Abstract:

Current studies on leadership in Higher Education show its importance in generating a collaborative professional culture thanks to which the achievements achieved in the multidisciplinary teaching teams can be improved. Among other factors, personal and professional history, motivations and perceived values, influence the work done by the team leader to the extent that it brings a number of perceived traits. These are analyzed in this communication from the biographical-narrative approach. It is a transformational and functional leadership that is increasingly frequent in training and professional development and in particular in higher education institutions, because it is linked to the promotion of teaching innovation. Today, teaching teams are increasingly distant from traditional and formal leadership at the university. It is also noteworthy that in recent decades the evolution towards equality in the professional development of women and men has partly broken a cultural dimension that seemed not to evolve. Today it is a little less unusual to find in higher education women leading and leading in teaching, research and management, in management teams and teaching teams. Several studies conclude that women work to achieve or achieve tasks of a pedagogical nature, use more strategies for participation and dialogue and are geared more towards social relations. Three indicators that mark some relevant differences in relation to how male peers do it. Therefore, with the purpose of knowing the implications of the perceived professional identity in the exercise of leadership in a teaching team in the area of Health Sciences, this communication tells the story of María, leader of a multidisciplinary teaching team that relates their professional experiences oriented to training for the improvement of the quality of teaching. From a biographical-narrative approach, the experience of this leader is described. A content analysis is carried out from an in-depth interview in which, in addition to his professional history, he tells the strategies of success and how these have helped him achieve team goals that impact teacher professional development and in the group improvement of the teaching processes of university teachers. Included in the communication are your reflections on the obstacles you have overcome and the opportunities for improvement that the experience, the opinions of the teaching staff of the teaching team and the results of their work give them to continue betting on a transformational leadership as a key element in the work of the teaching team aimed at innovation, which contributes to the improvement of the quality of teaching and the learning processes and the acquisition of competences of the university student.

Keywords:

Professional development, transformational leadership, educational innovation, teaching team, higher education.