Successful Swedish headmasters in tension fields and alliances

Persson, AndersHögskolan i Halmstad,Lund University,Lunds universitet,Utbildningsvetenskap,Institutionen för utbildningsvetenskap,Institutioner,Humanistiska och teologiska fakulteterna,Sociologi,Sociologiska institutionen,Samhällsvetenskapliga institutioner och centrumbildningar,Samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten,Educational Sciences,Department of Educational Sciences,Departments,Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology,Sociology,Department of Sociology,Departments of Administrative, Economic and Social Sciences,Faculty of Social Sciences,Centrum för samhällsanalys (CESAM) (author)

What makes a headmaster successful? And what does a successful headmaster do? This article presents some results from a research project – Successful school leadership in different school cultures – that aims to provide answers to these questions. The results derive from interviews, questionnaires, observations and pupils’ essays, and comprise the criteria by which different parties involved in schools assess the success of headmasters. As with other research in this field, this article establishes that headmasters find themselves in tension fields that are constituted by the varied interests of the different parties involved in schools. These relationships are analysed with regard to three tension fields that affect Swedish schools today: between employer and employees; between pupils and adults; and between change and continuity.However, the work lives of headmasters isn’t characterised by tensions only, but by Alliances as well. Hence, headmasters’ alliances with various other parties within the school are also analysed. These alliances are both a way of dealing with the tensions that headmasters meet on a daily basis, and a way of creating both success and a leadership based on the school culture. However, the general development trend that we find in Swedish schools, which lift the headmaster out of the school to become the last among superiors rather than the firstamong equals, constricts the latitude for more culture-specific school leadership.

Andersson, GunnarLund University,Lunds universitet,Utbildningsvetenskap,Institutionen för utbildningsvetenskap,Institutioner,Humanistiska och teologiska fakulteterna,Sociologi,Sociologiska institutionen,Samhällsvetenskapliga institutioner och centrumbildningar,Samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten,Educational Sciences,Department of Educational Sciences,Departments,Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology,Sociology,Department of Sociology,Departments of Administrative, Economic and Social Sciences,Faculty of Social Sciences,Lund University, Sweden(Swepub:lu)soc-gan (author)
Nilsson-Lindström, MargaretaLund University,Lunds universitet,Utbildningsvetenskap,Institutionen för utbildningsvetenskap,Institutioner,Humanistiska och teologiska fakulteterna,Sociologi,Sociologiska institutionen,Samhällsvetenskapliga institutioner och centrumbildningar,Samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten,Educational Sciences,Department of Educational Sciences,Departments,Joint Faculties of Humanities and Theology,Sociology,Department of Sociology,Departments of Administrative, Economic and Social Sciences,Faculty of Social Sciences,Lund University, Sweden(Swepub:lu)soc-mnl (author)
UtbildningsvetenskapInstitutionen för utbildningsvetenskap (creator_code:org_t)

In:International Journal of Leadership in EducationLondon : Informa UK Limited8:1 (January-March 2005), s. 53-721360-31241464-5092

By the author/editor: Persson, Anders; Andersson, Gunna ...; Nilsson-Lindströ ...

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