Instructional leadership and complexity in school management: a multiple cases study

Understanding schools in their educational role implies understanding them as spaces where teachers can develop professionally. This research aims to analyze the pedagogical leadership practices of principals and pedagogical coordinators who support teacher professional development in schools with good academic performance, in an intermediate socioeconomic context and with different levels of complexity in school management. A multiple case study was conducted in three public schools in Sao Paulo. Data collection included semi -structured in-depth interviews, focus groups, non -participant observation, shadowing, and documentation gathering. As a result, we found seven central pedagogical leadership practices directly or indirectly related to teacher professional development. The complexity in school management focused on practices that cross 14 mapped factors, distributed in five axes: student, teacher, pedagogical coordination, school organization, and educational policy.