Experiences developed by the directors of primary schools in the exercise of their functions during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This article analyzes the managerial experiences of the directors of the primary schools of Puebla (Mexico) developed in the exercise of their function during the pandemic caused by the SARS-Cov-2 virus (Covid-19). In the theoretical references, three ways of exercising the managerial function were recognized: pedagogical, managerial and mixed. The research had an epistemic positioning of a phenomenological-hermeneutical nature, with a qualitative approach and a case study design. The instrument consisted of semi-structured interviews applied by Google Meet in the period from March to April of the year 2021. The findings suggest that they exercised their function attached to the form of mixed direction with managerial emphasis. They strengthened leadership, communication, teamwork and problem-solving skills. In addition, they developed discursive lines with an ontological emphasis, according to which the human being, complex and subjective, constitutes the reason for being that animates all forms of social existence; pro-health focused on physical and emotional health care; ethical that guided the forms of labor exercise based on the analysis of the relevance of the normative-institutional framework; and technology that promoted the strengthening of digital skills for the proper development of their functions. They also implemented permanent and temporary hermeneutic devices that helped them understand and interpret the new educational reality. The permanent ones were ontological, ethical-professional, linguistic, epistemological, ideological, identity, pedagogical-didactic and technical. The transients were of the resilient and residual type. It is concluded that they carried out their functions recognizing their human.