Analysis of the real activity of school principals in Morocco: A case study of four primary schools in the Rahmna region

School principals play a key role in improving student outcomes by mobilizing the school community, fostering teacher motivation and capacity, and influencing the climate and work environment [1,2,3,4]. While the role of principals is crucial, their duties have evolved, and they face increased complexity and demands [5]. Therefore, there is a need to rethink initial training to increase their level of preparation. However, it is not possible to talk about a training program without a minimum analysis of the tasks it involves and the actual activities that characterize it [6]. This research proposes to analyse in detail and in depth the real activity of a sample of four Moroccan primary school principals and to collect, in an ethnographic approach, information on their work and on their school results and academic success. We will work with school principals from the region of Rhamna, who have been in their position for less than three years and who were randomly selected among the respondents to a previous national quantitative survey. We will analyse the actual practices and tasks of the principals based on self-confrontation interviews conducted activity traces (anthropological approach) but also based on 360 videos recorded during the main working sessions between each principal and other actors of the school community. In the field of school administration studies in Morocco (and in Africa), there is no experience with this relatively recent perspective. Thus, we hope that the results of this research will contribute to the construction of a theoretical and methodological framework, which will subsequently become a potential reference for the design of a training program for school principals.