Strategic Management as Key to Improve the Quality of Education

Abstract

Strategic management and Leadership are
both issues of central importance in raising achievement
in schools and colleges and thus are at the heart of the
educational debate today. This book is concerned with
such major issues as: the nature of strategic management
in education; the importance of vision, and mission; styles
of leadership; models of educational management; and
the purposes of strategic management, which here are
equated with the effectiveness and improvement of the
institution. It will be invaluable for students of educational
management, such as those following master’s degrees.
It is also directly relevant to teachers and lecturers and
schools of all phases and in further education colleges.
During the last decade education systems have been
undergoing a long process of restructuring from a model
of educational management that was deeply rooted in the
past to a strategic management model that is focused on
the future. The present study aims to make a contribution
in this direction. Firstly, we review the current scenario
of change, and explore sustainable improvement
in education as priority objective in educational
management, making it clear that the most signi cant
changes are those that are focused on improvement and
on the educational establishment itself. Secondly, after
finding that at both national and international level
there is a growing consensus in the research about the
existence of certain key elements that are necessary in
order to achieve this improvement these being strategic
educational management and effective educational
leadership we describe the distinctive characteristics
and the main components of this type of management in
education. The paper ends with several implications for
improving educational practice. In particular, some basic
competences for the professionalization of educational
management are outlined.