Visión descolonizadora de la gerencia transformacional en los circuitos educativos

Decolonizing vision of transformational management in educational circuits

Milady Joselyn Molina

miladyjmolina@hotmail.com

Universidad Nacional Experimental Francisco de Miranda, Santa Ana de Coro

Venezuela

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7578-5787

Recepción: 15 Septiembre 2019

Revisado: 02 Octubre 2019

Aprobación: 15 Octubre 2019

Publicación: 01 Enero 2020

ABSTRACT

The research had as a main purpose: to provide a decolonizing vision of transformational management in educational circuits context No. 6 of the Colina municipality. The research was framed in a phenomenological methodology and a historiographic approach on the decolonizing vision of transformational management in educational circuits, adjusted to the purposes of the research. Through the investigation and interpretation of the actors’ discourse involved, it is intended to approach the phenomenon of transformational management in its real context. Three educational managers were considered as key informants to whom open interviews and phenomenological analysis of the information were applied. The management style in the educational circuit, from the perspective of key informants, is characterized by being fair, reasonable and respectful; It also pursues collective and non-individualistic well-being.

Keywords: Democratization of education, Educational policy, Education and culture, Educational anthropology. (Words taken from UNESCO Thesaurus).

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, the educational process in Latin America has been the center of reforms and transformations with the aim of achieving quality in each of its actions. Therefore, this transition begins from a traditional hierarchical paradigm where educational planning is aimed at generating the largest number of citizens who respond to the country's productive sector. Postmodern societies demand educational changes and transformations, where the educational vision is permeated by new epistemological paradigms and by the dynamism, articulation and integration of all groups; without leaving aside the individual differences and the geohistorical characteristics of each context. In this panorama of a changing society, the Teaching State is inserted with new reforms; Bonilla-Molina (2004) indicates that:

… The dialectical process as the one that currently characterizes the national society, […] decides to contribute to the process of the Bolivarian democratic revolution, with a clear perspective of contributing to a transformational ecological process. (p. 38).

Faced with a dialectical changing society that demands transformations in all social sectors, education must assume ecological transformational positions, understood as the visibility of ancestral knowledge. Consequently, assuming institutional and pedagogical epistemic approaches, paradigms and transformational theories, educational organizations have rearranged their management to respond to the challenges and demands of today's society for becoming increasingly effective and efficient in the creation of spaces with excellence and quality.

The current Venezuelan education requires deep, real and systematic changes that promote educational quality. In this process, the responsibility falls on the personnel of the educational organizations; particularly, in the directors as senior managers. According to Lorenzo & Ramirez (2016), "The role of the director is a key factor in the improvement of schools, especially, in the management of change" (p. 10).

The director, as manager, is the main person in charge of managing an efficient and effective quality educational process; for such objectives, the director must fulfill managerial functions that according to Chiavenato (1999), deal with “planning, organization, direction, control and evaluation, in order to use their human, physical and financial resources for achieving commonly related objectives” (p. 146). All these functions are articulated to facilitate the integral development of educational institutions, as well as the transformation of all educational groups and society in general. This new vision of the country requires that educational institutions reorient their role by adopting new models and implementing new educational strategies focused on such goals.

In achieving educational purposes, transformational management is a very valuable element in educational organizations, since from the organizational strategic vision, it allows not only the basic managerial functions previously indicated; but also assertive communication, more accurate decision making in addition to links between institutions and the contextualization of the educational process.

Besides that, Venezuelan society is in an epochal transition characterized by epistemological decolonization in the educational context. Through this paradigm, the need to change the Eurocentric epistemic stance for the visibility of the original culture is established, as Velasco (2015) points out, “the epistemic paradigm that underlies our praxis remains to a large extent, the inheritance of the invasion carried forward by the sword and the cross, the crown and the church” (p. 14). Therefore, decolonization proposes the revaluation of the cultures of each community.

The internalization of management is presented as a valuable contribution in educational management under the vision of thinking decolonization paradigm. In this sense, it fosters the strengthening of the idiosyncrasy in educational groups and the transformation of society by taking into account the characterizations, the strengths, opportunities and weaknesses of each geohistorical context of educational organizations; as well as the worldviews of all educational groups and their individualities as human beings and a social being. Therefore, educational management must be considered as an agent of change within postmodern societies and all educational groups.

The educational manager must participate in all contexts, both in education and community, maintaining an interrelation between the institution and the community. In this way, the former are the effective center of strategic planning for community development where the latter participate co-responsibly in the students’ educational process with the purpose of achieving sociability and integration of all educational and community groups as an articulated team.

The educational transformation process that has been taking place in the country in the last five years requires an educational manager committed to the pedagogical and institutional transformation that reorients the educational act in accordance with the objectives established in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Organic Law of Education.

From this perspective, the process of epistemological decolonization that is taking place in Latin America has been reflected in Venezuelan education, due to the fact that a set of changes have been forged in order to achieve the greatest possible inclusion and educational quality that permit to preserve the integration with the communities and the revaluation of their own culture and their geohistorical realities. In this way, the Historical Objectives of the Homeland Plan 2013-2019 related to education are visible, such as developing programs and activities that incorporate the ancestral and popular episteme of peoples (p. 73). In addition, priority is given to strengthening the processes that make the historical-community identity evident through the reproduction of its historical memory and the promotion of the multiple manifestations and traditions of the different communities. (p. 145).

During the last five years, the reforms, projects and educational programs have sought to achieve educational quality, in a process of "march and countermarch"; in this respect, a set of changes have been assumed at the different levels and educational modalities: Bolivarian Schools, CEIS, Simoncitos, Seventh Bolivarian, "Bolivarian and comprehensive schedules"; Educational Missions (Robinson, Ribas, Sucre); University Village; socioeconomic programs (PAE, Scholarships); educational programs (Bicentennial Collection, Canaima); Bolivarian Curricular Design; among others. All this is considered with the aim of achieving the greatest educational insertion and prosecution of boys, girls, adolescents and young people. Statistics show that this purpose has been achieved, that is, the greatest educational inclusion in the course of Venezuelan educational history has been achieved.

The evaluation for educational quality, from 2014, showed that this is not at the planned and / or desired levels in the entire educational process. Consequently, the Teaching State has assumed this reality as a major problem that must be overcome; for which it has devised strategic operations, such as: National Advanced Training Program, Pedagogical Transformation in General Media and Institutional Transformation.

The first strategy establishes postgraduate studies for teachers, so that they continue and update their academic training. The second strategy proposes pedagogical change and contextualization (areas of training, integration of subjects), so that students acquire and actively participate in comprehensive and quality training. The third strategy considers the change in the management and administration of the organizational structure, through the creation of educational circuits.

In this perspective, the Teaching State assumes socio-educational policies that allow the integration of communities to educational organizations; such as the Educational Circuits, in order to create strategic actions that favor the integration of communities, preservation of cultural heritage and valuation of geohistorical contexts. All these aspects are articulated in the same world-system to finally achieve educational quality.

Dialectic encourages questioning about whether educational circuits provide answers to the object of their creation; that is, do they respond to the process of epistemological decolonization of thought? Or perhaps, they respond to emerging and transformational management approaches. Maybe, they could respond to effective organizational coordination and efficient communication or they could answer to an effective union between educational institutions, as well as the promotion of communities and their ancestral culture.

Thus, the research had as a main purpose: To provide a decolonizing vision of transformational management in educational circuits in the context of Educational Circuit No. 6 of the Colina municipality.

METHOD

The research was carried out within a phenomenological methodology and a historiographical approach in relation to the decolonizing vision of transformational management in educational circuits. For this, the purposes of the research were developed through the investigation and interpretation of the actors’ discourse, in this way; it was intended to approximate the phenomenon of transformational management in its real context.

Three educational managers were the key informants: a territorial supervisor and two directors of Educational Circuit No. 6, belonging to the Board of Directors; who have managed in the respective institutions since before the formation of the Educational Circuits, thus providing a more reliable perspective on them. The information was provided by key informants through open interviews. Then categorizations and triangulation were performed.

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

Firstly, epistemological decolonization is a determining historical process that confronts the Eurocentric positions through the revaluation of the peoples’ ancestral knowledge that have been made invisible and dominated. Giving the "other" his or her epistemological and ontological importance.

Secondly, the processes of reform and transformation for educational quality promote the emergence of managerial styles that are in harmony with the epochal realities of the country and the reality of postmodern societies. Thus, transformational management is presented, leaving aside hierarchical styles and establishing a horizontal management with the creation of educational circuits. These have as one of their purposes, the integration of educational institutions and the active participation of communities, acquiring, in this way, an increasingly active and leading role. From this worldview, the ancestral knowledge of the communities as well as their geographical, historical and cultural characteristics are taken into account in educational planning.

In this perspective, non-hierarchical leadership models are assumed in transformational management to facilitate the integration and participation of all groups, highlighting elements such as transformational and emerging leadership, assertive communication and entrepreneurship, motivation to success, union, organizational culture including respect for geohistorical biodiversity.

Certainly, the existence of managerial weaknesses was evident in the study, which is a typical process of pedagogical and institutional transformation that is just being implemented and is still in development; that is why the educational groups and the social actors of the communities have been gradually integrating actively and adapting their praxis according to educational purposes.

The new vision of the country, within the political and economic transition, has been permeated by the transcendental process of thinking decolonization; in which the role of the communities and their geohistorical contexts as well as their ancestral culture is revalued. The strengths and weaknesses of the communities are taken into account for the development of the educational processes. Ancestral knowledge is respected as well as the history of each community; thus achieving the insertion of the communities in the historical-educational evolution of them. Transformational management is conceived in the epochal transition as "georential management", a category that should be addressed in future studies.

CLOSING REFLECTIONS

Key informants describe what is categorized as strengths of transformational management in Educational Circuit No. 6, such is the case of achieving efficient assertive communication, which is evident in the control and monitoring of planned activities, collectively, in the circuit, considering that the institutions that make up this educational circuit maintain similar geohistorical realities.

The key informants report that the formation of educational circuits is an innovative strategy that allows the union of nearby educational institutions with similar geohistorical realities. This is linked to the purposes of the thinking decolonization process and educational reform; where the ancestral indigenous culture, the geographical conditions, in addition to emerging management approaches is revalued. Even so, there are expectations of the results, since it is a process that is recently taking place.

The key informants refer that the work in the circuit is not individualizing, by contrast, it is collective and it also favors the learning of all the institutions that make up the educational circuit. Furthermore, when being decentralized, the geohistorical characteristics of the communities are taken into account and, besides, effective transformative management is promoted; where information and control arrive on time.

As a conclusion, the style of management in the educational circuit, from the perspective of key informants, is characterized by being fair, legal, reasonable and respectful; it also pursues collective and not individualistic well-being. In other words, it promotes the transformation not only of leaders but also of all groups; preserving humanism at all times and actions.

FINANCING

Non-monetary

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I sincerely thank my family for all their support in the development of this research.

REFERENCES

Bonilla-Molina, L. (2004). Education in times of the Bolivarian revolution. Available from https://n9.cl/e8ygf

Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (1999). Official Gazette Nº5453. Caracas Venezuela. Available from: https://www.oas.org/dil/esp/constitucion_venezuela.pdf

Chiavenato, I. (1999). Introduction to the General Theory of Administration. (5th Edition). McGraw-Hill Publishing. Bogotá.

Homeland Plan. Second Socialist Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Nation 2013-2019. Official Gazette No. 6118. Extraordinary. December 4, 2013. Available from https://n9.cl/mkey

Lorenzo, E., & Ramírez, A. (2016). Past, present and future. Processes and Procedures in the Evaluation of the Directors of the Andalusian School Centers. Iberoamerican journal of Educational Evaluation, 3 (2). Available from https://n9.cl/byh2

Martínez, M. (2006). Qualitative research (conceptual synthesis). Available from https://n9.cl/9oxj

Navarro, A. (2015) Transformational leadership, an alternative for the Directors of the Educational centers in the population of Boca de Pozo, Peninsula de Macanao municipality, Nueva Esparta state. Libertador Experimental Pedagogical University

Velasco, R. (2015). History of a Resistance. On the cover-up of the Caquetío People and their Exclusion from History. Available from https://n9.cl/6w9i

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