International research has focused on changing the criteria for being considered a successful school leader. Principals' recent professionalisation project, accelerated through education within the framing of New Public Management, might engender a role in conflict with teacher roles and needs further focus. This empirical study approaches newly…

According to the Swedish Education Act, schools should support both students' knowledge development and personal development. Students' levels of knowledge are measured and compared through their examination results and formal grades as well as through international comparative studies and other tools. However, students' personal development is…

With the inclusion of school-age educare (SAEC) in the Swedish National curriculum in 2016, the principal's role now includes pedagogical leadership in SAEC. This study consists of reflection responses provided by twenty principals in the project "The Pedagogical task of School Age educare." Findings indicate that a minority of the…

Teachers' professional learning is closely connected to and dependent on different leading practices. Teachers professional learning is regarded as a key factor in successful school development, and development leaders at different levels are assigned to provide for and support such learning. However, the connection between leading and learning…

Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the school principal's role in promoting physical activity for inactive children in school settings. Design: Exploratory qualitative interview study. Setting: The study was conducted in seven elementary schools in central Sweden. Method: Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews with…

Feelings of shock, a difficult professional socialization process and unrealistic expectations create a challenging career entry phase for teachers. Too many newly qualified teachers feel stressed and leave the profession early, leading to a lingering teacher shortage. Much research in the field and many well-meant support interventions follow a…

This article presents a comparative interview study (N = 45) with Swedish and German special educators working in inclusive school settings in order to gain an understanding of how inclusive education is operationalized by the provision of special education needs (SEN) support; and how both aspects are conditioned by nation-specific…

In higher education, students' trust in the university management may affect both mental health and academic self-efficacy. This longitudinal study, conducted during the most challenging course of the COVID-19 pandemic, uses multinomial regression and causal inference to estimate the effects of students' trust in their universities' strategies for…

Principals in Sweden face leadership challenges as pedagogical leaders of School-age educare Centers (SAECs). This study examines how principals identify both professional development needs as well as challenges they face in supporting the SAEC teachers. The empirical data is based on reflections from 29 principals and vice-principals from four…

Background: Through their leadership, principals have an important, yet typically indirect, effect on pupils' learning. This article focuses attention on principals' influences on teaching and assessment in special education in Sweden: specifically, in special schools for pupils with intellectual disabilities (SID). Whilst SID principals are…

This article deepens the knowledge of practices within school cultures and their dynamics in relation to improvement work. It investigates: Which practices can be identified in school improvement among principals at upper secondary school level? How are these practices shaped? How do they promote or prevent the improvement work of the principals?…

The purpose of the study is to create a deeper understanding of teachers' sense-making of principals' leadership in the context of collaboration within and beyond school. Data were collected over three years, from semi- structured individual and group interviews with teachers, as well as a part of a teacher questionnaire. A qualitative content…

The aim of the article is to explore newly appointed principals' professional identity formation in Sweden. By addressing five specific aspects of principals' professional identity, the article analyses how principals depict their 'knowledge', 'understandings', 'experiences and wisdom', 'values' and 'beliefs' in forming a professional identity.…

Distributed leadership focuses on what teachers and school leaders do together, but also on how the situation mediates that interaction. This paper focuses on the importance and function of the situational dimension of practice. By framing situational aspects in terms of local educational infrastructure, it explores organizational components in…

The aim of this study is to explore the functions that professional networks could have as sense givers during the process in which professional support staff at higher education institutions make sense of their roles. The empirical data comprise interviews with three categories of support staff at three technical universities in Sweden and a…