Conceptualising school leadership: an exploratory case study of principals’ and teachers’ perspectives in Italy and Ireland

Over the past two decades, research has increasingly recognised the pivotal role of school leadership in fostering educational improvement and school effectiveness. Numerous studies highlight the positive influence of principals on teachers’ practices and students’ outcomes. However, a key gap remains: the absence of a unified framework for interpreting school leadership, partly due to divergent policy and cultural perspectives. This article addresses this gap by examining school leadership in Italian and Irish post-primary education. Using an exploratory comparative case study, framed within the idiographic paradigm and informed by the process-oriented comparative case study approach, the study draws on qualitative interviews with principals and teachers. Focusing on instructional, distributed, and transformational leadership, it integrates participants’ understanding of how effective leadership is conceptualised and enacted across diverse educational contexts.