ABSTRACT
In this chapter the future school perspectives are examined first of all, illustrating a series of studies that identify possible scenarios. The first identifies six, the second four, the third investigates the impact of new digital technologies; the fourth explores the conditions of scholastic change in the current socio-economic and cultural context. Answers are given to questions such as: Will the existing bureaucratic model be extended? Will schools continue to do as they have always done, according to top-down models? Or will the state withdraw from the management of the school, creating the conditions for a school immersed in the market model, innovative and dynamic, but exclusionary and unequal? Or will the school strengthen its role in close collaboration with the social community, focusing on learning, experimentation and innovation? Or, again, will we have the disappearance of schools, replaced by learning networks of students, parents or professionals? The school is then analyzed as a complex system, contextualizing the study within the research fields known as School Effectiveness and School Improvement. Finally, the regulatory context of school autonomy is briefly described, within which the processes of change from the bottom up can be activated which give rise to self-organization.
