Abstract:

The paper highlights the strategic value of exercising distributed educational leadership in school contexts, with particular attention to the role of school principals in the development and coordination of middle management in Italy. The study acknowledges that educational leadership can help improve educational practice in increasingly complex and dynamic school contexts, especially when it is learning-oriented and supported by an authentic collaborative culture. From this perspective, the contribution presents the findings of a research project conducted at the Department of Education of Roma Tre University (Italy), within the framework of the Second-Level University Master’s Programme in “Leadership and Management in Education.”

The aim of the research is to investigate the decision-making dynamics and negotiation practices that accompany the process of identifying individuals for middle management roles, and to examine the development of this important function (Harris, 2014; Gronn, 2020). The research group analyzed 152 case studies conducted by the Master’s Programme’s students during their internship period at public schools of different levels. In particular, a qualitative analysis was conducted on 10 case studies through a diachronic, multi-actor, and multi-level approach (Stufflebeam, 1971; Scheerens, 2018; Moretti, 2022). The content analysis of the case studies focused on the following aspects: the organizational configuration of the examined school contexts; the characteristics of the critical or transformative situations addressed; the modalities of negotiation and distribution of decision-making responsibilities; the processes of coordination and professional dialogue among organizational actors; and the interactions with any social and territorial stakeholders. The research made it possible to understand how school principals, vice-principals, middle leaders, and teachers address issues such as internal conflicts, resistance to change, unbalanced workloads, low levels of participation in decision-making processes, and challenges in establishing working groups.

The findings show that practices of distributed educational leadership, which are grounded in trust, mediation, transparency, and the valorization of internal expertise, can foster organizational well-being and the development of a positive collaborative culture. Conversely, insufficient development of middle management, combined with limited decision-sharing and a lack of recognition for intermediate roles, contributes to generating tensions, demotivation, and inefficiencies.

Keywords:

School leadership, distributed educational leadership, middle management, collaborative culture, case studies.