Definitions and strategic dimensions of school management: Systematic literature review

Abstract

School management has increasingly been conceptualized as a multidimensional and strategic process that extends beyond administrative coordination to encompass pedagogical leadership, participation, and organizational sustainability. Despite the growing volume of research, the field still lacks conceptual convergence regarding its definitions and strategic dimensions, limiting theoretical accumulation and coherent policy and practice development. This study aims to analyze recent trends in the definitions and strategic dimensions of school management and to identify dominant, emerging, and tension-laden conceptual patterns in the literature published between 2021 and 2025. A systematic literature review of a conceptual–narrative nature was conducted following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Searches were performed in Scopus, Web of Science, and ProQuest, restricted to the title field to ensure high conceptual relevance. From an initial corpus of 233 records, 39 studies met the inclusion criteria and were subjected to thematic coding, narrative synthesis, and complementary bibliometric analysis. The findings reveal a clear shift toward integrative definitions of school management that combine instructional leadership, participatory governance, and teacher well-being. Rather than representing competing paradigms, accountability-oriented and human-centered approaches coexist in hybrid configurations characterized by persistent structural tensions, particularly between bureaucratic control and professional autonomy. Six interdependent strategic dimensions were identified, with educational leadership, teacher development, and well-being emerging as central mediating mechanisms linking management practices to educational quality, equity, and sustainability. Bibliometric patterns further indicate epistemic diversification and contextual reinterpretation of management theories, especially in non-central regions, rather than linear theoretical consolidation. Overall, the study contributes to conceptual clarification by synthesizing fragmented definitions into an integrative framework and by modeling school management as a context-sensitive and relational system. These findings highlight the need for future research to adopt longitudinal, mixed-methods, and contextually grounded approaches to better understand how strategic dimensions interact across diverse educational settings.