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Failing to recognize the role of leaders in quality and equitable schooling is unfortunate and must be redressed. Leadership is fundamentally about organized agency and collective vision, not managerialism, since it is an organizational quality, not merely a positionality attribute. Most important, if change is to be systemic and transformative, it cannot occur uniquely at the individual teachers' level. School organization is fundamental to circulating and consolidating new innovative actions, cognitive schemes, and behaviors in coherent collective practices. This article engages with the relevance of governance patterns, school organization, and wider cultural and pedagogical factors that shape various leadership configurations. It formulates several assumptions that clarify the importance of leadership in any organized change. The way teachers act and represent their reality is strongly influenced by the architecture of their organization, while their ability to act with agency is directly linked to the existence of flat or prominent hierarchies, both potentially problematic for deep and systemic change. A hierarchical imposition from above as well as a lack of leadership vision in fragmented school cultures cannot determine any transformation.

Progressivist approaches to teaching and learning are rare in the Italian school system. Equality of inputs, whole class teaching and curriculum transmission are preferred. However, the case of a vocational education and training (VET) programme, run by a private State-recognised school, shows a way forward to introduce personalised approaches in school systems characterised by formalist pedagogies. Constructivist teaching and personalised education are not, as a rule, promoted by teachers at the classroom level, due to a complexity of structural and organisational reasons that this paper will present. The difficult task of supporting fragile pupils who have experienced failure within the State school system is addressed by tutors-educators operating at the school and individual levels. We show how tutors' relational professionalism and their role of care are valuable instructional and educational resources. The data reported are based on direct observations, semi-structured interviews, and follow-up focus groups with key actors in the field. This theory-testing case study shows how a formalist culture has evolved into a student-centred organisational model. The 'affective' aspect of justice in schools represents a way forward to facilitate radical innovation in formalist cultures, in order to adapt teaching and learning to all students.

This paper presents a case study of a local school network in England that is well established as a provider of initial teacher education (ITE). School networks are now the favoured providers of ITE in England in a 'school-led' system. Our evidence comes from participant observation and interviews conducted over a five-month period (more than 400 h of data collection). We present evidence of the strategic intent and enactment of this programme. The policy of 'school-led' ITE has been directed by statements suggesting that governance will operate through local networks. However, we also observe the impact of hierarchical and market governance. We review this evidence in terms of interactions between hierarchies, markets and networks and use this review to reflect on the discourse that has driven policy and the discourse that has resisted this policy direction in England.

This article engages with the influence of Soviet educational models and Western European contacts, mediated by historical institutional and cultural legacies in producing specifically Eastern educational variants. A first level of analysis will identify the reasons behind the emergence of these variations. A second and higher level of analysis will question the use of global models in the modernisation processes. The Soviet influence in education is conceptualised as initially both an imperialist force and a voluntary borrowing, followed by internationalisation with local adaptation. It cannot be conceived of as a coherent model. In fact, Soviet education was transformed over time and incorporated both Western and elitist elements. Nevertheless, a historical and comparative analysis indicates that, while not divergent on educational grounds, the Soviet and the Western European educational patterns at times intermingled. These countries looked increasingly to the West in search of models and to reposition themselves in the global arena.

In a rapidly changing world, students' success depends upon the schools' capacity to deal with their specific instructional needs. Thus, effective teaching plays the role of a unique protective factor that may reduce and even close the achievement gap. Two broad questions structure this study: What is the research contribution to teacher quality and improvement? What elements of teacher quality support school improvement? As one driver of school improvement, teacher quality is especially pertinent for underperforming students, while school improvement is much more likely to emerge through collective capacity building. More specifically, I will argue that research-derived knowledge is key to ensuring both effective learning processes and whole school improvement.

In the current context of intensified moves towards educational deregulation, the configuration of the Italian middle school and its relationship to education governance is an interesting case. Historically, it represents a unique example of the successful "decision-making" model of the welfarist era. Despite some internal constraints, at the end of the 1970s it was considered a progressive model of schooling for its time. At present, however, internal institutional processes and path-dependencies have rendered its comprehensiveness relatively formalised and weak. A key finding of this article is that ideas, such as the "two people" theory, have played a crucial role in shaping actors' strategies and goals, while references to world models, in particular the English model, have mediated the reception of global policies. Cultural factors, such as the role played by families, are deeply linked to structural issues and inequalities. An ethnographic account depicts a welfarist institution whose internal processes and links to the wider society may be seen as an example of Italian modernity that "speaks for itself". Fieldwork clarifies the role of the teachers in mediating a path-dependent and cultural reproduction pattern. I argue that partial deregulation is a major source of inequalities at the middle school level, engendered by both new and old mechanisms, which further intensifies a selective path in education. This analysis will show how global deregulation trends meet local and enduring path-dependencies.

The premise of this article is that unbalanced versions of inclusion politics are usually at work in European contexts. Some inclusion patterns may be more relevant for certain aspects or levels of the education system or various models may be applied to specific ethnic groups. A necessary balancing approach is discussed in this article, drawing on examples from Italy and Romania. In this article, I will engage with the profile of the inclusion politics of education in two European contexts, at different levels and regarding various arenas: nationally relevant policy documents issued by the Ministries of Education in both countries, consolidated configurations of school practices and specific provisions, the profile of the inclusion message as presented in some school textbooks and teachers' guides. I will argue that at national policy level, both countries are difference recognition oriented, although for different rationales and following different patterns. At a lower level, a plurality of unbalanced and differently focused versions of inclusion politics inside national contexts, frequently as one-dimensional provisions, may be noticed. Yet, a more "balanced" policy may still not be sufficient in itself. It may be, in fact, a matter of specific solutions as correcting the status quo in particular contexts and of multidimensional as substantial multicultural education to be taken on seriously in practice.

This article proposes a brief investigation of Italian interculturalism(s) as documented by scholarship, relevant policy documents and teaching textbooks, and presents some key practical issues relating to the integration of students of immigrant origin. The authors then analyse the 2008 "White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue"'s core concepts and their possible illumination of Italian educational discourses and practices. The authors' analysis of different versions of Italian interculturalism(s) confirms the prominence of culture as its main pillar, while the issue of equity and equality is clearly neglected. The argument here is that a balanced conception of interculturalism, which recognises the "second pillar" of equity, may prove to be a clearer message for teachers and practitioners. An equity-focused interculturalism will also fully acknowledge the right to education in all its practical forms. In addition, a policy of recognition based on both culture and class dimensions would prove more coherent and efficient in strengthening processes of integration. (Contains 6 notes.)

Educational study is always a matter of choice between different theoretical paradigms, however, it also runs the risk of taking a dichotomized and ideological stance. Comparative education is an emblematic case in point, especially the excessively ideologized versions of comparative thinking inspired by the cold war. The choice to interpret citizenship and education through the lens of such concepts as myth, rhetoric, and ideology is not to promote a particular worldview in a dichotomized and ideological sense, nor to reveal "negative" or dysfunctional issues. On the contrary, the concepts of myth, rhetoric, and ideology provide a more appropriate framework and theoretical approach to enable one to highlight important aspects of the realities under investigation. Such an "eschatological search," however, must not be viewed as an exclusive trait of these contexts, even though the intensity of social tensions and the dissolution of traditional identities make it more evident. The author first discusses a conceptual framework of myth, rhetoric, and ideology and then applies it to Eastern citizenship and education. These concepts are addressed in three sections dedicated to different historical phases: (1) presocialist; (2) socialist; and (3) postsocialist. (Contains 8 notes.)