Jordi Longás Mayayo

Networked leadership in Educational Collaborative Networks

Educational Collaborative Networks (ECNs) aim to achieve educational goals at the community level and base their actions on collaborative partnering between schools and community organizations. These approaches are an emergent and innovative leadership and policy strategy being used increasingly across the globe, given the interconnected and pervasive nature of issues facing education. The enthusiasm and promise of such community-based initiatives are accompanied by concerns related to its leadership. This paper describes the insights of networked leadership as a driver, which facilitates ECN outcome achievement. This article examines the experience of leaders involved in the current leadership of 18 high-performing ECNs in Barcelona (Spain). The results stress that networked leadership may become a key driver of change in educational contexts, capable of building a collaborative culture to optimize the educational performance in every specific community.

Asesoramiento al programa CaixaProinfancia; evaluación del cambio hacia un modelo de acción socioeducativa

El objetivo de esta investigacion es valorar la incidencia del asesoramiento sobre la gestion del cambio iniciado en el Programa CaixaProinfancia, programa que desde 2007 se desarrolla en las areas metropolitanas mas pobladas de 9 Comunidades Autonomas de Espana, atendiendo una media anual superior a 35.000 familias y 55.000 menores, gracias a la colaboracion de 351 entidades del tercer sector. En 2010 se desarrollo un complejo proceso de asesoramiento en el que participa una red de 12 universidades espanolas para redireccionar el programa, enmarcado en un paradigma mas asistencialista, hacia un modelo centrado en las capacidades y el empoderamiento de los participantes y con el territorio como referente ineludible Por tal motivo se han realizado dos investigaciones evaluativas complementarias: a) un analisis estadistico descriptivo de la evolucion en la incidencia del programa sobre menores, familias y territorios, realizado a partir de la informacion recogida por el aplicativo de gestion del programa; b) una evaluacion cualitativa de la percepcion de impacto por parte de los grupos de interes, realizada a partir de la informacion recogida mediante grupos focales y entrevistas. Los resultados muestran un progresivo giro de una primera atencion fragmentada y puntual hacia una atencion mas integral y continuada, con intensificacion del acompanamiento social. Se tienen evidencias de evolucion en los procesos de trabajo y colaboracion de las entidades sociales. Aunque no puede confirmarse el impacto positivo respecto a la efectividad del programa para sacar a los participantes de la pobreza, se reconocen mejoras en el desarrollo de oportunidades y factores de resiliencia en los participantes. Principalmente se explican por la calidad del acompanamiento personalizado y sistematico que se realiza. Las dificultades que frenan el proceso son: a) de tipo normativo y/o administrativo, b) de escasez de recursos de las entidades y las administraciones para realizar un trabajo socioeducativo de calidad, y c) resistencias al cambio de la cultura profesional y la cultura politica por parte de los agentes involucrados

Development and validation of a questionnaire about determinants of academic success in secondary school students

reista esañola de pegogía yar LX X V I, n . 2 6 9 , an u ay-A p il 2 0 1 8 , 5 5 -8 2 Abstract: Introduction: School failure is a major challenge at individual and social levels, ow‐ ing to its negative impact on social cohesion, citizen participation, economic development, and sustainability and also its impact on health habits. Various studies have shown the link between family socio-economic lev‐ el and educational results, to the point that this factor has been regarded as their princi‐ pal determinant. Nonetheless, the essential‐ ly attributing school failure to the students’ milieu is only descriptive in value and could impede the development of more appropri‐ ate responses to this challenge. A better systemic and integral understanding of the phenomenon might contribute to a better ap‐ proach to the problem through the develop‐ ment of new proposals for public policy and socio-educational actions. To this end, it is necessary to have appropriate measurement instruments that evaluate different dimen‐ sions in an integrated manner. Method: The objective of this study is to evaluate the psy‐ chometric properties of the Questionnaire on Determinants of Success at School (QDSS) in a sample of 858 secondary-school students resident in vulnerable socio‐demographic settings from 5 Spanish cities. The ques‐ tionnaire combines items about factors that specialist literature has significantly linked to educational attainment, excluding those that already have specific validated ques‐ tionnaires. Results: The principal component analysis gave 7 factors: school environment, relationships with classmates, personal ex‐ pectations, social capital, ITC study resourc‐ es, climate in class, and family support. The goodness of fit indices show good properties for the questionnaire. Conclusion: The QDSS is an instrument that has appropriate psy‐ chometric properties for use in identifying factors that support educational success in secondary-school students. Development and validation of a questionnaire about determinants of academic success in secondary school students Desarrollo y validación del cuestionario sobre condicionantes de éxito escolar en alumnos de secundaria

RESULTADOS DEL OBSERVATORIO TRANSICIÓN ESCUELA-TRABAJO Y MONITOREO DE LA RED SOCIOEDUCATIVA DE SANT VICENÇ DELS HORTS PARA EL ÉXITO ESCOLAR Y EL EMPODERAMIENTO DE LOS JÓVENES

INTRODUCTION. The empowerment of young people means the development of their autonomy and self-sufficiency competences. School dropout seriously threatens it. The experience of social and educational action in the Sant Vicenc dels Horts network (Barcelona) is an example of municipal commitment with young people and its academic achievement. The network experience was created in the year 2000 to respond to social and educational needs originated by a low socio-cultural level, integrating all the local agents with the aim of improving academic achievement. Firstly, its action was focused on improving the School to Work Transition (also known as TET) thorough the collaborative effort of secondary schools and several local services. Also, the organizations organized a systematic compilation of academic achievement indicators both for Secondary Education and Vocational Training. The aim of this research is to analyse the data gathered with these successful indicators. METHOD . Descriptive statistics and a study of the school success/failure indicators (promotion, repetition, dropping out and orientation) corresponding to series of 297 a 326 students during 16 years. RESULTS. There were relevant improvements in Secondary Education (with a reduction of the starting 30% dropout figure to 10.5%); there were also important improvements in orientation and accompaniment of students with learning difficulties; school performance in women between a 5-20% higher; a reduction of 70% of dropping out in Secondary Education and raise of 20-30% in Post-Secondary Education. DISCUSSION . The TET Observatory is a valuable local strategy for the monitoring and evaluating the socioeducational action in a network project. The results indirectly show the effects of certain social educational policies developed at the local level. They also show evidences of an adequate governance in terms of systemic selfregulation and promotion of school success. The evolution of the social educational needs towards the Post-Compulsory Educational Levels suggests new local challenges.