Governance, School Networks and Democratic Discourse. Issues of Equity and Diversity

The Italian educational system has seen the creation of new policies and significant changes in the actors' roles, within the framework of a weakly implemented decentralisation since 1997. This scenario is investigated through an analysis of conflicting discourses (bureaucratism, professionalism, managerialism and the democratic-critical) that are shaping the “trans-formation” of these actors. Discourses are, in fact, used as heuristic devices in order to examine real people and institutions acting out their renewed roles. While on one hand the objective of the paper is to outline the struggle between the four discourses in educational policy in Italy, on the other, the paper deals with a case study regarding the implementation of policies of governance fostering the institutionalization of school networks in rich- and poor-partnership areas (and then creating diversity) in Italy. The paper shows how difficult learning practices and contexts inspired by the democratic-critical discourse are and how they make diversity consistent with equity. In this respect, school heads are requested to act out leadership competences in order to create common meanings, share resources and reduce the gap between rich- and poor- partnership areas as well as between “good” and “bad” schools.