Leadership by the curricular department coordinator: Teachers’ perceptions

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present a case study carried out in two clusters of schools in the metropolitan area of Oporto, Portugal. The study reflects upon the teachers’ perceptions about the coordinator as the "leader" of the curricular department, based on the problem: “What are the contributions of the coordinator’s leadership for the dynamics of teaching, developed in the curricular department?” The following aims were defined: to analyze the role and functions of the coordinator of the curricular department from the perspective of the legal diplomas; to understand the coordinator’s perception concerning job accomplishment; to understand which practices are adopted by the coordinator concerning their curricular department in its daily action; to understand teachers’ perceptions with regard to the exercise of the coordinator’s tasks; to understand the coordinator’s influence upon teacher’s teaching practices; to identify features that teachers consider important to acknowledge the department coordinator as a leader. To accomplish this, a qualitative approach has been used, similar to a case study, using techniques such as surveys and interviews. The framework initially focused on an analysis of the framework at the level of legislative regulations, essentially, as they regard the position of curricular department coordinator and / or similar; later approaching the concepts of leadership, through a brief history about the theories of leadership. Based on the analysis of teachers’ opinions about the functions and influence of the coordinator, namely representation, communication, interaction, collaboration, promotion of personal initiative, problem solving and common objectives, the results point towards teachers' perceptions being mainly oriented to coordinator with a predominantly transformational leadership.