| 1. |
- Ahlström, Björn, 1972-, et al.
(author)
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Leadership in low- and underperforming schools : two contrasting Scandinavian cases
- 2024
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In: International Journal of Leadership in Education. - : Routledge. - 1360-3124 .- 1464-5092. ; 27:1, s. 157-178
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper, we investigate how professional cultures and situated, material and external contexts relate to dynamic low- and underperforming schools in Scandinavia, particularly how the leadership is constructed through the leader, the followers and the situation. The first school studied was a low-performing school in Norway called ‘Toppen’, which has shown improved student outcomes. The other school, Seaside, is a Swedish school that is considered underperforming because student outcomes are lower than expected based on the contextual prerequisites. Our results show that Toppen can be described as a turnaround school and Seaside can be described as a cruising school. Analysis reveals that, at Toppen, the principal has been developing a culture that can be described in terms of community and motivation. At Seaside, on the other hand, the culture can be described in terms of individuality and conservatism. From this analysis, we can detect how different contexts impact two low- and underperforming schools and how they are affected by different prerequisites linked to the situated, material, external and professional contexts. However, the development of a collective professional culture with a shared sense of commitment seems to be an important tool to plan and communicate organizational improvement strategies.
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| 2. |
- Döös, Marianne, et al.
(author)
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The shared principalship : invitation at the top
- 2018
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In: International Journal of Leadership in Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1360-3124 .- 1464-5092. ; 21:3, s. 344-362
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A school principal’s workload is recognised as being heavy, with an imbalance between demands and resources. This paper contributes to the development of collective leadership. The principalship constellations of six schools in Sweden were studied with the aim of strengthening the current knowledge about structures and experiences of shared principalship. The empirical basis is qualitative data from interviews with principals and vice-principals. The analytical focus was on how the sharing structures were organised and how the shared principalship was experienced. The results point to a considerable variation in the organisational structures of shared principalship. Despite the type of model, form and constellation, the principals and vice-principals voiced a striking sense of relief in not feeling alone in their duties, as problems and troubles became manageable. An intensified interaction level in the principalship constellation created opportunities to develop competence. Theoretically, this study broadens the invited leadership concept to include horizontal invitations across unit boundaries between principals in different units within the same school. The knowledge contribution of this study is useful in discussing the legal possibilities for shared principalship, which may be especially relevant in times when the Swedish school system is being criticised for not delivering good student outcomes.
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| 3. |
- Gu, Qing, et al.
(author)
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Sustaining school performance: School contexts matter
- 2013
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In: International Journal of Leadership in Education. - : Routledge. - 1360-3124 .- 1464-5092. ; 16:3, s. 301-326
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Drawing upon empirical data from a pan-Europe wide study on successful school leadership in challenging circumstances, the paper discusses an analytical model designed as a framework of analysis to investigate the dynamic relationships between challenges in schools internal and external contexts and how leadership interventions mediate these and transform the nature of their influences on school improvement over time. Illustrative narratives of one English school and one Swedish school are used to show that the nature and intensity of challenges embedded in apparently similar school contexts vary across different school improvement phases. The analytical model connects the interactions between different dimensions of school contexts with the dynamic (and sometimes unstable) change and development of school performance.
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| 4. |
- Hellström, Lisa, 1979-, et al.
(author)
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School effectiveness in Sweden : psychometric properties of an instrument to measure pedagogical and social climate (PESOC) focusing on pedagogical leadership
- 2021
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In: International Journal of Leadership in Education. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1360-3124 .- 1464-5092. ; 24:6, s. 855-875
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Improving school effectiveness is a priority for many countries. The Swedish instrument Pedagogical and Social Climate in School (PESOC) has been widely used for measurement of school improvement. Since pedagogical leadership is an important component of school effectiveness, this study aimed to describe the psychometric properties of the PESOC subscale of pedagogical leadership (PESOC-PLP). Participants were 344 teachers from 30 schools in Karlstad, Sweden. Rasch analysis indicated two subdimensions of the scale, corresponding to academic and social objectives. Analysis showed that the instrument worked invariantly across different sub groups and that the response categories functioned as intended. Small, if any, within-school response dependence was noted. PESOC-PLP may be a useful tool for school leaders when evaluating their success in fulfilling academic and social objectives. Given the global demand for measurement of school leadership, also researchers and educators outside Sweden may have interest in translating and adapting the PESOC-PLP scale. © 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Jerdborg, Stina, 1972
(author)
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Educating school leaders: engaging in diverse orientations to leadership practice
- 2022
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In: International Journal of Leadership in Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1360-3124 .- 1464-5092. ; 25:2, s. 287-309
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- As school leadership has increased in complexity, policy makers, educationalists, and researchers have realized that principalship requires preparation. However, several researchers have called for a better understanding of how school leadership education affects the learning and activities of principals. This empirical study explores how novice principals in Sweden understand and engage in principal training and investigates their formation of identity in the interaction between school leader education and professional practice. Observations, individual interviews, and focus group interviews revealed three learner identities and a corresponding typology. In addition, this study found that professional identity enables or restricts the way practice is experienced because principals engage in diverse leadership practices. These findings are discussed in relation to former research on learner identities, leadership learning, and novice principals. This study concludes that it is crucial not only to emphasize a program design but also focus on the participants in leadership education, especially their orientations and understandings of education and practice.
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| 7. |
- Liljenberg, Mette, 1975, et al.
(author)
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Novice principals’ attitudes toward support in their leadership
- 2020
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In: International Journal of Leadership in Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1360-3124 .- 1464-5092. ; 23:5, s. 567-584
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Novice principals experience intense work situations and various solutions have been suggested to handle them. This paper explores western Swedish novice principals’ attitudes toward support in their leadership. Specific questions addressed are whether the principals believe that two approaches, the so-called heroic and distributed approaches, could improve their job satisfaction, pedagogical leadership and relationships within their schools. The research provides novel contributions as it combines a scenario-based experiment with follow-up interviews to provide new insights regarding school leadership. The results clearly demonstrate that novice principals experience intense working situations. Moreover, they show that the principals significantly favor the heroic leadership approach for promoting job satisfaction and facilitating relational aspects of their work. However, for mitigating the loneliness associated with a leadership role, the principals significantly favor the distributed leadership approach. Thus, the results raise questions about previous suggestions that distributed leadership is a panacea for principals’ intense work situations.
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| 8. |
- Liljenberg, Mette, 1975, et al.
(author)
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Organisational routines for school improvement: exploring the link between ostensive and performative aspects
- 2018
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In: International Journal of Leadership in Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1360-3124 .- 1464-5092. ; 21:6, s. 690-704
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article explores organisational routines introduced in schools and preschools in a Swedish municipality and analyses the relationship between ostensive and performative aspects of improvement work. We take our theoretical point of departure in organisational psychology and an organisation development (OD) perspective by integrating the coupling mechanisms of decoupling, assimilation and accommodation to former research. The analysis shows that the ostensive and performative aspects of organisational routines must be closely connected if improvement initiatives are to impact daily practice. For this to happen, leaders of improvement work must design and operate development programmes that go beyond decoupling by also enabling assimilation and at least partial accommodation. The findings from this study provide a theoretical contribution to understanding the relationship between ostensive and performative aspects of organisational routines; in other words, the ways in which organisational routines play out in practice.
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| 9. |
- Lund, Sandra
(author)
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The geographic periphery as architecture for leadership practice with Swedish primary school principals : a peripatetic leading practice
- 2022
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In: International Journal of Leadership in Education. - : Routledge. - 1360-3124 .- 1464-5092.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper aims to report a study that develops knowledge of the geographic periphery as architecture for leadership practices by principals in small primary schools with no more than four teachers. The geographic periphery has different prerequisites from geographic centers. Sweden is a rural country that also has large cities which attract people for economic and social reasons. There is limited research on the nature of school leadership in rural contexts. This paper addresses these limitations through an ethnographic study, with participatory observations in village schools and a follow-up conversation with principals and teachers. The main findings illuminate place as a physical as well as discursive and social dimension. The rural leadership practices considered peripatetic differ in Sweden, and internal and external recruitment is of importance for leadership practice. To organize and ensure equality in education, more knowledge of rural education is needed.
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| 10. |
- Merchant, Betty, et al.
(author)
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Welcome and välkommen : School Administrators in the U.S. and Sweden Responds to Unexpected Numbers of Refugees in their Rural Communities
- 2020
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In: International Journal of Leadership in Education. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 1360-3124 .- 1464-5092. ; 3:1, s. 41-56
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This exploratory, comparative study focuses on the leadership challenges encountered by American and Swedish school superintendents in communities that experienced an unexpected increase in the number of refugees being placed their towns. We focused the study on two small communities in northern Sweden and two communities in northern Vermont. Our study draws on social ecological systems theory to examine the responses of school superintendents to the arrival of refugee students and the extent to which the local, state/regional, and national contexts in which they worked facilitated or hindered their ability to respond to these needs. The majority of the data collection for this study was done in 2017 and 2018 and included personal interviews, on-site observations, and document analysis. The refugee students’ lives in both Sweden and Vermont were characterized by numerous systems and subsystems, and all four superintendents sought to create linkages between and among these systems, believing that the smaller sizes of their districts made this easier to accomplish. They faced many challenges in their efforts to respond to the needs of refugee students, and the alignment or misalignment of policies at the local, state/regional, and national levels played a significant role in enhancing or constraining their success.
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