of use are actually very complex and their denominations vary according to the situation and context in which they are used, as well as the philosophical orientation they represent.
Self-evaluation as a management tool, as well as different management approaches, in the areas of the school, higher level and its relationship with the community; the elements and commitments that intervene in management, such as the decision-making involved in it, will be approached from the perspective of different columnists cited in this work.
CONCEPTS OF EDUCATIONAL QUALITY
The term Quality is used in a variety of fields and disciplines, in each of them it acquires a particular meaning. In the meaning of Educational Quality there is no universal definition since it is approached in different ways and approaches.
Barrio, BP (2018) quotes Martínez Mediano (2001) who proposes a classification on the term quality:
- As an Exceptional phenomenon, which is distinguished by its exclusive nature. Characterized by its focus on excellence and access for a minority. As perfection or merit of its own, quality becomes the responsibility of the organization, that is, against the exclusive focus, this concept focuses on processes, that is, seeking the perfection in each of the stages. As fitness for purposes, it implies a functional approach beyond the processes, products and services and seeks the relationship between the results and the proposed purposes. As an economic product, it focuses on economic efficiency. transformation, is oriented towards increasing the knowledge, abilities and skills of students.
The author also refers to the use of educational indicators that allow obtaining relevant information on the educational reality. Defining three:
- The investment made in education; measured in material, human and economic resources. The quality of the educational process.; measuring the internal functioning of the system, by levels of equity and equal opportunities. Educational level of the population and transmission of knowledge; It measures the perception that individuals have regarding the results and their capacity for integration.
In recent times, educational indicators have been widely used since it allows for comparison at the local and international levels, which is in accordance with the rise of the evaluation of educational systems.
THE PROCESSES IN QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Initially, quality was considered as a control, focused on results, but recently it developed towards more open models that covered indicators and processes, that is, how.
The focus was initially on products and results. As for education, it evolved in a similar way, focusing on academic performance, on teachers, on the curriculum, etc.
Lately efforts are process oriented. Processes are parts or elements in the execution of a program; While the program is a static concept, the process is a dynamic concept. A program can be executed by several users and for each of the executions there will be a process, with all its elements.
Mayo, IC, & Fernández, JLV (2016) indicates that three levels are represented in quality: system, process and product.
Management by processes in university education involves moving from an administrative-type vision to a managerial-type vision and also the radical change in the educational culture by changing the basic axis of its service function.
Understanding education as a sum of services for multiple end users (students, parents, society), requires prioritizing relationships between users and the study center.
The processes in general refer to the mission, vision and values of the educational center. In an organization as complex as educational centers, there are different types of processes: strategic, key and supportive
The author uses the concept of the European Model of Excellence applied to education, EFQM (2000), which defines the process as “the set of activities that serve to achieve student training and the provision of services offered by the educational center”. This concept refers to how the processes are managed, evaluated and reviewed so that in the activities of the educational center there is continuous improvement, in accordance with the planning and strategy of the center to achieve the satisfaction of users and collaborators.
The author also points out the model of the processes to which he refers:
- Organization of the center: schedules, secondment of staff, grouping of students, management of the canteen and transportation… School climate: coexistence, integration, attendance control and entrance and exit of the center. Teaching-learning: application of the curricular project, compliance with schedules, student promotion rates… Student evaluation: continuous evaluation, decisions of the evaluation board, etc. Guidance and tutoring in the different courses, with students, parents and teachers.
SELF-ASSESSMENT WITHIN THE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROCESS
Torres, ERT et al (2017) influences the role of Self-evaluation as a substantial element in quality assurance in educational institutions, within the quality management process.
The evaluation has as a previous step the self-evaluation which is developed in the institutional processes to achieve results in continuous improvement.
The authors cite Zabalza, MA (2003) who indicates "The university is constituted as a complex and multidimensional scenario, in which influences of very diverse signs impact and intersect… the processes that take place in the university require contextualization…" concept according to the guidance given by the authors in which the university as part of the continuous improvement of its substantive processes needs to self-evaluate its processes to subsequently evaluate them.
EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT BY PROCESSES
Pernnet C. José (2017) specifies that process management is the way an organization attends to its daily activities and by processes it is understood the dialectical relationship or sequence between activities aimed at generating new values (added or added values) and results that satisfy the requirements of the user or the social order of a community. One of the significant characteristics of the processes is that they are capable of crossing the educational institution vertically, horizontally and diagonally. The process involves referring to goals and ends rather than actions and means; therefore, a process responds to the "what" and not the "how".
Regarding quality, it is mentioned that it is not based on "hunches", but on data and facts under an institutional climate, forged under an educational culture. Making sure that what the institution does only makes sense if it is to give the user what they request. Quality is attending to the social order.
It is concluded that the processes must be elaborated based on the social demand and with the direct and active participation of those who are linked to an educational institution to achieve the improvement of the educational quality.
PROCESS MANAGEMENT: TOOL FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF EDUCATIONAL CENTERS
According to the author Ortiz (2013) in his article Gestión por Procesos. Tool for the improvement of educational centers we can compare a management by processes with the idea of quality in terms of Education and any company in question.
Said process management within the field of education has certain characteristics to take into account:
- Satisfaction of those members involved in the management process itself as well as the services and others within the school. The mainstreaming in terms of the responsibilities entrusted to the staff within the educational framework. The related evaluation regarding the commitment shown and the results
Talking about all this has an implication in relation to the role of the manager and how he exercises good leadership within the educational institution, which leads to exercising within it a series of commitments and responsibilities such as:
- Take into account where the project to be established points to.Availability of the necessary resources for the execution of the project to be carried out taking into account a future perspective on the designation of personnel, activities to be carried out and resources needed to achieve scheduled activities. Be part of an evaluation, which helps to rescue the positive and improve certain aspects as well as the suggestion.
To be clear about adequate process management we can take into account the following table.
Now from a strategic planning it is important to highlight that the orientation of said management is given having three vital elements such as: The Mission, the Vision and the Values.
Once the strategic planning is completed, the phases for the implementation of said process management are given:
Phase 1: Identification of processes, in this phase the providers (Directors-teachers), the sequence of activities within which the resources are immersed and are taken into account; finally the clients that will be the students.
Phase 2: Inventory of processes: We found sub-processes that are identified within the educational institution.
Phase 3: Classification of processes: Within this phase we find the strategic processes, key processes and support processes.
Phase 4: Process map: This is where the process route is taken into account according to the way of working of each educational institution.
Phase 5: Selection of processes: It is necessary to establish a clear selection of processes according to the vision of the educational center.
INSTITUTIONAL SELF-ASSESSMENT FOR INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT
Antonio Bolivar (2018) describes institutional self-evaluation as a process of innovation, training and internal improvement. Between evaluation as administrative control or accountability and as school improvement; the self-assessment is inscribed, from this perspective and practice, in a training and innovation process focused on the school.
Darling - Hammond (1994) indicates that if the purpose of an authentic evaluation is to be able to realize its potential as an instrument for school change, then policies should promote evaluations as a vehicle for the development of students, teachers and the center.
Self-evaluation as a process carried out in an educational institution, aims to find answers to the different problems that arise in the institution.
Gairín (1993) specifies that "the internal evaluation carried out by the centers on their own initiative and with the aim of optimizing their operation and results". The external evaluation should focus on the correction of the processes used or on the learning results achieved by the students. The institutional self-evaluation should be oriented in the diagnosis of the situation, identifying its needs.
Institutional evaluation has a broader sense such as the reconstruction of the school and the ways of working. It is required to jointly plan school development actions for educational improvement.
Curricular development must be based on solving problems where the various detected needs are addressed through a process of self-review and evaluation of the practice, preparing an action plan and developing said plan.
THE EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF THE TEACHER IN THE CLASSROOM. A CASE STUDY
According to the authors López, Prados & Romera (2013), they make a relationship in their article in which they express a link again between quality and management, but this relationship is linked to managers and especially teachers in the classroom and how it produces effects. positive or negative in the students in a case study regarding the effective management of the teacher in the classroom.
It should be noted that ensuring educational quality within educational management presumes different achievements in school action such as: Ensuring quality within EE processes through the dynamics of teamwork and collaboratively, exercising a culture that allows to develop leadership, a good school climate and a joint work within the school, family and community relationship to develop indicating that you have to investigate and therefore analyze some variables that lead us to the study of certain aspects mentioned as:
- The projection of the community in the future, the level of the teaching staff and the objectives to be achieved, among others.
There are different ways through which educational quality can be measured as well as student performance, among them and internationally we have the PISA tests.
In order to have a clearer idea about what educational quality is, we can have some more specific characteristics to speak about SCHOOL - EFFECTIVE. The effective schools according to Edmonds (1970) these should be those that have:
- Strong leadership A good climate where high expectations are created in relation to student performance An orderly atmosphere without being too strict, but where there is tranquility and little oppression without neglecting the issue of responsibility between each of the authors of the system educational.
All this must be focused on achieving basic skills and abilities and a permanent evaluation will be taken into account that will guide the very process of education in the students themselves.
In conclusion, this article carries out an investigation that analyzes the management of teachers, some who are inexperienced unlike others who have more years of experience in the teaching career and how this affects positively or negatively in management. in the classrooms.
THE MANAGEMENT OF THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION AND ITS LINK WITH THE COMMUNITY
For the authors Hernández, Zumbado, Oviedo, Chevarría, Obando & Prado (2013), in their article on Management of the educational institution and its link with the community, it is worth highlighting the analysis that is done on management and its link with the community bearing in mind that society today is changing and all these changes in different fields properly affect the education sector and therefore those who are responsible for carrying out educational management; since they have the enormous responsibility to assume, directly and through collaborative work, the resolution of problems and the way how the school will face them based on the premise in relation to the support it must have from the PPFFand the dynamic participation of these to be successful and obtain the proposed goals for the benefit of the students themselves.
It is necessary to create a cooperative environment where parents, teachers, education managers, community members, and students come together and join efforts to effectively resolve situations presented within the school environment.
The management of an educational organization and the community according to the aforementioned authors, are indicated in subsection C of article 2 of the fundamental law of Education (2013) No. 2160 of 1957: “Training citizens for a democracy in which reconcile the interests of individuals with those of the community ”, (p, 119).
After all the above, we can affirm that the principal must present himself as the most suitable person within the education sector, in which he will maintain harmony within the school and the community itself.
According to the authors Hernández, Zumbado, Oviedo, Chevarría, Obando & Prado cited Tejada (2000), it is possible to express "education requires adaptation in terms of the cultural, social, labor, professional and personal context".
Through all this research, it can be analyzed that institutional planning has to take place from different perspectives such as:
- The community Support organizations The same educational center and The Educational Community itself.
The planning process is not only the responsibility of the principal, but the different subcommittees should also be taken into account to implement projects, which link the work not only to the educational community, but in general.
Such planning should also not be rigid, much less dictatorial, on the contrary, it requires people who demonstrate ability not only in work but in the way of acting and interacting with others to achieve the proposed objectives.
Organization within management requires not only individual work, which sometimes becomes unproductive, but rather requires collaborative work among all its members.
We can conclude that within educational management and the community it is necessary for there to be a dynamic and effective relationship between the two in order to favor the educational goals that are desired to be achieved.
SEARCHING FOR EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE: MANAGEMENT OF ACADEMIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESSES IN PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF EDUCATION THROUGH BPM
The need for companies and public institutions, including universities, to improve efficiency has forced them to adapt new management policies. Álvarez et al. (2014) state that one of the possibilities for improvement is the application of the process management approach through Business Process Management (BPM). ICT provides the possibility of implementing this approach through BPMS since it offers process automation, redesign and continuous improvement, therefore increasing the benefits of new management.
The process management approach is based on the fact that the efficient performance of an organization depends on the level of efficiency of its processes; We will understand a process as “an ordered sequence of repetitive activities whose product has an intrinsic value for its user or client (Pérez Fernández de Velasco, 2007). Processes are the elements that make strategic guidelines, customer and environment requirements a reality
(Jaramillo, 2014). This type of management enables companies to identify indicators in order to assess the performance of the various activities that take place, not only considered in isolation, but forming part of a closely interrelated set (Martínez, 2014); allowing global goals to be set, as well as avoiding problems such as overlapping actions or contradictory objectives.
Process management is associated with continuous improvement and quality assurance of the products and services received, since it is not only a tool but, in turn, a strategy that allows organizations to remain competitive in their environment. and focused on quality management. In the educational field, quality improvement has emerged as a strategic activity, led by the highest levels of the institutions and carried out by each unit within the organization. Therefore, the application of a comprehensive management system is the cornerstone in the search for such excellence.
A process-based management model will allow knowing how things are done in order to improve them. At the same time, it will enhance the quality of education from different perspectives: economic, product, process, teaching, policy. This will improve their performance levels in all areas in an effective and efficient way. Of the different models that can be found, Álvarez et al. (2014) opted for Business Process Management (BPM). This model emerges as a solution that integrates people, processes and information systems, in order to promote effective, agile and transparent business processes in organizations, see Garimella et al.
(2008) with the necessary flexibility in the face of continuous changes.
Álvarez et al. (2014) concludes in their results that adopting an approach based on process management is possible. The adoption of BPM as a management tool and BPM systems as technological support can facilitate the automation of processes, allowing the integration of institutional policies, administrative personnel and available technological infrastructure.
BPMS systems achieve simple and effective solutions to complex processes.
APPROACHES TO SCHOOL MANAGEMENT: AN APPROACH FROM THE LATIN AMERICAN CONTEXT
The article presented by Pérez-Ruiz shows us the balance of the different treatments and approaches that have been developed around school management in recent years. The author wants to identify the different aspects of analysis about the new public management applied to education as part of the educational reform processes recently implemented in some Latin American countries. Taking this concept as a basis, it is intended to reorganize schools with the implementation of a context of change that promotes decentralization along with more flexible mechanisms for the operation of education.
Management in schools has had as a reference a series of important changes in different orders of social life throughout recent years. Without trying to simplify the complexity and variety of these transformations in the different countries of Latin America, we can place five factors at the macro level that have affected the meaning of education today:
- The revision of the political-administrative foundations of the welfare state, which has given impetus to various structural reforms focused on the rational use of resources and on the decentralization of the state apparatus. Transferring an economy focused on the development of the internal market to one oriented to trade openness, a fact that has led to the incursion into a scheme of productive competitiveness on a global scale. The deregulation of labor markets, which is more clearly disclosed, in new forms of hiring, use, training and mobility of labor in different productive spheres. It is linked to the processes of productive restructuring and changes in the organization of work that involve adjustments in the sociotechnical conditions of companies. The advancement of ICTs,whose uses extend to various fields of human activity.
Within this concept, the addition of the term "management" in educational jargon has progressively come to replace the notion of "school administration".
The latter does not suggest that within the field of education the term management has been discovered “suddenly”, as if it were a new concept, since it has been present for a long time in political science and theories. of the organization…. (Pérez-Ruiz, A. 2014).
Pérez-Ruiz considers that in the last three decades, the educational reform processes in Latin America have sought to rearrange the different components that make up the school fabric. Taking this point, management has become a matter of particular interest, since on the one hand, it concentrates the ideals of organizational functioning that educational centers must follow to face a highly changing and diversified society; and on the other, it reflects the variety of interests, expectations, motivations and positions that the different agents develop in their mutual relationships based on certain educational purposes.
“The relevance of his study grows as new expectations of training are placed in the school in accordance with the transformations that are taking place globally, which marks a scenario of constant redefinition of educational purposes with direct implications in the ways of acting. inside the teaching centers. ” (Pérez-Ruiz, A. 2014)
EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT: TOWARDS THE OPTIMIZATION OF TEACHER TRAINING IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN COLOMBIA
This reflection article comments that from the 90's a new way of seeing the formative character of teachers in higher education institutions in Colombia began in order to ensure that educational quality is in line with advances of contemporary society. Thus, vocational training needs to be managed from the institutional guidelines and implemented according to the development plans of the universities. The accelerated changes of the institutions, their policies, generate a permanent search for competitiveness, growth of professional, social and labor development.
As Rico Molano mentions, Alejandra Dalila (2015) The new social dynamics and the trend towards decentralization of educational systems, generates that directive teachers assume new roles, have the capacity to act autonomously and make decisions that allow them to access the globalized world of education and society in general. All this, makes the actors in the educational field manage adequate and coherent processes with the social mobility that occurs in society.
The aforementioned text means that educational management contributes to the optimization of academic, pedagogical, investigative, administrative and financial processes, all the educational processes of the university, each member must assume and fulfill their role with responsibility to have successful and innovative results and generate sufficient capacities to project, design, analyze and value policies as projects relevant to the context.
SCHOOL MANAGEMENT COMMITMENTS
The School Management Commitments guide the actions of the educational institution, to promote and guarantee the best situations for the achievement of learning. In this sense, the director's leadership is also essential to coordinate, accompany, communicate, motivate and educate in this educational change. Pedagogical leadership is the diversity of practices that seek to facilitate, encourage, guide, and regulate complex processes of delegation, negotiation, cooperation, and training of teachers, principals, officials, specialists, and others who work in education. The pedagogical leader turns the school into a wide space for learning, integrates resources and actions to ensure that his school acts as a planned whole to generate learning. Therefore, the pedagogical leader must be:
- Curriculum manager, promoting teamwork with teachers, promoter of change, suggests innovative ideas, communicates successful experiences of other colleagues or schools, monitor the implementation of educational actions, aimed at achieving goals and results. It processes information to make correct and timely decisions.
Management commitments are practices, activities that pedagogical leaders must carry out in educational institutions to create conditions and achieve better learning. They must be developed within educational institutions and point to annual progress in learning outcomes; with students who complete in a timely manner and remain in the educational system. For this, it is important to comply with the scheduling, the accompaniment to the pedagogical practice, the coexistence management and an annual (PAT) and strategic planning (PEI).
The 2016 School Management commitments:
- Commitment 1: Annual progress of the learning of the students of the educational institution Commitment 2: Annual and interannual retention of students in the educational institution Commitment 3: Compliance with the planning planned by the educational institution Commitment 4: Accompaniment and monitoring of the pedagogical practice in the educational institution. Commitment 5: Management of school coexistence in the educational institution. Commitment 6: Educational management instruments: formulation of the PEI and implementation of the PAT.
SCHOOL PLANNING: INFORMED DECISION MAKING
In the educational reforms undertaken in Latin America, important changes have been made in the school management of educational institutions with the aim of improving learning and the quality of education, as well as to ensure the comprehensive training of students. In Peru there are transformations in educational policies and structural changes that seek to achieve quality learning. The reform of educational institutions has been undertaken to transform their management and create conditions that contribute to the improvement of school management. One of the channels of this policy of modernization and strengthening of educational institutions are the processes of strengthening the competencies and capacities of managers. As part of this training process, guides and texts were prepared;One of them is “school planning”, with which the directors seek to design and plan alternative solutions to prioritized problems, based on the analysis of the reality of their educational institution, the context, policies and current regulations., with the optimal use of resources at your fingertips and taking responsibility for learning results.
CASE TO REFLECT:
Juana Sánchez Perales, IE director César Vallejo de Acomayo, Cusco, expressed the following during the First Reflection Day held at her school: “Dear teachers, I am very concerned about the results our students have obtained in the ECE 2015 test, both in the second grade of primary and in the second grade of secondary school. These are very low and do not show the hard work that I have been doing since my management, which, as you know, is concerned with improving learning. This shows that we are not working to achieve the objectives established in our Institutional Educational Project and, as we are doing, the vision proposed in this management document will be very difficult to achieve. ”
After the director's speech, teacher Mario Ramírez, a second-year high school teacher of Communication, stated that he is working with the degree for the third consecutive year and that he has been developing from his teaching practice the capacities to strengthen reading comprehension on his own initiative. He also said that he was doing everything possible to improve learning despite the precarious conditions offered by the educational institution, and that he was totally unaware of the content of the PEI. He also asked the director what he meant when he said "I have been working from my management". Other teachers supported what Mario Ramírez said and maintained that they did not know the content of the PEI either; In addition, they highlighted the importance of facing this problem as an educational community.
Alina, a teacher at the primary level, asked about the Annual Work Plan. She stated that she has been part of the commission that prepared this document and that it has set goals, objectives and actions, but that it does not have the final version. In addition, she said that she knows that there are applications in Excel but that she does not know how they are working in the educational institution.
Marcelino, another teacher, expressed that it was notorious that they were facing certain difficulties such as ignorance of the PEI, the PAT and other documents, but that this should lead both the management team and the teachers to a process of reflection. He said that these documents undoubtedly allow proper planning, but that it was the actions they could take that would lead students to achieve the desired learning.
Marcelino's intervention provoked everyone's reflection, and that is how they set out to plan alternatives to solve the problems presented by their institution. The director with her management team listened to the proposals, registering and committing to take them into account.
CONCLUSIONS
- The concept of Quality in orientation to Educational Management, must be removed from its original concept of exclusion and elitism and represent a new meaning of openness and possibility of inclusion in all educational areas.
- Within the management processes in education and in any workplace, the participation of teaching staff and collaborative work need to be motivated, which must be foreseen in a strategic planning that leads to the achievement of proposed goals and therefore to educational quality. Today's society requires undertaking great changes and, for this reason, the educational field faces the challenges, with an adequate educational management it will make organized work easier and will benefit the development of competences in order to achieve a quality education where can train citizens for the 21st century.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Álvarez Edison, Calle Xavier, Flores Ana, Lavín José M., 2014. Seeking educational excellence: Management of academic and administrative processes in Public Educational Institutions through BPMBarrio, BP (2018). Quality, equity and indicators in the Spanish educational system. Pulse. Education magazine, (29), 43-58.Bolivar Antonio (2018) Institutional self-evaluation for internal improvementMayo, IC, & Fernández, JLV (2016). Quality management processes. An example in an educational center. REICE. Iberoamerican Magazine on Quality, Efficacy and Change in Education, 8 (5). Garimella, K., M. Lees, B. Williams, 2008. Introduction to BPM for Dummies. WileyPubl., 77 pp. Jaramillo, HS, 2014. BPM is positioning itself in the world as the quintessential organizational management model. Available inHttp://www.club-bpm.com/Noticias/art00112.htmHernández, YA, Zumbado, LA, Oviedo, MDRC, Chavarría, JEC, Obando, LFM, & Picado, JPM (2013). The management of the educational institution and its link with the community. Education management, 3 (1), 83-124. López, AP, Prados, M. Á. H., & Romera, CG (2013). The effective management of the teacher in the classroom. A case study. Interuniversity electronic journal of teacher training, 16 (2), 77-92, Ortiz, MP (2013). MANAGEMENT BY PROCESSES: Tool for the improvement of educational centers. Obtained from: http://ww2.educarchile.cl/UserFiles/P0001/File/Gesti%C3%B3n%20por%20procesos.pdf School planning-Informed decision-making. Lima-Peru: http://repositorio.minedu.gob.pe/handle/MINEDU/5921Pérez-Ruiz, A. (2014). Approaches to school management: an approach from the Latin American context. Educ.Educ. 17 (2), 357-369. Doi.10.5294 / edu.2014.17.2.9 Pernnet C. José A. (2017). Educational Management by Processes - Guide for its identification and implementation Rico Molano, AD (2015). Educational management: Towards the optimization of teacher training in higher education in Colombia. Sophia.http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/sph/v12n1/v12n1a04.pdf Torres, ERT, Cabrera, XC, & Ferañan, EVR (2017). Self-evaluation as part of the accreditation process at the “Señor de Sipán” University, Peru. EPISTEMIA, 1 (1).
