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.

This book can be regarded as a follow up to the series of Springer-editions about the Nordic perspectives on studies in educational leadership. Lejf Moos is a prominent forerunner with the first “Nordic” edition of Transnational Influences on Values and Practices in Nordic Educational Leadership: Is there a Nordic Model? published 10 years ago. In his edition, Moos (2013) stated that the Nordic countries are similar in many respects. The similarities are expressed through their differences from the UK and USA, where democratic thinking is built upon so-called liberal democracy, which values the idea that the purpose of society is to advantage the individual in her/his development (Louis, 2003). In contrast, Nordic social democracies focus on the welfare state perspective of social rights and equality (Andersen et al. 2007), a unified society where democracy and social welfare systems build on the necessity of a strong state that is willing and able to redistribute some of the wealth. This is combined with ideas of free speech and participation where citizens in a society are expected to participate in conversations on matters of mutual interest as a mean to strengthen all individual’s rights and well-being. This current book aimed to examine perspectives of contemporary school leadership practices and thinking based on the premise that schools play a vital role in forming societies. Moreover, the purpose of this book is to address and discuss principal prerequisites and work within democratic welfare states in Nordic countries.

The corona pandemic is a new social crisis that is sparsely researched, and different perspectives on the corona virus are needed. This article helps to deepen the knowledge of children’s expression of the corona virus. It highlights staff’s descriptions of children’s expressions regarding the coronavirus outbreak in Finland and Sweden in early childhood education contexts in March 2020. The empirical material consists of 79 questionnaires from early childhood education staff. The concepts participation and resilience have been used as theoretical background and these are discussed in the article. The analysis highlights four different forms of participation in relation to the outbreak of the virus. The article contributes to putting children’s participation in relation to a social crisis like the corona pandemic and shows a multifaceted participation. This can have implications both on attitudes and working methods in relation to crises.

From the 1930s to 1980s, Swedish education was generally governed much in the same way as the rest of the social democratic welfare state. Policy was to be formulated at the national level through negotiation between leading politicians and representatives of major organised interests, implemented by neutral, rule-following civil servants and carried out by local authorities and professionals in the municipalities. In stark contrast, the past few decades have seen Sweden gain a reputation for having one of the most decentralised educational systems in the world, as decision-making powers previously held by the national parliament have been generously transferred to local authorities, quasi-markets, school leaders and other actors. At the same time, however, the state has not so much vanished as it has taken up a new set of core activities: centralised quality control through statutory regulations, oversight and sanctions. In this chapter, we document these changes and consider how the dual focus on centralisation and decentralisation has impacted on Swedish education. First, we provide an overview of the formal governing structure at the local level, focusing on how authority previously held by the state has been delegated to municipalities and independent schools. Second, we examine some of the new steering mechanisms enacted at the national level to control the performance of local actors. Third, we consider the role of educational leadership in the current system. This chapter concludes by assessing the implications of the reforms for the distribution of power between the state, the municipalities and the schools.

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.

Principals' responsibilities for quality in schools and preschools have, during recent years, been accentuated in Sweden. The Swedish Education Act of 2010 can be interpreted as an attempt to improve the orientation and effectiveness of teaching in schools, as it states that education should be based mainly on research and proven experience. The purpose of this chapter is to illuminate how principals understand and relate to the Education Act of 2010. The empirical foundation of the chapter consists of examining policy documents and two surveys sent to principals and heads of preschools. The findings reveal that the principals show different understandings of the term research basis. Three significant areas of manifestations emerged from the data: keeping up to date with new knowledge, building a scientific culture, and practicing research-based knowledge. However, a challenge for principals is to foster a critical evaluative approach to research.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to uncover the meaning of entrepreneurship in schools and a school leadership which aims to nurture an entrepreneurial attitude. The authors will also discuss what challenges there could be for principals to lead activities to develop an entrepreneurial attitude to learning and teaching.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper integrates policy documents and scientific material concerning entrepreneurial attitude, leadership and school culture.

Findings – In Sweden as well as internationally there are clear policy intentions for renewal of schoolwork in a more entrepreneurial direction. The most striking challenges for principals are to be enough creative within the boarders set by school authorities when setting vision and goals for the development of their schools to enhance an entrepreneurial attitude, building trust and distributing power among staff, along with having courage to think outside “the box”.

Research limitations/implications – The point of departure is entrepreneurial attitude in education as understood in a Swedish context. International policies as well as research are discussed.

Practical implications – The paper illuminates strategic ways of thinking and acting according to leadership in an entrepreneurial learning school context.

Originality/value – The role of principals as well as the significance of culture in a school context focused on developing an entrepreneurial attitude is quite often discussed in research. School differs from business in that there are more restrictions set by school authorities. The paper shows an undeveloped area which can be useful to identify and problematize challenges for leadership.

Begreppen struktur, kultur och ledarskap bildar tillsammans ett skarpt verktyg i analysen av en skolas förmåga att uppnå sina mål. Denna tes har varit vägledande i ett forskningsprojekt som författarna bedrivit, och som 2011 resulterade i en bok med titeln: Struktur, kultur, ledarskap – förutsättningar för framgångsrika skolor. Föreliggande bok fördjupar våra kunskaper om vad som kännetecknar framgångsrika skolor, och ska ses som en vidareutveckling av resultaten från 2011.

I denna andra bok diskuteras: hur rektorer förstår sambandet mellan struktur och kultur; förståelsen av skolan som organisation; pedagogiskt ledarskap; rektors förändringsledarskap; ­modeller för rektors beslutsfattande; lärares olika identiteter som påverkar hur skolans kultur konstrueras och dess mål ­prioriteras; rektors balans mellan etik,ansvar och auktoritet; skolans mångkulturalitet; samt rektorers syn på mobbning och forskningen om mobbning.

Framgångsrika skolor diskuterar en mängd spännande områden av betydelse för ­rektors ledarskap och ger en ökad förståelse av skolan ur ett organisatoriskt helhetsperspektiv.Boken är lämplig som kurs­litteratur på skolledarutbildningar samt inom lärarutbildningen, men passar även utmärkt som fortbildningslitteratur för verksamma skolledare och lärare.

Over the past three decades, the forces of globalisation – economic, political and cultural – have significantly affected institutions and people across the world: altering in some ways the very terrain of public and private life. Public education has in no small way been challenged by new realities and new demands in an increasingly interdependent yet competitive world environment. School principals are uniquely positioned as formal leaders of diverse and complex educational systems to mediate the often times opposing forces of globalisation and localism with their communities. This article examines school leaders’ understanding of their work and their work role priorities, especially with regard to teaching and learning, within a policy environment characterised by increasingly convergent policy and leadership discourse. Two major questions are addressed, theoretically and empirically: in what ways do school principals in Sweden, which has strong democratic traditions, address the tension between localism and national interests and the press for conformity to new global imperatives and demands; and to what degree, if any, has globalisation created a new hegemony in school leadership? It is concluded that school principals in Sweden respond to questions about their schools without any reference to new global imperatives and demands. Their attention was generally related to national demands. Also, we see no clear evidence that globalisation has created a new hegemony in school leadership in Sweden.

Begreppen struktur, kultur och ledarskap bildar tillsammans ett skarpt verktyg i analysen av en skolas förmåga att uppnå sina mål. Denna tes har varit vägledande i ett forskningsprojekt som författarna bedrivit, och som 2011 resulterade i en bok med titeln: Struktur, kultur, ledarskap – förutsättningar för framgångsrika skolor. Föreliggande bok fördjupar våra kunskaper om vad som kännetecknar framgångsrika skolor, och ska ses som en vidareutveckling av resultaten från 2011.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of a follow-up study of two Swedish schools in which, five years previously, the principals had been successful leaders. Had this success been maintained?

Design/methodology/approach – Two schools were revisited to enable the authors to interview principals and teachers as well as conducting observations of the schools in operation.

Findings – The identification of sustained leadership success was compromised because the original principals were no longer at the schools, their replacements had also left and their (“third generation”) replacements had just arrived. Strong teacher teams had served to maintain school standards.

Originality/value – The paper adds to the literature on the vital role of the principal in determining a school’s success and also points to the value of strong, cohesive teacher teams.

Over the past three decades, the forces of globalisation – economic, political and cultural – have significantly affected institutions and people across the world: altering in some ways the very terrain of public and private life. Public education has in no small way been challenged by new realities and new demands in an increasingly interdependent yet competitive world environment. School principals are uniquely positioned as formal leaders of diverse and complex educational systems to mediate the often times opposing forces of globalisation and localism with their communities. This article examines school leaders’ understanding of their work and their work role priorities, especially with regard to teaching and learning, within a policy environment characterised by increasingly convergent policy and leadership discourse. Two major questions are addressed, theoretically and empirically: in what ways do school principals in Sweden, which has strong democratic traditions, address the tension between localism and national interests and the press for conformity to new global imperatives and demands; and to what degree, if any, has globalisation created a new hegemony in school leadership? It is concluded that school principals in Sweden respond to questions about their schools without any reference to new global imperatives and demands. Their attention was generally related to national demands. Also, we see no clear evidence that globalisation has created a new hegemony in school leadership in Sweden.

This study is a case study conducted over 6 years. In the first round of visits to schools 6 years ago, in the ISSPP context (Höög et al. J Educ Adm 43(6): 595–606, 2005), we found two very self-confident and successful principals who had created, over the last 3–4 years, very successful schools out of schools in challenging situations. Their students had started to produce good marks over the national average.

We went back to the schools in 2008/2009 and found that the successful principals were not there any more but the schools were still producing good student outcomes with mean grades over the national average.

Strong teacher teams in both schools had kept the good connection to the local society and the parents of the children. Their definition of a successful school was in line with the parents’ ideas and was based on the slogan “good is good enough.”

The second principal in one school had already left and the principal in the other was about to leave. They both had not been able to get connected to and inspire the teacher teams to improve their work. Their leadership style deviated from a leadership based on trust, dialogue, and collaboration and they both decided to leave their position. The third principal at the River school struggled to keep the school on a good academic level, despite the decreasing numbers of students, and in his vision he said that he will strive to increase the outcomes.

In 2010, the two schools still present good results over the national average and also better than expected, considering the socioeconomic background of students. Again, this was possible not only because of qualified teachers and support from the local community but also a strengthened focus on outcomes on behalf of the principals. They both strived to develop new structures for the division of labor among the teachers. Due to decreasing student numbers this has to be done, but a complementing reason is to create a more result-oriented school organization. There was a lot of opposition against those plans; so, a leadership combining structural and cultural changes based on a developed dialog both on a group and on an individual level was required. In all though, the prognosis for the new principals seem to be good and even better student performance could be expected over the coming years.

This chapter examines the leadership development of principals /head teachers in England, Sweden and the United States with a particular focus on organizational learning and capacity building in leadership preparation programs. The authors note that leadership preparation varies across the three countries, with the longest history of formal training in the United States. At the same time, several similarities and trends in organizational learning preparation and professional development exist. Further, this chapter considers how these various elements of leadership preparation could be employed to better prepare aspiring and current principals to successfully lead organizational learning and capacity building in their schools. The chapter concludes with three recommendations regarding (1) candidate selection, (2) curricula design and (3) professional and social support that could enhance school leadership preparation and subsequent on-the-job performance.

The rationale behind the theme is that in most countries, there are mission statements in different laws and policy documents that describe the purpose of schools. Most of those statements contain two goals; passing on knowledge from one generation to the next and the upbringing of good and harmonious citizens who shall be able to take over and continue to develop the world's democratic societies. If it is decided to believe that the policy makers want to have democratic schools that foster the next generation, the style of leadership used in schools has to be reviewed. A question seldom asked is: What kind of leaders can be models for the goals and democratic values decided and what kind of training do they need? This special issue of Journal of Educational Administration presents a set of articles which explore this theme.

Kapitlet inleds med en genomgång av rektorsbegreppet. Därefter redogörs för hur rektors roll och funktion har utvecklats sedan mitten på 1950-talet. Den avslutande delen behandlar skolledarutbildningen från 1970-talet och fram till dagens utbildning - Rektorsprogrammmet.