As in many other countries Swedish school leaders have diverse expectations from various levels and actors to make schools successful (Ärlestig, Day, Johansson, 2017; Parshiardis & Johansson, 2016). The educational act states the principal’s responsibility to work towards national policy, equity and school improvement. At the same time, New Public Management has contributed with higher degree of national control and demands to show short time effect in raising student’s achievement (Hall, 2016; Ozga, Dahler-Larsen, Segerholm & Simola, 2011). This has in turn created a higher turnover on principal positions, a growing number of leaders both above and beneath the principal. These recent developments lead to increased hierarchical structures and accountability in the school system and there is a call for establishing more trust among leaders on various levels. OECD has strong views on the Swedish educational system and a national delegation suggest radical reforms (SOU 2017:35), that currently have no political support. A new curriculum for the national principal training program and a campaign where the school leader union present a professionalization declaration try to strengthen the principal mandate and courage. This is partly a reaction on principals becoming more passive during the last decade at the same time as the lack of licensed teachers is increasing. There are clear signs that even if the policy rhetoric supports principals and local schools, power has moved upwards to the district and national levels. Findings in the Swedish country report shows that expectations and values underpinning principals’ role and work are time and context dependent (see also Dimmock & Walker, 2004; Uljens et al.,2013). Working for equity and school improvement requires both stability and change and skills in systems thinking in the school organizations can help leaders to work for a more sustainable learning environment (Arnold and Wade, 2017; Shaked & Schecter, 2017) and reinforce their power.

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