Abstract:

Leadership in education focuses on some key principles. First, leadership in education creates a vision of academic success for all learners. This is important it has always been a historical gap between learners at different socio-economic levels and students with high and low achievements. Secondly, leadership in education seeks to maintain a safe and interactive learning environment. Thirdly, the educational guidance delegates the responsibility to the others. This means that everyone involved in the learning process has the right to take responsibility and accept responsibility. Fourthly, the learning methods and content of the curriculum need to be continuously improved. Fifth, the field of education must borrow and adapt the modern means of process and technology management.

This type of leadership is a collaborative process that unites the talents and forces of all actors involved in the process. The purpose of educational leadership is to improve the quality of education and the education system itself. One of the tasks of leadership in education is to provide academic success by improving the learning process, materials and methods of learning. This is achieved mainly through collaboration with various individuals, such as educators, parents, students and the public. From the point of view of business, leadership in education is a form of academic management and quality control.

The objective of the research, presented in the article, is to outline the nature and factors for the realization of leadership in contemporary Bulgarian education.

Methodology:
The complex method of researching and combining different approaches for its application (mainly analysis and synthesis based on comparison and analogy), is mainly applied in assessing the changes that occur in the trends of leadership’s development in education in contemporary social conditions.

Research methodology is aimed to achieve the objective of the research. Different sources were used: scientific literature in the fields of leadership, pedagogy, sociology, social psychology, etc.
The research was carried out in the second half of 2018 with participation of more than 100 teachers from Bulgarian schools and 50 lecturers in Bulgarian universities. The empirical basis of the study includes data from in-depth interviews.
The freely selected referees - at different ages and with different teaching experience - answered the questions in the interview. The task was to outline the trends in the field of leadership in the educational environment in Bulgaria.

Results:
1. The main characteristics of leadership in high schools and universities are identified.
2. Leadership styles in the educational environment have been outlined.
3. The study establishes links between leadership styles and certain personalities and attitudes, and provides a powerful tool for practitioners working in educational leadership.
4. The results raise many questions as evidence that this is still an under-researched area of scientific knowledge and lay the foundations for future scientific debate and developments in the field of scientific knowledge in Bulgaria for educational leadership.

The article provides a selection of good European practices, according to the criterion - relevance in Bulgarian university educational environment.

Keywords:

Leadership, education, Bulgarian good practices, European context.