As one of the few countries in Europe, Switzerland only introduced formal principalship at the turn of the millennium in schools. Since then, school leaders have taken on a prominent role in the operation of the school as many aspects of school operation and development formally fall within their area of responsibility. However, despite this importance, research on school leadership in Switzerland is only emerging (Huber, 2016). It is often regionally limited (see for example Tulowitzki & Progin, 2021; e.g. Windlinger, 2021). Additionally, the Swiss context itself is multicultural with three major linguistic regions. There is a lack of studies that encompass two or more language regions within a coherent design. Finally, educational leadership research often focuses on the formal position of the school leader. A distributed perspective on educational leadership (Spillane et al., 2009) that focuses on leadership actions in schools as interactions has so far rarely been used. In that vein, there is a lack of research that takes (formal) school leaders as well as informal leaders and/or teacher leaders into account, although there are clear indications for the Swiss context that other persons besides the school leader can also play a significant role in the leadership and design of schools (Strauss & Anderegg, 2020). Finally, a lot of the existing educational leadership research in Switzerland but also in the international realm can be characterized as rather limited when it comes to the number of approaches and methods, with questionnaires and/or interviews being dominant methods of data collection (Berkovich & Eyal, 2017; Jackson, 2019; Thomson, 2017).

This contribution aims to address some of the research gaps previously mentioned by examining leadership in schools in more detail, as an interaction, across formal and non-formal agents and in situ. The following questions are central: Who exercises leadership in schools? Which topics are negotiated? What resources are mobilized for this purpose? How can the professional relationship structures be characterized in which such actions are embedded?

A distributed leadership perspective (Spillane & Mertz, 2015) serves as a theoretical lens for our research. It is complemented by the work of Piot and Kelchtermans (2014) on conceptualizations of educational leadership: Based on a review of the literature on so-called “focused” (leader-centric) and “distributed” approaches to leadership, Piot and Kelchtermans (2014) came to the conclusion that a significant number of existing studies from Western countries neglected to properly address the rapports leaders held to holding leadership positions and/or exerting influence. Consequently, we have chosen to pay attention to meanings and conceptualizations associated with exercising influence or holding power. We do so by exploring the relationships of individuals towards leadership as well as towards power in their anthropological dimensions, as well as the relationship to themselves, to others and to the world. This seems especially relevant given the Swiss context where notions of democracy and participation are deeply integrated into the culture and notions of hierarchical power are rarely made explicit in the context of school leadership (Perrenoud & Tulowitzki, 2021).

The first step consisted of reviewing existing educational leadership research making use of shadowing type approaches. We therefore first analyzed observational studies in the field of educational leadership in order to better understand advantages and limits of such approaches (Progin & Tulowitzki, 2021). Next, methodological reflections from the existing studies were used to develop a framework and observational guide for the present study. These documents provide guidance and contain information regarding what to observe, the manner in which to conduct observations, how and when to communicate as well as how to record observational data. Similarly to the various protocols established in the context of the International Successful School Principals Project (ISSPP, Gunnulfsen et al., 2021), the framework and observation guide ensure a degree of coherence across the two different cantons with their different languages and different governance structures. The documents constitute a first result of the work of the project as well as a methodological underpinning. For the current first phase of the project, data will be collected in four primary schools in the cantons of Vaud and Aargau by means of extensive shadowing-type observations, interviews and document analyses. Each school will be visited for a four-week period. In total, 16 weeks’ worth of observation protocols will be collected, and 32 interviews will be conducted. 16 of those will be with formal and informal leaders and 16 of those will be conducted with teacher staff that (seemingly) is not exercising leadership. Major interview themes will revolve around the school climate, the professional self-image, the distribution of tasks and responsibilities, the rapport to leadership, authority, and power. Each week of observation will be accompanied by a “quick memo” in which the researcher will record and interpret first findings. At the end of each four-week visit, the researcher will write a more systematic and more extensive “analytic memo”. In line with an approach based on grounded theory, data collection at schools and reflection (analysis and theory building) take place in constant alternation (Glaser & Strauss, 2010). Observational and interview data will be transcribed, then analyzed in iterative passes, allowing for theories to emerge and to be reflected and scrutinized over the duration of the different waves of data collection (and analysis) in the project.

One result, the synthesis of research, highlights the potential but also constraints of observational-type research approaches. The analysis showed that the volume of data collected is often considered a challenge when it comes to analyzing it in a robust manner. Additionally, observational research tends to have scalability issues. In cases of multiple observers observing different cases, there can be issues of inter-observer reliability. Additionally, data collection for the afore-mentioned first phase of the project is currently underway and is scheduled to conclude in May 2021 with data analysis taking place immediately thereafter. We therefore expect to be able to present a rich description of the distribution of leadership in schools, including a first comparative view between cases in the different cantons. Preliminary exchanges with schools have highlighted certain themes that will be explored further during the school visits, for example “doing leadership” but not linking them to leadership but pedagogical domains. The project is relevant in two respects: So far, there is no research project in Switzerland that considers the leadership actions of school leaders and teachers equally. In addition, cases in German- and French-speaking Switzerland are considered. Finally, the project also offers potential for the further professionalization of teachers: Their participation in the management and development of schools is now explicitly anchored in the professional mandates of teachers in various cantons; nevertheless, there is little empirically validated evidence on whether and how this takes place. Finally, data from the project will also allow for an international comparison of notions of educational leadership. The professional self-images of Swiss leaders and the ways in which they conceptualize leadership can be compared with results from studies like ISSPP or other international comparisons (e.g. Normand et al., 2021), furthering our understanding of how educational leadership is framed and actualized in various contexts.

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