Sergio Galdames
UCL Institute of Education, London Centre for Leadership in Learning
I am an Educational Psychologist, Researcher and Educator. Currently studying a PhD student at the Institute of Education (UCL). My interest is focused on leadership, learning, careers and youth. I have extensive experience in training and professional development, I am seeking opportunities to expand my knowledge and skills in diverse disciplines and contexts.
There is a growing interest in understanding how school leaders build their professional careers. This interest is underpinned by a recognition of the relevance of headteachers for student learning and the challenges in recruiting and retaining human capital. In Chile, during the last decade, diverse initiatives driven by the ministry of education have aimed to strengthen the headship including the design of a school leadership framework, professional development opportunities for current and aspiring heads and a new formal selection process.
An unforeseen consequence of these reforms is the growing number of young individuals accessing to the headship, which under the labels of the generational theory (Edge, 2013; Howe & Strauss, 2007) correspond to the millennial cohort (between 39 and 20 years old). Accordingly, this study aims to characterize and understand the career of millennial school leaders, focusing on the elements in their personal and professional lives that might explain their rapid transition from teacher to headteacher.
Under a qualitative approach, in-depth interviews were conducted with a group of public school millennial headteachers (n = 9) between September and December of 2017. Data were thematically analysed in order to identify common themes across the cases.
Although all heads in the study live in different cities and none of them knew each other, the findings indicate that they share a similar personal and professional story. I argue that their access to the headship might be explained by a combination of three interconnected elements: (1) a high commitment with work during their education, as teachers and middle leaders; (2) a true engagement with continuous learning both formally through professional development initiatives and informally, usually as mentees from an senior (boomer) head; (3) the fortune to work in an educational environment characterized by school improvement policies and to arrive in a school that foster the early development of leadership and self-confidence. For most cases is the combination of these elements that allowed these individuals to gain access to a headship usually in their early thirties or even late twenties.
While there are probably young headteachers in other contexts, there is not much research addressing the career of millennials heads worldwide. This study contributes not only to the Chilean context but to a wider audience, challenging the general ideas about millennials and understanding the way young leaders are developed and give shape to their careers. Implications for research and training are discussed.
