The relevance of institution leaders’ personal qualities for providing quality education is widely recognized. The purpose of this paper is to explore vocational education and training (VET) institution leaders’ character features. The research question was twofold: What are the features of the character of the pedagogical leaders of three Latvian VET institutions according to students, teachers and institution board members? What are the differences between respondents’ groups regarding their perceptions of leaders’ virtues?,Six members of the institution board, five teachers and six students participated in structured qualitative interviews collected in 2013 in three high-quality VET institutions from different fields (tourism, sports and maritime education). Secondary analysis of latent content was used to explore respondents’ perceptions of leaders’ virtues, using software AQUAD 7 for qualitative data analysis.,The results revealed significant differences between students’ and staff (teachers’ and institution board members’) perceptions: the staff members appreciated particularly leaders’ performance virtues (“teamwork orientation”) and intellectual virtues (“critical thinking”), whereas, for students, heads’ moral virtues were more relevant, especially “magnanimity”. Respondents also showed concern about VET institution leaders’ civic virtues (“neighborliness,” “community awareness,” and “communicability”).,The results suggest that different perspectives, and in particular students’ voices, should be integrated in VET leaders’ assessment process and that their continuing professional development should also address their intellectual, moral and civic virtues.,This study represents an innovative methodological trial for investigating educational institution heads’ leadership from the lens of virtue ethics.

中文翻译：

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学生和员工对职业教育机构负责人美德的看法

机构领导者个人素质与提供优质教育的相关性已得到广泛认可。本文旨在探讨职业教育与培训（VET）机构领导者的人格特征。研究问题是双重的：根据学生，教师和机构董事会成员的情况，三个拉​​脱维亚职业教育与培训机构的教学领导者的性格特征是什么？受访者群体对领导者美德的看法有何不同？，机构委员会的六名成员，五名教师和六名学生参加了2013年在来自不同领域（旅游，体育和航海教育）。通过使用AQUAD 7软件进行定性数据分析，通过对潜在内容的二次分析来探索受访者对领导者美德的看法。结果表明，学生和员工（教师和机构董事会成员）的看法之间存在显着差异：成员们特别赞赏领导者的表现美德（“团队合作取向”）和智力上的美德（“批判性思维”），而对于学生来说，校长的道德美德更为相关，尤其是“宽宏大量”。受访者还对职业教育与培训机构领导者的公民美德（“邻里”，“社区意识”和“沟通能力”）表示关注。结果表明，不同的观点，尤其是学生的声音，