Session Information
26 SES 11 B, Policy Context and Governance in Educational Leadership
Paper Session
Contribution
In this paper, leadership and governing in the Swedish, public school sector at the municipal level is examined. The concept of ‘governing chain’ is used to picture an ideal model of governing. Political intentions manifested in decisions made by central and local government, are expected to come to life as public officials, principals and teachers enact those decisions. Though reality is more complex and chaotic than this over-simplified picture suggests, the governing chain serves as an analytical model for our analysis. The links in this chain are actors upholding key functions at different levels. Both within and between these, there are intervening spaces in which policy intentions are being interpreted, transmitted, and translated.
The Swedish Education Act (SFS 2010:800) identifies the organizer of education, the superintendent, the principal, and the teacher as core links, responsible for enactment in the governing chain. Both public sector and private sector organizers are present in the Swedish educational system, and although they share the same mission, their capacity to enact varies. Principals are expected both to act as managers and administrators responsible for day-to-day operations, and as pedagogical leaders with a particular responsibility for improving teaching and learning activities. The Swedish Education Act was thoroughly reviewed in 2010, and this revision sought – among other things – to emphasise the principal as a core actor with great responsibility in the governing chain. A more recent change in law in 2018 forced organizers of education to appoint a function as superintendent if they had not already done so. The intention was to safeguard that national laws and regulations are met by the organizer, and the primary objective for the superintendent is to see to this.
In the eyes of the national legislature, principals and superintendents are identified as vital links in the governing chain. They are employed by the organizer, who may set out additional objectives that they are expected to meet. In this paper we focus solely on Swedish municipalities as organizers of education. Sweden is usually described as a decentralised welfare state and local government are self-governing bodies with strong financial and political autonomy. Both principals and superintendents are expected to meet the expectations and interests of both the state and the municipality as organizer, which in practice may turn out to be an act of balancing on slack line. Is this balancing somehow reflected in the leadership practices of the two types of functions?
The aim is to describe and analyse how superintendents and principals perceive their mandate and roles in the local, municipal governing chain and how they balance and negotiate between those, in the intervening spaces of the governing chain. Our ambition is to contribute to greater knowledge on how principals and superintendents perceive their leadership in the context in which it is situated, and how the leadership of these functions is (dis-)connected in the local governing chain. Although the results are valid in a Swedish context, the theoretical implications are of general interest for the broader research society, both in the European, and in an international context.
Studies of leadership should take context into consideration. By context we mean both the municipal context, and the structure of the local governing chain. The guiding principles behind the system of governing can also be perceived as part of a wider context. The system of governing has the potential to both facilitate and constrain different types of leadership practices. Previous research has shown that there is a potential conflict between leadership ideals that favour democratic and participatory practices, and systems of governing that favour accountability and control.
Method
The paper relies both on qualitative and quantitative data. A survey was conducted in December 2019, one year and a half after the change in law that requested organizers to introduce the superintendent position. The survey data is used to describe and analyse their perceptions of both their formal mandate and role in the light of the change in law. The second part of the study is an in-depth analysis of qualitative data from interviews. Two rounds of interviews, covering a multitude of leaders in local governing chains, were conducted in two different municipalities during the spring and autumn of 2019. The total number of interviews were 87, but the total number of informants exceeds that number as some were group interviews. One of the purposes was to get a broad and multifaceted picture of governing and leadership practices of- and in schools, and thus both political and administrative functions exercising leadership were interviewed. For this paper the interviews conducted with the four principals and the two superintendents have been analysed. The ambition is not to compare governing or leadership practices between the two municipalities nor to generalise the results, but to use the qualitative data to get a more in depth understanding of how these actors balance their mandates and roles, than the survey data allows.
Expected Outcomes
The results from the analysis of the survey suggests that superintendents in Swedish municipalities generally think that they have a strong mandate in seeing to that national laws and regulations are met. Moreover, the majority express willingness to act accordingly. They acknowledge the difficulties in acting both as representatives of the state, while at the same time handling the sometimes, conflicting interests and objectives of the municipal organizer of education. At the same time the majority sympathise with the change of law and greet the stronger national mandate, despite the potential for role conflicts. The superintendents who were interviewed, think that they have a strong mandate to uphold the national mission, if they manage to comply within the budgetary frames set up by the municipal board. The four principals also describe a mandate which is defined by their capacity to stay within budget. The two municipalities in the qualitative study are both organized in a similar way. Both municipalities practice a New Public Management oriented system of governing, a management by objectives and performance measurements model, commonly practiced in the Swedish public sector. Accountability seems to be a core value as actors describe clearly defined, separated responsibilities for specific executive functions. Actors generally and the superintendent and principals particularly, seem to be aware of the formal chain-of-delegation, who to (not) turn to and when. The superintendent for example describes the balance between building relations and trust with principals and other actors in schools, without sidestepping subordinate functions that according to the chain of governing, should settle relations with the latter. Principals a like, show great awareness of who to turn to and not in a governing chain in which accountability is valued. The mode of governing thus define the repertoire of leadership practices that principals and superintendents can practice.
References
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