The school management team and the creation of conditions for adolescents’ social maturation

The purpose of the study is to theoretically substantiate and develop a technology for the work of a school management team based on the principles of distributed leadership and aimed at creating conditions for adolescents’ social maturation. The article examines theoretical approaches to understanding adolescents’ sense of adulthood and social maturation and explores the potential of distributed leadership in educational institution management. The work presents the results of an author-designed survey of 80 adolescents aged 14-16 studying at a general education institution in Novosibirsk. The survey focused on their ideas about adulthood, subjective perceptions of their own maturation, and significant conditions within the school environment. Based on theoretical analysis and empirical data, the article describes a technology for the work of a school management team involving individualized supportive, group creative, and event-based pedagogical interaction. The scientific novelty lies in developing a technology for the work of a school management team based on the concept of distributed leadership. This technology links three types of pedagogical interaction – individualized supportive, group creative, and event-based interaction – with the components of adolescents’ sense of adulthood and is aimed at creating conditions for developing their agency. The study identified the substantive characteristics of contemporary adolescents’ sense of adulthood: independence, responsibility, and prosocial activity. The interdependence between this demand and the corresponding pedagogical response – in the form of support for adolescents’ social maturation through the work of the school management team – was established. It was determined that adolescents primarily associate adulthood with responsibility (65%), independence (60%), awareness (47.5%), and the ability to engage in social interaction and demonstrate empathy (40%). Most respondents (86.3%) positively assessed the role of the school environment in their personal development. Adolescents considered teachers’ trust (73.8%), freedom to choose solutions (71.3%), and the performance of important tasks (66.3%) to be the most significant conditions for maturation. The findings were used to substantiate a technology for the work of a school management team aimed at creating conditions for adolescents’ social maturation.