Helene Ärlestig

Principals' Communication Inside Schools: A Contribution to School Improvement?

Abstract This paper reports on an empirical study of how structure, culture, and message content affected communications between principals and teachers in one Swedish school. The study revealed that communication within this school merely transmitted the information necessary for conducting daily work, which resulted in predictable behaviors, rather than stimulating learning and encouraging challenging dialogue about significant pedagogical and school improvement issues.

Successful school leadership in Sweden and the US: Contexts of social responsibility and individualism

Purpose – The purpose of this cross-cultural study of schools in Sweden and Texas is to examine the cultural contexts of schools in both settings, and the leadership role of principals in creating ...

A Decade of Research on School Principals : Cases from 24 Countries

This book provides a unique map of the focus and directions of contemporary research on school leadership since 2000 in 24 countries. Each of these directions has its own particular cultural, educa ...

Global conversations about social justice The Swedish−US example

This qualitative study investigated the social justice practices of four principals − two from the United States and two from Sweden. The purpose of the study was to enhance our understanding of school leaders’ actions as they work to promote socially just practices in different national contexts. Principals were interviewed to examine their perceptions of what social justice leaders do, how they make sense of social justice, what helps and hinders the work of social justice, and how they learned to become social justice leaders. Findings from the principals’ interviews are presented as a fictional conversation to illustrate similarities and points of departure in social justice practice between the two countries. Principals emphasized the proactive nature of social justice leadership, demonstrated through decision-making, strategic planning, and daily interactions. The importance of giving voice to those who cannot speak for themselves, holding high expectations for all students, and the importance of modeling positive values was underscored. Conclusions from this study illustrate that social justice leadership in practice, despite the national context, offers more commonalities than differences.

The Professionalisation of Nordic School Leadership

This chapter deals with the ongoing neoliberally influenced educational policy process and how this process affect the (re)professionalisation of school leadership in the Nordic countries. The neol ...

Swedish school leadership research : an important but neglected area

Sweden is a democratic country with an established welfare system prioritizing education. The overall standard is good, and both preschool and adult education have a good reputation around the world. In Sweden the school system is both centralized and decentralized. A growing amount of independent schools, low results in international comparisons, and other societal changes has lately led to intensive reform to raise schools’ academic results. Principals’ roles as strong pedagogical leaders are expected, but there is a debate about how such leadership should be executed in practice.

Classroom observations and supervision - essential dimensions of pedagogical leadership

Purpose– The main task of every school is to contribute to student learning and achievement. In the twenty-first century, national and international evaluations and comparisons have focussed on mea ...

International School Principal Research

This book aims to provide a map of the nature, purposes, directions and contexts in which school leadership research has taken place since 2000 in a number of culturally and educationally diverse contexts. The selection is deliberately cross-national, in different geographical regions and in jurisdictions which are illustrative of different political and social histories, stages of educational provision, policy development and priorities. This is important because, as readers will quickly observe, it is these broader political policy, provision and social contexts which are associated with both the orientations of researchers themselves, the volume and kinds of research which have been conducted in recent years (e.g. empirical/ideological/conceptual) and the in-country development of leadership research itself.