Teachers’ informal leadership for equity in France and Italy during the first wave of the education emergency

Abstract

ABSTRACT During the education emergency, teachers’ leadership was indicative of their capacity to stay resilient and innovative in a changed educational environment. This study analyses their capacity to act as leaders and to promote equity in relation to the specific aspects of the French and Italian school systems. A pool of 16 interviews constitutes a unique case study of teacher leadership for equity under similar contextual conditions. Teacher leadership encountered very similar limitations in both countries. The education emergency per se represented an opportunity for some teachers to explore innovative equitable approaches, different from their actual practices and pedagogical cultures, as well as more professional dialogue. The margins for empowerment proved to be both of an instructional and of a transformative type. In particular, in systems with weak senior leadership and flat organisational structures, the margins for empowerment are at the classroom level. In such cases, a certain amount of collaboration and, quite often, hidden pedagogical innovation occurs in schools where school leadership and the wider organisational culture may offer some support. In fact, informal leadership is most often facilitated by certain conditions in terms of resources, school leadership and professional cultures.