Sweden, as well as in the other Nordic countries, has during recent decades been affected by the changes brought about in the wake of globalisation. In Sweden, a downward trend in students’ progress has been shown in international meta‐evaluations (PIRLS, PISA, and TIMSS), which is in line with all Nordic countries except Finland. This, in turn, has created a pressure for reform, which has placed great demands on schools’ capacities to improve their work. Today, school leaders struggle to build local improvement capacity among their teachers to put reforms into practice (Blossing et al., 2015). National policy states that Swedish principals should act as pedagogical leaders (Utbildningsdepartementet, 2011) with a focus on the national curriculum to increase teachers’ capacity in relation to teaching and learning and to create a learning environment (Bredeson and Johansson, 2000). The principal’s responsibility for proper school development has been strengthened in the new Education Act from 2010 compared to the previous one ( Jarl, 2013), and it clarifies the principal’s responsibility and authority. Still, both Swedish (e.g. Blossing and Ekholm, 2008; Larsson, 2004; Löwstedt et al., 2007) and international studies (e.g. Hargreaves and Fink, 2006; Lambert, 2007; Rosenholz, 1989) have highlighted difficulties in bringing about learning and sustainable school improvement in local schools. Swedish policy suggests that the principal's ability to act as a pedagogical leader needs to be improved in order to promote school improvement within the Swedish school system (SOU 2015: 22; SOU 2017: 35). This means that principals need to be strengthened in their role as pedagogical leaders and in their professional practice (Forssten Seiner, 2017). An increased complexity and profound changes in the principal's assignment since the 1990s has led to tensions between different interests when the principal is to translate the assignment into practice (Ekholm et al., 2000; Jarl, 2007). The principal is a municipal official but acts under the government as well as municipal government. The principal has both performance and business responsibility, which requires administrative and management skills, as well as management of the educational work and the employees. Previous research has shown that principals are in a tension between a government and a municipal task, between management and activities with pupils, teachers and other adults, this paper will focus on change and persistence, which poses a challenge for them to fulfill their mission (Jarl & Rönnberg, 2010; Nytell, 1994; Persson, Andersson & Lindström Nilsson, 2005).

Blossing, U., Nyen, T., Söderström, Å., & Tønder, A. H. (2015). Local drivers for improvement capacity: Six types of school organisations. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. Lundahl, L. (2005). A matter of self‐governance and control. The reconstruction of Swedish education policy 1980‐2003. European Education, 37(1), 10–25. Nihlfors, E., & Johansson, O. (2013). Rektor – en stark länk i styrningen av skolan [Principal ‐ a strong link in the governance of the school]. Stockholm, Sweden: SNS Förlag. Norberg, K. (2018): The Swedish national principal training programme: a programme in constant change, Journal of Educational Administration and History, DOI: 10.1080/00220620.2018.1513912 Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development. (2013). Leadership for the 21st century learning. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264205406‐en Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development. (2015). Improving schools in Sweden: An OECD perspective. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/education/school/Improving‐Schools‐in‐ Sweden.pdf Skolinspektionen. (2010). Rektors ledarskap. En granskning av hur rektor leder skolans arbete mot ökad måluppfyllelse [The principalʹs leadership. A review of how the principal leads the schoolʹs work towards increased goal fulfillment]. Stockholm, Sweden: Skolinspektionen.