School governance networks. Experience and challenges of women leaders of centers for parents and guardians of public educational establishments in the territory of the Costa Araucanía (Chile)

Abstract

This article seeks to know the experience and challenges of women leaders of centers for parents and guardians of public educational establishments in the Costa Araucanía territory, located in the south of Chile, regarding the opportunities and obstacles in their leadership work and the management governance networks aimed at improving the material and educational conditions of their children. With a qualitative research design, 25 women leaders were interviewed, whose testimonies reveal their experience regarding their leadership work in their educational communities, the transformations experienced in their networks of social and institutional relations in the territories, as well as the influence of being a female leader in a cultural environment that still operates with traditional gender stereotypes. The results reveal the emergence —in the school governance networks— of self-management processes inside and outside the school communities and the work of generating links with public institutions and private organizations, in order to improve the educational conditions of children in the territories.