A Sparkling Gem in the Mud: The Struggle for Success at Diamantino Secondary School

Diamantino Secondary offers low or compulsory secondary education to about 300 pupils in one of the most deprived districts of the city of Seville, Spain. This chapter analyses the tremendous efforts that were made at Diamantino to avoid becoming a ghetto school and to achieve the high-quality level for which it is widely recognized among its community and educational authorities. Data were collected by means of 2 group interviews with students and 13 individual interviews, 4 of them with the current principal, 8 with staff of various characteristics, and 1 with the zone supervisor. Additionally, a variety of school documents were consulted, and 22 out of 42 teaching staff responded to the Spanish version of the ISSPP survey (52% response rate). The current principal has exerted an indirect instructional leadership primarily by means of attracting resources for the school; coordinating the action of external agents; promoting the autonomy of departments and areas; and serving as a model of new teaching methods. The main strategies carried out include healing the wounds of the school’s long-standing division among teachers, increasing staff collaboration, a wide spam of compensatory measures and of attention to the diversity, and the building of a widespread network of mutual support with the school environment.