The increase in child poverty in Spain highlights the importance of equality and inclusion of students at risk of social exclusion in the Spanish educational system. Recent research emphasises the importance of educational leadership, particularly from school principals, as a tool to improve the learning of these students. The main aim of this study is to establish the characteristics of school management in disadvantaged contexts in western Andalusia (Spain), placing special emphasis on the factors considered to hinder or aid effective leadership from principals. A mixed methodology was used in this process, surveying 282 teachers and interviewing 14 principals, and employing descriptive and contrastive statistics techniques. According to the teachers surveyed, principals tend to follow good educational leadership practices. However, the disadvantaged contexts present obstacles to their effective execution. While improvements are observed in the continuity of teaching staff, there is an urgent need to improve the qualifications of teachers working with students at risk of exclusion. In conclusion, principals need greater autonomy in relation to teachers and teaching practice.

Numerous studies have highlighted the important role played by school principals in improving the learning of their students, especially those at risk of social exclusion. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the pedagogical leadership exercised by the principals of disadvantaged schools in the Community of Madrid (Spain). To this end, the approach employed was based on a mixed methodology, combining quantitative and qualitative techniques with an ad hoc teaching staff questionnaire, on the one hand, and interviews with school principals, on the other. Low scores were obtained in those leadership practices relating to teacher individualism, such as the supervision of classroom teaching and collaboration with other schools for exchanging best practices. The teachers surveyed and the principals interviewed both agreed that the latter should be given a greater say in decision-making, especially when hiring teaching staff, in order to allow them to manage truly efficient schools. This in turn points to the need for a consensus on education policy regulating the role of Spanish school principals, in order to allow them to exercise real pedagogical leadership and thus guarantee optimal teaching-learning processes.