Pedagogical leadership within the framework of human talent management: a comprehensive approach from the perspective of higher education in Ecuador

Introduction. University higher education in recent decades has seen the need to participate in projects that lead to its evolution, transformation and adaptation to the demands of current times. The leading role of the teaching professional is becoming more visible in these changes, which is why it is considered that the recognition of it as a leader is of vital importance to transform reality. The study presented has as a general objective to study teacher leadership in the higher education system of Ecuador considering its leading role in the transformative participation of educational processes. Materials and Methods. The research carried out was part of the development of the mixed or qualitative methodology. This was a two-phase sequential study. The first quantitative phase involved a questionnaire with descriptive analysis, applied the reliability with the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The qualitative phase consisted of an interpretative documentary analysis. Results. The results showed that most of the teachers surveyed do not recognize themselves as leaders, or at least are not known as leaders in some areas of the educational processes in which they participate. Teachers have three types of leadership: instructional, distributed and university. Discussion and Conclusion. At the present time the participation, commitment and responsibility in the area of competence of the university teacher, the educational leadership represented in the professional of university teaching, it is vitally important to move from discourse to action and active participation in the transformation of the realities.