Abstract

Since the mid-1990s, the Italian schooling system has been the object of wideranging reforms, a central feature of which has been the recognition of schooling institutions as legal entities and the conferral of autonomy in several fields, including teaching, organization, and research. Within a context of heightened accountability, the educational system's effectiveness now depends increasingly upon school administrators' organizational and management skills and their leadership ability. On the basis of the TALIS, Teaching and Learning International Survey conducted by the OECD, this article attempts to provide a thorough description of the tasks carried out by Italian lower secondary school administrators and to identify the relationships linking leadership styles (in both its teaching and administrative components), administrators' individual characteristics and characteristics of their schools. The text also compares administrators' views with those of the teachers who work in their schools.