Session Information
26 SES 16 A, School Leadership Success amidst Contemporary Complexities and Layers of Influence on Education (Part 2)
Symposium continued from 26 SES 14 A
Contribution
In Italy, the creation of Comprehensive Institutes (CI) in 2002 has determined, for principals, high complexity in coordinating school contexts that could be very different from each other. This is the case of the CI 06 "Chievo-Bassona-Borgo Nuovo" in Verona (Italy), which merges one kindergarten, three primary schools and one junior secondary school spread over 10 km across three very different districts. Habitants in Chievo enjoy a comfortable standard of living in a residential district. In contrast, Borgo Nuovo constantly challenges by various waves of migration, social and economic disadvantage, unemployment and drug abuse. Bassona is instead characterised by a mix of migrant families living between farmland and an industrial zone, with an influx of middle-class families building new homes. The demographic characteristics of the territories inevitably influence the highly uneven composition of the populations of the schools included in the CI, which is expected to function as one. To cope with the complexities of individualised practices, lack of communication between and within each setting, no curriculum planning documents or processes, during the nine years of principalship, the principal worked in three directions: a) professional development for all in-service teachers to lift the quality of curriculum and pedagogy and to better understand their role in improving student engagement and wellbeing; b) enhancing internal and external communication and collaboration, to create various educational networks; c) effective administrative tools and processes to comply and work with the bureaucratic requirements and reforms mandated by the Ministry of Education.
References
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