Female leadership as a process of collective responsibility: the case of Chilean school principals

Abstract

This article explores the characteristics of leadership in schools where school principals are female, examining the voices and perceptions of the protagonists of female leadership. Employing a case-study methodology, data were collected through 12 in-depth  interviews with female principals from the Santiago Metropolitan Region in Chile. The results show that female principals exercise leadership qualities associated with distributed and social justice leadership. This leadership is characterised by active listening and the generation of participatory spaces, the search for collective agreements and teamwork, and the construction of trust and co-responsibility. The findings suggest that female Chilean school principals understand their leadership as a process of accompaniment, which promotes collective responsibility and the well-being of the school community.