How Effective Directors Solve Problems? A Study of Mexican Primary Directors in their First Year of Service

Abstract

Since the beginning of the last century, research on school effectiveness in the Anglo-Saxon countries has consistently demonstrated the director's impact on improving and changing the school (for example, Murphy, 2006). In Ibero-America, interest in the subject is more recent. Various works carried out in the region (Murillo, 2003) confirm that the management, direction of schools or leadership, as it is called, is a key factor in school effectiveness. As a result of these findings, educational policies have paid more attention to the role of the director. In the region, the pioneer country has been Spain; there are works since the 70s (for example, Baquero, 1971); in the 90s the work of Sacristán (1995), and that of Murillo, Barrio and Pérez Albó (1999) stand out.