LidVa Magazine

01 Article

02 Article

► Educating Against the Current: Value-Based Leadership. Article by Nasi Muncunill Roca

04 Games and values

► Sky Team

05 Humor

► Manel Fontdevila's point of view

Nowadays, the educational world is often surrounded by negative news that reflects complex and even hopeless situations. However, this view does not tell the whole story. In many schools across our country, high-quality experiences are taking place that show it is possible to build hopeful, powerful, and transformative schools. All these projects share a common feature: leadership that goes far beyond good organizational management. They are people and teams who lead with commitment, vision, and moral authority, becoming role models and drivers of change for the entire educational community.

As Michael Fullan reminds us, “Leadership is not about controlling others, but about mobilizing them to move forward together toward a shared goal.” And this is precisely where the difference between managing and leading lies: in the ability to give collective meaning to what we do and to grow the community through a common purpose.

Good educational leadership is born from personal character. We need optimistic and hopeful people, with what Iolanda Batallé calls “a militant smile,” capable of putting the needs of others before their own and making the school’s educational project something shared by the entire community. This ethical commitment is the foundation upon which transformative schools are built. At the same time, in a context where discouragement and discomfort among teachers, students, and families are increasing, this leadership must prioritize emotional and relational well-being as a strategic element. PISA data warns that 70% of 15-year-old students do not feel recognized or welcomed at school. This figure challenges us directly: we cannot allow students to be invisible or excluded. We must create bonds, establish welcoming and follow-up strategies, and build environments where every student feels part of the community. Without recognition and belonging, there is no deep learning or personal development.

This perspective must also extend to teaching teams. The decline in teacher motivation in recent years is a clear indicator. If in 2007, 92% of teachers felt excited about their profession, by 2024 this figure had dropped to 48%. The role of leadership teams is crucial to reverse this trend: spreading commitment, creating spaces for training and collaborative work, recognizing teaching efforts, and ensuring good working conditions. Leadership that looks ahead, sees the glass half full, values people who contribute, and conveys trust is leadership capable of growing a team.

As John Hattie points out, “School leadership has one of the most powerful impacts on student learning—not through direct actions in the classroom, but through the ability to influence those who teach.” This statement reinforces the importance of the work of principals and leadership teams: they are the ones who create the conditions for teachers and students to unleash their full potential.

Promoting values-based leadership today means going against the current. Although this may not be the best way to start an article for the Chair of Leadership in Values, as they repeatedly said on Polònia: “Sorry, but someone had to say it!”

To justify this, you only need to turn on the TV, listen to the radio, or browse—perhaps even sink—into social media. The leadership models that currently dominate the international scene are not exactly based on values, or at least not on what we understand as values when we talk about them: respect, equity, responsibility. It would be easy to put faces to each example. Leaderships based on imposition, aggression, and disqualification of others. Leaderships fueled by egocentrism and self-interest. Leaderships operating under patriarchal or sexist codes. People and discourses that attack, confuse, and even lie.

Unfortunately, these types of leadership are excessively present in global and everyday dynamics which, I do not doubt, may have short-term effectiveness: they generate admiration, make headlines, and can achieve quick visible results. But at what cost? They often create situations of exclusion, inequality, submission, disengagement, collective frustration, distrust, or impoverishment, to name a few consequences that are not easy to reverse. As the popular saying goes: “Short-term gain, long-term pain.”

That is why we need to imagine—and promote—another way of leading. From the Chair and many other spaces, we advocate for leadership based on values: one that does not impose but accompanies; that does not subordinate but listens; that does not command but builds. A leadership less noisy and more empathetic, more collective and less individualistic. One that helps people grow, empowers them, and enables them to develop their potential. One that fosters critical thinking, improves the environment, reverses inequalities, and builds community. This leadership sees people as actors, not instruments. It bets on humanity, cooperation, and care. It does not seek to stand out but to be useful. It is horizontal, dialogical, aware of tensions, and committed to reality. It has the ability to nurture growth, awaken consciences, and build bonds. In short, a transformative leadership that thinks about the common good and the long term.

For this to be possible, we must educate for leadership. But not by limiting ourselves to transmitting knowledge, rather through an education in values—cross-cutting and present in all areas: schools, organizations, leisure, sports, business, and politics, everywhere. An education that promotes leadership rooted in social cohesion and community commitment.