La leadership mediale nel coordinamento dei servizi per l’infanzia

This paper offers a reflection on pedagogical coordination in early childhood education and care (ECEC) services, interpreted as a form of medial leadership. Through theoretical and comparative analysis, it highlights how this intermediate leadership operates across hierarchical levels, educational workgroups, families, the local community, and policy frameworks, emerging as a key element in promoting quality in 0–6 services. The medial nature of coordination is articulated in four dimensions: internal mediation among educational collectives; external mediation with families and the territory; temporal mediation between pedagogical tradition and evidence-based innovation; and institutional mediation between policy and practice. The article examines international models, the Italian context, and the challenges faced by pedagogical coordination within an integrated system aimed at ensuring educational quality. Furthermore, it emphasizes the political significance of the coordinator’s role in combating educational poverty. Finally, it outlines future research directions, focusing on the organizational configurations that shape this role’s effectiveness and recognition—still rarely explored in the literature.