The vagueness of the Spanish model of school leaders' preparation

In recent years, research on school leadership has put in evidence the strong influence that headteachers have over educational success. It has provoked an increasing interest to develop training programs in order to help the principals to acquire the skills needed for that challenge. Our research evidence that although the interest in principals' training has also increase in Spain, the model is far from being clear and well defined for the whole country. Due to a decentralized educational system, administered with a high level of autonomy in each of the 17 autonomous communities, a very different array of training programs and structures has been developed. While management issues are included in all of them, it is not always the case of contents and practices related to instructional leadership, such as curriculum development, teachers and programs assessment, innovation or teachers training. That provokes a technocratic leadership approach that need to be revised.