THE ROLE OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP IN PROMOTING A CULTURE OF INNOVATION AND CHANGE

Abstract

This article analyzes the role of school leadership in promoting a culture of innovation and change, understanding innovation as an institutional process involving people, practices, routines, and pedagogical purpose. The objective was to discuss how leadership influences the organizational climate, collaboration among teachers, and the sustainability of transformations that impact teaching and learning. The methodology adopted was bibliographic research, with a qualitative approach, based on academic productions and technical-institutional documents that address leadership, democratic management, organizational learning, and the implementation of changes in school contexts. The results indicate that innovation tends to consolidate when leadership builds collective meaning for change, strengthens trust relationships, and organizes concrete working conditions, such as pedagogical time, monitoring, and in-service training spaces. It was also evident that collaborative processes and forms of distributed leadership increase team commitment and reduce dependence on isolated initiatives, favoring the continuity of actions. It is concluded that school leadership acts as a structuring axis for innovation by articulating vision, participation, and coherence between discourse and practice, contributing to change ceasing to be isolated events and becoming integrated into the institutional culture.