What are school leaders in Italy doing? An observational study

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that high-quality leadership is one of the main ingredients of successful schools and that leaders have a significant and positive impact on student outcomes. At the same time, little is known about how principals use their time, what they do on a day-to-day basis and how this may vary across schools. A review of the relevant literature shows that few studies have used qualitative methods as their sole form of data collection. The paper draws on data derived from a comprehensive study involving principals, other school leaders and teachers in the Italian northern region of Trento. It focuses on observation studies of eight principals over five consecutive days each. Whilst respecting the best-known ethnographic and observational studies conducted internationally, we have built a new observational classification tool which explored the work of the principals under different categories/activities. This study shows that in spite of working in a highly-centralised and prescribed context, the Italian principals carried out various acts of leadership in the way they engaged with the different categories of their work. The findings provide evidence that expresses similarities across the eight principals and unique ways of how they were leading their schools.

Inclusive Leadership and Education Quality: Adaptation and Validation of the Questionnaire “Inclusive Leadership in Schools” (LEI-Q) to the Italian Context

“…Those responsible for providing the diagnosis of the student's psycho-physical condition--functional potential, needs, professional assistance, and materials required for their complete development--are, in Spain, the Educational and Psychological Orientation Teams, and in Italy, the teams from their local health authority units (AUSL). In Italy, the education system has traditionally been highly centralized and bureaucratic, and the role of the management team varies considerably due to the effect of school autonomy [17][18][19]. The team takes a strategic role in the exercise of management activities, direction and promotion of the innovations stipulated by Law 107 of 2015 by listening to students, families and the community, thus implementing the concept of school leadership that looks at inclusion.…”

How Principals Use a New Accountability System to Promote Change in Teacher Practices: Evidence From Italy

“…The consequence is that the staff has decreased by almost 25%, the number of schools led by temporarily assigned principals has increased, and schools have grown in size (OECD, 2013). In everyday life, administrative tasks have ended up absorbing most of the time and the intellectual energies of school principals, with increased responsibilities related to the issues of workplace safety and a higher number of court litigations (Bezzina, Paletta, & Alimehmeti, 2017). In addition, a recruitment system focused on theoretical knowledge that does not require practical experience in educational leadership and, more generally, a relatively flat organizational structure in Italian schools that does not support the principal with a middle management level, have contributed to creating an unbalanced professional profile of the Italian principal, focused on bureaucratic and administrative tasks (Paletta & Bezzina, 2016).…”

The Predictive Effect of Teachers’ Perception of School Principals’ Motivating Language on Teachers’ Self-Efficacy via a Cultural Context

“…Through effective interactions with school principals who use ML, teachers can better internalise the goals of the school and sustainable education policies. Indeed, the main element of 'the school principal's work is primarily verbal communication that is both interpersonal and informational' [72] (p. 858). If school leaders regularly adopt ML, they may even enhance teachers' commitment to the teaching profession.…”