Training emotion on line. The formation of Italian School Leader

The paper examines the ‘formation’ of the “new” head teachers in Italy after the introduction of the school autonomy reform. In particular, it presents the findings of a research on the educational leaders training courses (every two years from 2000 to 2006) to explore the space given within them to the issue of emotions (Harris, 2007; Mayer, 2000, Schneider, Burton, 2008). Emotions are defined as elements that mould the knowledge process contributing to create the selfness, the otherness and the situation (McCarthy, 1992). This process influences the social actors’ formation as any other socio-cultural elements. The provision of a wide array of knowledge, skill and competences is the main challenge to cope with in planning and organizing educational leaders’ training courses. Assigning the right weight and worth both to the common “rational” aspect, and the “emotional” traits could be considered as a crucial point (Blackmore, 2004; Crawford, 2006; Fineman, 2000, Harris, 2007). “Discourses” (Ball, 2006; Serpieri, 2009) are used as interpretative tools in order to present, discuss and take account of the bureaucratic, professional, managerial and democratic pressures on educational leadership and to check whether and how emotional traits are intertwined of the cognitive frames, norms and values enacted by designers and implementers of the training courses. The paper concludes by suggesting that the difference in the range and weigh dedicated to emotions depend strictly on contents’ affiliation to a bureaucratic discourse rather than to a professional, managerialist or democratic one. Further how the emotions are interpreted within each discourse is shown. The training course analysed took place in 2004. 2199 new principals, who had won an official competition, were trained. The training was articulated in 160 hours of classroom and on line training, and 80 hours of apprenticeship. The research is focused on the on line content for two reasons. Firstly, to conclude successfully the training course principals had to acquire a relevant amount of credits studying on line contents (papers, references, in-depth examination cards), doing exercises (web-quest, problem solving, case studies), participating to discussion forum. Secondly, in so far the main research question is to explore emotional contents transfer, it is very important to focus on the on line practices. Literature, indeed, (McFarlane, Bradburn, McMahon, 2003) shows how widely e-learning could be applied successfully to gain technical knowledge and skill, whereas at the same time it is lacking adequacy for developing interpersonal competencies and skill. The research develops in two steps: 1) the analysis of the Italian educational policy context read through “discourses”; 2) the in-depth analysis of the school leader training courses contents. Data collection is based on official documents (laws, assessment report, etc.), and interviews to the actors involved in the formation process (designers, promoters, trainers, tutor, principals). Data are analyzed using the Grounded Theory (Glaser, Strauss, 1967). Using Grounded Theory it was possible to re-classify every learning object identifying its affiliation to a specific discourse, or to a “discourses’ mix”. After this step, in order to answer research questions about emotional range and relevance, we tried to elicit implicit or explicit emotional dimensions. The research shows a strict relation between emotional references and the managerialist discourse. It is possible to conclude, in fact, that the learning materials which represent the most part of training courses for Italian school leaders privilege a certain kind of emotional competencies like conflict management, assertive communication and empowerment of people. Indeed headteachers as managers and promoters of effectiveness and efficiency in a managerialist perspective are requested to manage emotions in order to exploit and develop professional resources.