Exploring the management of principal responsibilities in secondary schools in Barcelona: A case study

© Common Ground, Marina Tomàs-Folch and Georgeta Ion, All Rights Reserved. School leaders have complex jobs. To better understand the work lives of school principals, we analyse the agendas and schedule of all secondary school principals in the Barcelona region. According to the current local legislation, secondary schools are led by a principal. Their main responsibility is school management and coordination, elaboration and implementation of school education project and general programing. The principal is assisted by a managerial team, formed by 3-5 people (depending on the school size), which has among others the main tasks of: pedagogical coordination, secretary, school management, academic coordination and administrative management. We describe the context of the Catalonian educational system, its leadership and managerial model from a dual perspective: the normative requirements and the "day to day" tasks. The objective of our research is to describe and analyse the principal's tasks carried out in day to day activities and examine those with the tasks as defined by the local legislation.