| 1. |
- Grimm, Frida, 1978-
(författare)
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Ledarskap för lärares lärande : förstelärare som lärarledare
- 2023
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Today, new teacher leader functions are emerging in several parts of the world. Previous research has highlighted the potential of teacher leadership to enhance teacher learning, but also recorded resistance among teachers to being collectively led in efforts to improve teaching and learning. The aim of this thesis is to draw attention to, and contribute knowledge about, local school actors’ explicit and implicit teacher leadership constructions in schools. Three overarching research questions are addressed: 1) How is teacher leadership constructed in schools? 2) How do these constructions enhance and constrain possibilities to lead teacher learning? 3) How can visualising explicit and implicit teacher leadership practices contribute to learning about leadership for teacher learning?Spillane’s model of distributed leadership and Wenger’s theories of social learning are used to study, analyse, and create knowledge about teacher leadership constructions. Empirically, the thesis is based on material collected in two qualitative studies conducted in Swedish schools in 2019 and 2021/22. This included interviews (58) with visual material and video-observations (6) designed to capture relevant understandings and practices, both explicit and implicit. The results show that egalitarian and autonomous norms strongly influence teacher leadership constructions, while ‘first teachers’, whose roles are supposed to include leadership, are solely regarded as teachers, not leaders, with unrecognized functions and practices. The mainly acknowledging and facilitative teacher leader practices both enhance and constrain teachers’ learning. On one hand, teachers are encouraged to share ideas and try out alternative teaching methods, while on the other hand, current methods and perspectives on teaching and learning tend to be conserved rather than challenged. Supportive and acknowledging leadership practices therefore need to be combined with challenging of perspectives and a habit of inquiry. By visualising explicit and implicit understandings and teacher leadership practices, local school actors and researchers can gain new insights about ways to develop and improve teacher leadership to promote learning. Four conclusions are drawn: 1) Local school actors’ understandings of teacher leadership need to be nuanced, challenged, and developed. 2) Leaders for learning need to manage learning as both individual and collective, concrete and abstract, acknowledging and challenging. 3) Conscious choices and changes are needed at all organisational levels to utilise teacher leaders’ capacities. 4) Visualisation of, and reflection on, explicit and implicit understandings and practices contribute to more conscious choices and changes in leadership for learning.
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| 2. |
- Gunnulfsen, Ann Elisabeth, et al.
(författare)
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Principals' Roles in a Nordic Education Context : Shared Responsibility and Pedagogical Engagement
- 2023
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Ingår i: Education and Democracy in the Nordic Countries. - Cham : Springer. - 9783031331947 - 9783031331954 ; , s. 115-132
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The purpose of this paper is to examine and discuss the role of Nordic school principals in a cross-national context and to highlight the implications for the leadership roles in research and practice. The data builds on the country-wide reports in this book, the findings in the TALIS report (2018), and the perspectives of pedagogical leadership. The ways in which school leadership roles are perceived and dealt with are relatively similar across national school contexts. Nordic school principals seem to experience their practice with shared responsibilities, providing opportunities and educational engagement by acting as pedagogical leaders with a collective approach to their leadership role, even though there are differences in Nordic education policy contexts. Pedagogical leadership in a Nordic context means leadership tasks primarily related to curriculum, teaching activities, and the core values of schooling. Power, trust, control in the form of governance and leadership in the Nordic countries needs high attention.
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| 3. |
- Håkansson, Carita, et al.
(författare)
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Organizational and social work environment factors, occupational balance and no or negligible stress symptoms among Swedish principals : a cross-sectional study
- 2021
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Ingår i: BMC Public Health. - : BioMed Central. - 1471-2458. ; 21:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Few studies have assessed the mental health of principals, or studied associations with both organizational and social work environment factors and occupational balance. The purpose of the present study was therefore to investigate associations between supporting and demanding organizational and social work environment factors, occupational balance and stress symptoms in principals. Methods: A total of 4309 surveys (2316 from the first round, 1992 from the second round), representing 2781 Swedish principals who had responded to at least one of two surveys, were included in the present study. The surveys include questions about socio-demographic factors, occupational balance, overtime work, and supporting and demanding organizational and social work environment factors, as well as questions about personal stress and exhaustion. Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) models were used to specify a repeated measures model with a dichotomous outcome (binary logistic regression) and multiple independent factors. Data from two surveys were combined, taking into account dependent observations due to the fact that many study subjects had participated in both surveys. Results: Associations were found between occupational balance (Q1: OR 2.52, 95% CI 2.03–3.15; Q2: OR 4.95, 95% CI 3.86–6.35; Q3: OR 9.29, 95% CI 6.99–12.34), overtime work (Once a week: OR 1.51, 95% CI 1.10–2.08; Sometimes a week: OR 1.31, 95% CI 1.03–1.66), supportive private life (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.36–1.66), supportive colleagues at the leadership level (OR 1.24, 95% CI 1.14–1.36), supportive management (OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.07–1.28) and no or negligible stress symptoms. In addition, role demands (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.63–0.83), having a container function (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.64–0.82), collaboration with employees (OR 0.77, 95% CI 0.66–0.89), role conflicts (OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.66–0.89) and having a buffer function (OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.77–0.97) were associated with lower likelihood to rate no or negligible stress symptoms. Conclusions: The occupational balance of principals is strongly associated with no or negligible stress symptoms, and thus is a promising venue for promoting well-being. Improvements should be made to several factors in the organizational and social work environments to improve principals’ chances of having occupational balance, and therefore better mental health.
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| 4. |
- Larsson, Magnus, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Controversial issues for principals in Sweden : an exploratory approach
- 2023
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Ingår i: ECER 2023 Programme.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Controversial issues (CI) are a part of everyday life in schools’, inside and outside the classroom. How principals understand and manage these issues are therefore an interesting topic of inquiry. In this paper we set out to examine, from the theoretical standpoint of agency, principals understanding of what a CI is and how they can and cannot be managed. CIs has been a recurring topic in the educational literature for the last four decades (Hand & Levinson 2012; Anders & Shudak 2016) and in a globalised world characterized by polarisation and mediatisation the need for schools to handle CI has potentially become increasingly salient (Larsson & Lindström 2020). However, what is perceived as a controversial issue differs between contexts and can change rapidly.The primary focus in the literature concerning CIs is teachers and teaching situations. This paper takes another point of departure focusing on principals and how they understand and manage CIs. Even though CIs are present outside formal teaching situations at the school, research on principals’ understandings and management of CIs are scarce and seldomly explicitly addressed. In addition, international educational policy discussions have underscored the importance that principals (not just teachers) manage and develop strategies in relation to CIs (Council of Europe, 2017). The aim of this paper is to explore how principals understand and manage CIs, more specifically the following research questions are applied:What do school leaders understand as controversial issues in the Swedish education system?How and why do school leaders manage controversial issues in the Swedish education system?To categorize and analyse what principals understand as CIs (RQ1) the literature on what constitutes a CI is invoked. There is an ongoing debate on what criteria should be applied to deem something a CI (cf. Anders and Shudak, 2012). This debate differentiates between behavioural, political, epistemic, social, and theoretical criteria for defining an issue as controversial. However, this debate is primarily grounded in the question what teachers should (and should not) teach as a controversial issue which means that several of the criteria are unapplicable in principals professional practice. Based on the literature and the specific professional practice of principals’ we apply the following definition: a controversial issue is any issue that creates opposition or disputes at an organisational or societal level in schools and pre-schools.In order to analyse how principals manage CIs (RQ2) we build on Emirbayer and Miche’s (1998) conceptualisation of agency as well as Eteläpelto et al (2013) conceptualisation of professional agency. Emirbayer and Miche’s (1998, p. 953) argue that agency should be seen as ‘temporally embedded process of social engagement’ informed by and directed towards the past, future, and present. This is complemented by Eteläpelto et al’s (2013) understanding of professional agency, which is dependent on professional knowledge and competencies as well as specific conditions of the workplace. Taken together, we understand professional agency as a dynamic concept rooted in temporal dimensions that emerges in relation to socio-cultural conditions of the workplace and professional identity, knowledge, and experience.Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used: The empirical part of the study is made up of 29 interviews with principals in Sweden. In the selection process we elected a heterogenous sample aiming for maximal variation among the principals (Ritchie & Lewis, 2013). This process started with identifying central categories of principals to make sure that the sample would include principals in different contexts and with different prerequisites. This, in turn, allows our mapping of principals’ understanding of controversial issues to include several different points of view. The categories used in the selection process was: including both men and women (gender); principals working in schools from different education stages (education stage): whether the school was placed in a central or rural setting (city-countryside) and whether the principal was experienced or novel (professional experience).Since the research on principals understanding of CIs is limited, we elected an exploratory approach to make sure that we did not steer the principals’ understandings of what a CI is for a principal. However, to provide some sort of guidance we presented the respondents with the following generic definition of a CI in the beginning of all interviews: by controversial issues we mean issues that arouse strong feelings and/or divide opinion in schools, communities, and society. After the respondents was asked to give a brief professional background, the respondents were invited to bring up the most pressing controversial issue in their role as a principal. To each controversial issue a set of follow up questions were asked including: “why is this a controversial issue; who are involved; who are affected; how do you manage this issue?”. After the respondent had brought up their most pressing CIs questions intended to help to broaden the respondents’ perspective was applied. These questions entailed aspects such as: previously encountered controversial issues; controversial issues regarding teaching situations, norms and values, or connected to the larger society or the immediate community.To answer the first research question the answers from the respondents were categorised thematically. First, any issues brought up by the respondents that fell outside our broad definition of CI were sifted out. After that the controversial issues were thematically organised into specific topics (religion, sustainability, racism, LGBTQI etc) and types of controversial issue (social, political, behavioural etc.). To answer the second research question the respondents answers to how they handle and manage controversial issues were analysed through the concept of professional agency as depicted above.Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings: Preliminary results concerning the first research question show that themes concerning segregation, racism, LGBTQI and religion are recurring examples the principals give of CIs. Apparent difference can be found between the different categories of principals. For example, pre-school principals deal with CIs concerning the relation with parents claims to a larger extent than other principals. In addition, several issues brought up by the principals are not deemed controversial given the definition applied in this paper. The most salient of these issues are interpersonal issues between principals and teachers or other school staff. When these issues are not clearly connected to an organizational and/or a societal level they were not deemed a controversial issue.Preliminary results concerning the second research questions show that how principals relate to and understand social-temporal aspects of their professional work influences how they perceive the CI at hand and have consequences for how they manage the CI. For example, how the principal understands racial tensions at his or her school influences whether s/he manages the issue proactively or simply deals with the issue as it flares up. Even though this paper is a first step in mapping and understanding CIs for principals more research is needed to provide a better understanding of how principals understand and manages controversial issues.References: Anders, P. & Shudak. (2016) Criteria for Controversy: A Theoretic Approach. Thresholds in Education, 39(1), 20–30.Council of Europe (2017) Managing controversy – Developing a strategy for handling controversy and teaching controversial issues in schools. A self-reflection toll for school leaders and senior managers.Emirbayer, M. & Mische, A. (1998) What is agency? American journal of Sociology, 103, 962-1023.Eteläpelto, A., Vähäsantanen, K., Hökkä, P. and Susanna Paloniemi, S. (2013) What is agency? Conceptualizing professional agency at work, Educational Research Review, 10, 45-65.Hand, M. & Levinson, R. (2012) Discussing controversial issues in the classroom. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44(6), 614-629.Larsson, A. & Lindström, N. (2020) Controversial societal issues in education: Explorations of moral, critical and didactical implications. Acta Didactica Norden, 14(4), 1-6.Ritchie, J., Lewis, J., McNaughton Nicholls, C. and Ormston, R. (2013) Qualitative Research Practice: A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers. SAGE.
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| 5. |
- Larsson, Magnus, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Mapping controversial issues among Swedish principals
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Controversial issues (CI) are a recurring part of everyday life in schools’, inside and outside the classroom. How principals understand and manage these issues are therefore an interesting topic of inquiry. In this paper we set out to examine, from the theoretical standpoint of agency, principals understanding of what a CI is and how they can and cannot be managed. CI has been a recurring topic in the educational literature for the last four decades (Hand & Levinson 2012; Anders & Shudak 2016) and in a globalised world characterized by polarisation and mediatisation the need for schools to handle CI has potentially become increasingly salient (Larsson & Lindström 2020). However, what is perceived as a controversial issue differs between contexts and can change rapidly. In order to analyse how principals manage CI we build on Emirbayer and Miche’s (1998, p. 953) conceptualisation of agency. They argue that agency should be seen as ‘temporally embedded process of social engagement’ informed by and directed towards the past, future, and present.The primary focus in the literature concerning CI is teachers and teaching situations. This paper takes another point of departure focusing on principals’ and how they understand and manage CI. Even though CI are present outside formal teaching situations at the school, research on principals’ understandings and management of CI are scarce or lacking. In addition, international educational policy discussions have underscored the importance that principals manage and develop strategies in relation to CI. The aim of this paper is to explore how principals understand and manage CI.To be able to investigate how principals understand and manage CI a definition, sensitive to principals’ practice, must be put forward. Since this is lacking in the literature the first step is to provide a conceptualization of CI, based on the ongoing scientific debate, but from a principal’s perspective. The empirical part is made up of interviews with 29 principals in the Swedish education system, who are asked about what CI they are confronted with and how they manage these issues.The analysis was conducted in two steps. First, the CI articulated by the principals were thematically organized to provide an overview of what CI are prevalent. Second, the principals’ description of how they managed CI was analysed through the lens of Emirbayer and Misches (1998) depiction of agency. Preliminary results show that themes concerning segregation, racism, hbtqi and religion are recurring. In addition, how principals relate to and understand their past, future, and present with regards to the CI at hand have consequences for how they manage the CI.Anders, P. & Shudak, N. (2016) Criteria for Controversy: A Theoretic Approach. Thresholds in Education, 39(1), 20–30.Emirbayer, M. & Mische, A. (1998) What is agency? American journal of Sociology, 103, 962-1023.Hand, M. & Levinson, R. (2012) Discussing controversial issues in the classroom. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44(6), 614-629.Larsson, A. & Lindström, N. (2020) Controversial societal issues in education: Explorations of moral, critical and didactical implications. Acta Didactica Norden, 14(4), 1-6.
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| 6. |
- Leo, Ulf, Docent, universitetslektor, et al.
(författare)
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External expectations and well-being, fundamental and forgotten perspectives in school leadership : a study on new leadership roles, trust and accountability
- 2020
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Ingår i: Re-centering the critical potential of Nordic school leadership research. - Cham, Switzerland : Springer. - 2365-9548 .- 2365-9556. - 9783030550264 - 9783030550271 ; , s. 209-229
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, the authors argue that the link between expectations, health and well-being is a fundamental and often forgotten perspective in school leadership. The principals' work situations contain many possibilities that may evoke unclear, or negative outcome expectations, which may trigger the physiological stress response and associated feelings of stress and discomfort. These expectations are companioned with signs of an imbalance between personal resources and the challenges faced, preventing the principals from achieving their full potential for both their own benefit and that of the organization. A contributing factor to the orchestration of the principals' stressful expectations is the introduction of more layers of leadership. This has led to a clash between different forms of accountability; distrust and uncertainty about what mandate, responsibility and accountability the principals have in their schools and, in the process, created a feeling of inadequacy among the principals.The study is based on nine group interviews conducted in three cities. It seems like a healthy and well-functioning balance between different external expectations, challenges, resources, trust, control and different forms of accountability are health-promoting factors. Well-being will certainly be an important factor in recruiting new principals in the near future.
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| 7. |
- Leo, Ulf, Docent, universitetslektor
(författare)
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Förväntningar, ansvarighet och tillit som påverkar rektorer och rektorsprofessionen
- 2021
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Ingår i: Att jobba som rektor. - Lund : Studentlitteratur AB. - 9789144152103 ; , s. 285-296
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Rektorer känner ofta starka förväntningar på sig, och de har en särskilt komplex omvärld som påverkar deras yrkesroll. Det finns exempelvis starka förväntningar från stat och huvudman om att elevers resultat ska mätas och höjas, personalen vill ha goda arbetsförutsättningar och kontinuerligt stöd, och många vårdnadshavare har krav på specialinsatser för sina barn och en direktkontakt med rektor. Vissa förväntningar upplever rektorer som stimulerande och andra är belastande. En utgångspunkt i detta kapitel är att förväntningar är grundläggande fundament för den interaktion som sker mellan rektorer och andra aktörer, och att förväntningarna påverkar rektorers yrkesutövande. De upplevda förväntningarna spelar en stor roll inom ramen för det professionsattribut som kallas "erkännande av omvärlden" i denna antologi.Två andra grundläggande begrepp i kapitlet är ansvarighet och tillit. Förståelsen och tillämpningen av dessa begrepp har stor betydelse för ett annat professionsattribut, rektorers "autonomi". Autonomi är i detta sammanhang starkt knutet till rektorers yrkesmässiga handlingsutrymme där rektorers ansvarighet och relationer som kräver tillit både kan öka och minska rektorers autonomi.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Leo, Ulf, Docent, universitetslektor
(författare)
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Motstridiga förväntningar på rektor
- 2023. - 2
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Ingår i: Etiska perspektiv på skolledares arbete. - Lund : Studentlitteratur AB. - 9789144159935 ; , s. 167-181
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 10. |
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| 11. |
- Persson, Roger, et al.
(författare)
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Prevalence of exhaustion symptoms and associations with school level, length of work experience and gender: a nationwide cross-sectional study of Swedish principals
- 2021
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Ingår i: BMC Public Health. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2458. ; 21:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: While poor mental health and psychiatric disorders attributed to stressful work conditions are a public health concern in many countries, the health consequences of the occupational stress experienced by school principals is an understudied issue. Although current data is lacking, some research suggests that principals have a stressful work situation that eventually may lead to burnout and exhaustion disorder, thus negatively affecting the ability of principals to function as leaders. To gauge the situation in Sweden, and as a basis for future preventive actions, we examined to what extent principals displayed signs of exhaustion and whether the prevalence rates of exhaustion differed across school levels, length of work experience as a principal, and gender.METHODS: Principals (N = 2219; mean age 49 years [SD 7 years]; 78% women) working at least 50% in pre-schools, compulsory schools, upper secondary schools or adult education completed a cross-sectional web survey entailing two validated inventories: The Karolinska Exhaustion Disorder Scale (KEDS) and the Lund University Checklist for Incipient Exhaustion (LUCIE). Data was analysed using traditional non-parametric methods. Gender stratification achieved covariate balance when analysing school level and length of work experience.RESULTS: Altogether, 29.0% of the principals met the exhaustion criteria in KEDS. The prevalence rates for the four LUCIE-steps of increasing signs of exhaustion were: no signs of stress, 48.8%; weak signs of stress, 25.6%; clear signs of stress but no exhaustion, 15.4%; possible exhaustion disorder, 10.2%. Compared with male principals, female principals reported more signs of possible exhaustion disorder in both LUCIE and KEDS. School level was not associated with reports of exhaustion symptoms in neither LUCIE nor KEDS. Among male principals, length of work experience was associated with exhaustion symptoms in KEDS.CONCLUSIONS: A large group of Swedish principals working in pre-schools, compulsory schools, upper secondary schools or adult education displayed a symptomatology of signs of exhaustion that if sustained might lead to poor health. This observation suggests that education authorities, or other relevant stakeholders, ought to take some form of preventive action. However, effective combinations of individual, group, organisational, and/or societal preventive activities remain to be identified and tested.
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| 12. |
- Persson, Roger, et al.
(författare)
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Supportive and demanding managerial circumstances and associations with excellent workability: a cross-sectional study of Swedish school principals
- 2021
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Ingår i: BMC psychology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2050-7283. ; 9:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BackgroundThe leadership of principals is important for school, teacher and student related outcomes. To be capable of doing their work (i.e., having sufficient workability), school principals need proper organisational preconditions, motivation, and good health. It is therefore concerning that some studies suggest that principals have a work situation that risks taxing their health and reducing their workability. However, few studies have examined the psychosocial working conditions of principals and no study has gauged principals’ workability. Accordingly, we decided to examine Swedish principals’ workability and their perceptions of eight demanding and five supportive managerial circumstances as well as the associations between managerial circumstances and reports of excellent workability.MethodsThe participants comprised 2219 Swedish principals (78% women) who completed a cross-sectional web survey in 2018. A brief version of the Gothenburg Manager Stress Inventory (GMSI-Mini) gauged managerial circumstances. Workability was assessed with the workability score (0–10; WAS). Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression analyses were used to examine associations between managerial circumstances and reports of excellent workability (WAS ≥ 9). Covariates were: length of work experience as a principal, school level, self-rated health, and general self-efficacy.ResultsThe results showed that circa 30% of the principals reported excellent workability. The GMSI-Mini results showed that role conflicts, resource deficits, and having to harbour co-workers’ frustrations were the most frequently encountered managerial demands. Meanwhile, cooperating co-workers, supportive manager colleagues, and a supportive private life were the most supportive managerial circumstances. Adjusted logistic regression analyses showed that role conflicts and role demands were associated with an increased likelihood of reporting less than excellent workability. In contrast, supportive managerial colleagues, a supportive private life and supportive organisational structures were associated with an increased likelihood of reporting excellent workability.ConclusionCirca 30% of the participating principals perceived their workability to be excellent. Reducing role demands, clarifying the principals’ areas of responsibility and accountability in relation to other actors in the governing chain (role conflicts), striving for increased role clarity, and striving to find ways to separate work and private life, seem to be promising intervention areas if increasing principals’ workability is desired.
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| 13. |
- Poromaa Isling, Pär, PhD / Fil.dr, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring schools as controversial spaces : Variations in content and impact on leadership practices
- 2024
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Ingår i: NERA 2024. ; , s. 292-292
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research topic/aim: School is often described as mirror that in its pedagogical practice and content captures or reflects societal challenges and opportunities (Johansson, 2015). Therefore, societal questions aligned with tension usually find their way into the classroom and the discussions that take place here between teachers and pupils in teaching situations. In educational research these so-called controversial issues are a well-known field of study and have been so for several years (Larsson & Lindström, 2020). In this study we want to learn more about how school staff, and especially principals, handles issues that are seen as controversial in school.Our aim is to explore schools as sites for controversial spaces (CS) and we are interested to see what impact these have on school- and leadership practice. The main questions for this investigation are as follows: (1) What are the differences and similarities of CS depending on school context? (2) How does the content of CS influence leadership practices?Theoretical framework: Our study draws on the theoretical concept of controversial spaces to capture how different controversial issues affect principal's leadership (Rantala et al, in press). Methodological design: In total, a set of 26 in-depth, loosely structured interviews with principals in pre-school, primary school, and upper secondary school. The overarching theme of the interviews was the impact and consequences of controversial issues on leadership and school practice, and the collected data were subjected to a conventional content analysis (Hsieh and Shannon, 2005). Expected conclusions/findings: Preliminary findings suggest that schools’ controversial spaces are aligned with urgent or low-pressure content depending on schools’ socioeconomic composition. Principals in socially vulnerable areas deals with urgent controversial spaces exemplified through issues such as gang crime, drugs, racism. Hence, the space is filled with issues that demand a leadership that instantaneously takes actions. Here leadership must communicate and interact with actors outside of school, for example the police, social welfare, or the pupils’ guardians. In contrast, principals in well-situated school contexts act within controversial spaces constituted by issues that are less imperative, for example sustainability. Principals that lead in these schools tend to solve these issues in-house in communication with staff and pupils, hence the controversial space of school is primarily an internal affair. The possibility of agency (focused on students'/children's learning and teaching) for the principal thus differs depending on the context. The more social unrest, less room for principal to advocate their agency directed to pedagogical enhancement. Relevance to Nordic educational research: This study has relevance for contemporary Nordic educational research as it contributes with theoretical concepts to understand and analyze controversial issues that principals deal with in all Nordic countries.
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| 14. |
- Rantala, Anna, 1974-, et al.
(författare)
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Controversial issues in preschool principals’ leadership
- 2023
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Ingår i: ECER 2023 Programme.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper highlights the concept of controversial issues in preschool principals’ everyday practice. Controversial issues are something that teachers and principals have to address more frequently in schools and preschools in recent years (Council of Europe, 2017). One explanation for this development might be, according to the Council of Europe, that teachers and principals are working in a rapidly changing global environment. For instance, we have had a worldwide pandemic, conflicts in the surrounding world that increase migration, an ongoing climate crisis and a fast technological development that create insecurities. This development calls for a readiness capacity on the organizational level but also a leadership that is sensitive and able to identify controversial issues that arise in preschools today and tomorrow.When reviewing research on controversial issues in preschools and schools it is evident that the main focus is directed toward teachers and their practice, i. e. on how they teach in relation to topics that are perceived as controversial in an educational setting (see e.g. Bautista, isco & Quaye, 2018; Sætra, 2019). Further, research on how controversial issues are perceived and dealt with from a principal’s perspective is scarce. The concept of controversial issues is not easily defined and there is no uniform definition of the concept. In this study we use a definition that controversial issues are all issues that create tension or disputes on an organizational and/or societal level such as, for example, segregation, migration, equality, religion, sexuality and gender which may be difficult to know how to handle and/or respond to (Council of Europe, 2017).As described above, controversial issues are topics that is difficult to handle and sometimes there are no easy solutions or clear paths for the principal in order to deal with or in the process of deciding what to do. In other words, these issues could be described as professional dilemmas for the principals. A dilemma can be defined as a situation where values, obligations and/or commitments collide or conflict and there is, for the involved actors, no obvious right way to do or act (Honig, 1994, 1996). In order to describe and understand these professional dilemmas the concept of dilemmatic spaces is used. A dilemmic space can be understood as a landscape of interactions between different actors within a specific social setting and where frictions in relation to societal and professional norms and values manifest (Olsson, 2022). Through the concept of dilemmatic space, actors, norms, values and action patterns can be framed which can affect how principals are positioned or position themselves, which in turn affects their leadership practice. In this paper we understand the concept of dilemmatic space as being relational and dialectic (Fransson & Grannäs, 2013). This means that not only people are positioned based on their standpoints and their moral positioning but also in relation to various norms, values, patterns of action, decisions, rules, roles and functions are related and positioned in relation to each other, and these positions creates a space, an area where dilemmas might occur that principals have to deal with (Fransson, 2012; Fransson & Grannäs, 2013).The aim of this study, which has an exploratory point of departure, is to analyze the controversial issues and discuss in relation to dilemmatic spaces. This is done by focusing on which issues preschool principals experience and articulate as controversial in their practice. Further, why these issues are perceived as controversial and how the principals are affected by them and how they position themselves or become positioned and what space they can operate in when trying to deal with them.Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThis study is part of a larger project, CVIL (ControVersial Issues in Leadership), that aim to study controversial issues in Swedish (K-12) principals’ everyday practice. Within the project’s first stage 29 interviews with principals were conducted, seven of these were with preschool principals and are used as the data set in this paper. The interviews were semi-structured (Bryman 2012) and the principals within the study were from different contexts (in relation to socio economic context, rural/urban settings etc.). In addition, some of the interviewed principals had worked as leaders for some time and others were relatively new in their position. Five researchers, connected to the project, conducted semi-structured interviews. The two main questions in the interview guide were: Which controversial issues are most important to you right now as principal, and what are the controversial issues that you have had in the past?, Each main question was followed by probing questions such as: Why was it a controversial issue for you?, How did you handle this issue?, Who was involved?, Who was affected by it?. In what way, and so on, Each interview lasted between one to two hoursAll interviews have been recorded and transcribed verbatime. The data was analyzed using content analysis (Berg 2001, Creswell, 2007) with a focus to identify dilemmatic spaces in the light of the principals' perception of controversial issues.Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsOur preliminary analysis consists of four themes: controversial issues in relation to traditions, norms and values, laws and regulations and local political demands. The first theme, conflicting norms regarding traditions, highlights dilemmas derived from frictions on how to celebrate holidays at the preschools and if all children should or are allowed (by the parents) to participate in these celebrations. These dilemmas can be related to both religious and cultural traditions. The second theme, conflicting norms and values tend to be a theme which is made visible when the principals describe that ideological beliefs clash between teachers and parents regarding for example the preschool´s participation in activities to support everyone´s equal value such as participating in a pride festival. The third theme emerges when professional norms are challenged by laws and regulations or national or local goals and assignments. One of the principals describe that the Swedish National Agency for Education promotes concepts such as evidence-based education which this principal believes is not compatible with her view on how to teach children. The law that requires all abusive treatment between children to be reported is also triggering tensions, as principals believe that this law carries a risk of young children being labeled as victims or perpetrators. The fourth and final theme is when local political demands become a controversial issue for a principal. One example of this is a political initiative focusing a reading and writing guarantee for 5- and 6-year-old children which this principal think is an unreasonable demand on all children, and teachers. These results are discussed in relation to dilemmatic spaces that emerges and affects the principal’s need to position him or herself in favor of one side or somewhere in between, even if the principal wish to be able to take a different position.ReferencesBautista, N., Misco, T., & Quaye, S. J. (2018). Early childhood open-mindedness: An investigation into preservice teachers’ capacity to address controversial issues. Journal of Teacher Education, 69(2), 154-168. Berg, B.L., 2001. Qualitative research methods for the social sciences. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.Bryman, Alan (2012). Social research methods. 4. ed. Oxford: Oxford University PressCreswell, J.W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Fransson, G. (2012). Professionalisering eller deprofessionalisering? Positioneringar och samspel i ett dilemmatic space. I C. Gustafsson & G. Fransson (red.). Kvalificerad som lärare? Om professionell utveckling, mentorskap och bedömning med sikte på lärarlegitimation. Gävle University Press. Fransson, G., & Grannäs, J. (2013). Dilemmatic spaces in educational contexts–towards a conceptual framework for dilemmas in teachers work. Teachers and Teaching, 19(1), 4-17.Honig, B. (1993). Difference, Dilemmas, and the Politics of Home. Social Research. Vol. 61, no 3.Sætra, E. (2019). Teaching Controversial Issues: A Pragmatic View of the Criterion Debate. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 53(2), s. 323–339. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12361Wiman, Lena (2019). Att vara chef i förskolan - villkor, drivkrafter och uttryck. I K. Malmberg & A. Arnqvist (red.). Ledning i förskola - villkor och uttryck. Malmö: Gleerups.
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| 15. |
- Ärlestig, Helene, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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Sweden – Good Will on All Governance Levels Is Not Enough to Create Sustainable Improvement
- 2023
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Ingår i: Education and Democracy in the Nordic Countries. - Cham : Springer. - 9783031331947 - 9783031331954 ; , s. 75-87
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Sweden as in the other Nordic countries schools are an important part of how individuals as well as society develops. How schools are led and governed therefore affects all citizens. In this chapter we discuss principals’ positions, responsibility, and expectation within the Swedish governance system. The chapter and our conclusions rest on current Swedish research and policy documents. In Sweden external expectations, support, and control from national and municipality (school owner) level has an increasing impact on the local schools. Traditions, values, and reforms puts a focus on contemporary change processes. In turn, these contemporary change processes affect to a high extent principal’s role and tasks in the local schools and create an increasing heterogeneity in prerequisites, expectations, and results. There is a strong will and high ambition to improve schools for better results on all governance levels, ambitions that often ask for fast effect which has backsides such as concurring reforms and a high turnover among school leaders.
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