The Role of the Educational Manager in Teacher Professional Development in Unified General High School

Abstract

This study examined the role of the educational manager in teacher professional development at the Unified General High School level of the Armed Forces Educational Unit “Liceo Naval Galápagos”. A mixed-methods, non-experimental, cross-sectional, descriptive, and proposal-oriented design was used. Ten teachers and one educational manager participated. Data were collected through a Likert-scale survey, a semi-structured interview, and document review. Survey findings, reported as frequencies consistent with the sample size, showed that six of ten teachers rated the identification of training needs as “Sometimes”; eight of ten placed institutional planning between “Sometimes” and “Almost always”; and seven of ten perceived post-training support between “Never” and “Almost never”. The interview confirmed that training activities mainly respond to immediate needs and that administrative workload limits pedagogical leadership. Document analysis found no systematic needs-assessment matrices, permanent schedules, or formal mechanisms for evaluating training impact. Triangulation revealed a gap between the delivery of training activities and their effective transfer to classroom practice. An institutional program was designed around needs assessment, contextualized training, pedagogical support, and continuous evaluation. The study concludes that strengthening the educational manager’s pedagogical leadership is a strategic condition for transforming teacher training into a relevant, sustainable process focused on improving educational practice.