Educational Management and Academic Leadership as Drivers of Living Education in Ibero-American University Contexts

This chapter explores how educational management and academic leadership function as drivers of “living education” within Ibero-American universities. Living education is un-derstood as a situated pedagogical framework, grounded in critical and decolonial pers-pectives, that links institutional structures with practices of innovation and social en-gagement. The study employs a comparative documentary design across six countries—Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Spain, Portugal, and Ecuador—analyzing regulatory frameworks, quality assurance processes, and emerging pedagogical approaches. The chapter is orga-nized into: an introduction to the concept of living education, conceptual framework, met-hodology, national overviews, a transversal synthesis of key dimensions (governance, fa-culty development, curriculum, quality, equity, digitalization, and SDGs), and theoretical discussion. The main objective is to provide a comprehensive and systematized view of how living education is being shaped within different higher education systems across Ibero-America.