Systemic Leadership and Educational Equity: A Review of Proposals from International Organizations

This article analyzes how the OECD and UNESCO conceptualize and develop proposals linking systemic leadership with educational equity. These proposals aim to address the challenges of an increasingly complex global scenario in which management efficiency must be balanced with the need to strengthen the public value of educational policies. A qualitative descriptive-analytical design based on the analysis of 37 strategic documents from both institutions was used to study and compare their perspectives on equity, guidelines on systemic leadership, and proposed practices for implementing it. The results show that the OECD favors a vision of systemic leadership that focuses on improving management capacities, multiscale coordination, and the strategic use of data to enhance policy effectiveness. Meanwhile, UNESCO’s proposals lean toward a more transformative and social vision of systemic leadership, with a greater number and variety of references to inclusion, democratic participation, and social justice. The conclusions highlight the importance of linking research on educational leadership with research on educational policies. Systemic leadership can be a fundamental link in this regard if it balances visions of the purposes of education (the what) with strategic definitions for achieving them (the how).