Pre-school and primary school principals. Importance of their duties and

Abstract

competencies. Training, satisfaction and collaboration This paper aims to conduct an exploratory study about pre-school and primary school principals regarding the importance of their assigned competencies, their initial and on-going training concerning their duties, their satisfaction in their position and the collaboration and assessment they receive from the educational administration and community. To this end we have drawn up a protocol with an adequate reliability rate and we have sent it by email to a sample of principals from every community of Spain. 807 principals have answered judging their competencies as important and understanding that their duties are important for the running of the school and the quality of the education. They esteem that the support they receive from the educational administration is acceptable and its collaboration can be improved, they think the support and collaboration from teachers and families are correct. The initial training of the principals could be improved and their ongoing training programs could be redesigned according to their needs. A professional career should be established and their remuneration should be improved.