Page 28 - Educational Leadership in a Changing World

Marta Ambite et al.

Martín & Fuentes, 2012). This is why expressions widely used in the
discourse of emotional intelligence, such as emotional management or
emotional control, can lead us to become true emotional manipulators
when they are not subject to some higher and less instrumental cri-
terion than that of effectiveness. Nor can the criterion of subjective
emotional well-being be sufficient insofar as it limits us to individuality
that forgets the essential ties with others, not only to survive, but as
Aristotle (1836) points out, to achieve plenitude, and that allow us to
understand ourselves from a broader and shared perspective, far from
self-absorption and selfishness.
In this sense, the Self-Determination Theory developed by Ryan and
Deci in recent decades (2017), has made it possible to delve deeper into
this idea in different cultural and interpersonal contexts such as busi-
ness, sports, family, and education, at least in two different senses. It
has allowed us to identify three basic anthropological needs shared by
all human beings and which refer to autonomy, interrelation, and com-
petence. In this way, such theory has overcome other subjectivist ap-
proaches and unites the contributions of two disciplines traditionally
distant due to disagreement over what can be considered objective: psy-
chology and philosophy. Thus, at the same time, the reality of the ob-
jective implies a limit beyond oneself, a goal to be oriented toward that
implies ethical elements. Ethics is none other than the dam that allows
us to establish a limit and a direction for emotions and their manage-
ment.
Along with the emotional dimension of educational leadership, in
this chapter we have analysed the challenge of cultural diversity. Many
issues arise in this regard that cannot be fully addressed here, so we will
highlight two. Beyond the necessary respect that citizens of a demo-
cratic society must have for everyone’s right to choose their own cul-
ture, concern for the treatment of diversity in schools implies promot-
ing the idea that educational institutions have the responsibility to gen-
erate opportunities for their students to advance their social standing.
In other words, to open new and higher horizons in which individu-
als, regardless of their cultural background, have opportunities not only
to access greater levels of well-being and higher economic income than
their families of origin, but also to access life prospects in which they
could develop their full capabilities and providing meaningful purpose
to their existence. This implies perceiving society as an open space for
participation, in which the individual possesses the autonomy to inter-

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