School Autonomy and Leadership Issues in Italy

The presentation deals with the changes introduced in the Italian education system after the School Autonomy reforms of 1997 and their interplay with the formation of the new head teacher. Looking at the complex interplay between global influences and processes of local inflection, the work explores the degree to which we are witnessing a significant shift towards a new mode of governance and the interplay between governance changes, shifts in the mechanisms of control and the shaping of professional subjectivity. The presentation highlights two main ‘paradoxes’ that cross-cut the political project of reforming education in Italy: (1) the coexistence of an attempt to introduce decentralized forms of governance and empower self-regulating actors with the tightening of hierarchical ties; (2) the simultaneous request to fulfil new managerialist accountability demands and continue to deal with hierarchical forms of control.