Il Dirigente scolastico italiano e la governance: principi guida, identità professionale e attività

This research is aimed to analyse the changing role of school heads in Italy – first by analysing the scientific state of the art, and later via an on-line survey. The first section analyzes organizational processes, theoretical paradigms and organizational models applied to school systems, as the “model” of school head in Italy according to scientific and grey literature. The second section describe and analyse empirical data based on an original national survey carried out in 2017-2018, with a focus on school heads’ living and working conditions in Italy. Data were also compared with other surveys, especially one held ten years before. This study was aimed to revise the profile of school head emerging from the sociological literature, and to disentangle organizational changes and related school policy in the last decade – as they have affected school head’s role, management styles and skills. This research also aims for identifying effective governance models for the school of the future, with a focus on participation, sustainability, active citizenship, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In this respect, the analysis of survey data focussed on three dimensions of school head’s experience: professional identity, social identity and personal identity. The aim was to relate identity factors with managerial practices, and their change in time – including the transformation of leadership approaches. Finally, concluding remarks maintain that participatory governance and decision making-processes, under school head’s leadership, are focal to innovate schools the organizational culture. Nevertheless, actual leadership approaches and their outcome in practice may vary considerably.