DEVELOPING EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM: ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDIES

The paper highlights the importance of developing educational leadership in the school system by analyzing the dynamics of decision-making processes in unforeseen situations, characterized by complexity and uncertainty. The study considers what happened in the emergency and post-emergency situation in order to reflect on the ways in which the various actors in the school system are involved in dealing with possible critical issues. A special focus is given to cooperative work, which allows to maintain an inclusive perspective with the aim to achieve a widespread well-being of the group. In this sense, it is necessary to analyze a context by using a multi-actor and multi-level perspective (Stufflebeam, 1971; Creemers & Kyriakides, 2008; Scheerens, 2018; Moretti, 2022). The paper presents the results of a research conducted in Italy, within the framework of the Second Level University Master's Program in Leadership and Management in Education, held at the Department of Education Sciences, Roma Tre University. The survey examined 8 case studies, which report the ways in which a problematic situation was addressed in specific school contexts. The cases refer to schools of different school levels and grades, located in different regions on the national territory. Each case was reported by the school headmaster and described and analyzed by a Master's student. The 8 cases were selected since they were emblematic of certain aspects which were considered strategic to analyze the educational leadership in the reference context. The analysis of the content of the case studies considers the following elements: the knowledge and description of the context; the type of problematic situations addressed; the reconstruction of the decision-making processes; the participation of the different organizational, social and territorial actors; the outcomes achieved at the micro and meso-system level. The research outcomes are intended to highlight the value of the case study and the multi-actor perspective as resources to develop awareness in the exercise of educational leadership in the school system.