The task of principals in schools and preschools is complex and far reaching and thus hard to handle by one single person. Yet, in Sweden the law states that the principle is solely responsible for leading and coordinating the activities at schools and preschools (SFS 2010:800). However, to strengthen the school leadership and support the principal many Swedish schools have hired assistant principals. In fact, the number of assistant principals in Swedish schools have increased fourfold in the last ten years (skolverket 2022). These developments can be understood through the developing research field of shared leadership (Döös & Wilhelmson, 2021). In shared leadership research the understanding of leadership practice goes beyond traditional, singular ways of organising leadership functions. Instead, leadership is seen as a collective endeavour including multiple individuals with different forms and functions.

In the international literature there is an expanding acknowledgement that issues surrounding schools and education in general is becoming increasingly complex (Yada & Jäppinen, 2022). This, in turn, have spurred the question of whether principals can, or should, tackle diverse organisational problems alone (Leithwood & Mascall, 2008). Indeed, many researchers suggest that school leadership is better understood as a shared phenomenon that requires collective actions to address and manage issues at hand (Hallinger & Heck, 2011; Harris, 2003).

In this study, I take my point of departure in shared leadership research and apply it to the Swedish case. I find the Swedish case of particular interest to investigate shared leadership for two reasons. First, the increase of assistant principals in recent years indicate an increased focus on shared leadership in Sweden. Second, the mission of the principal is clearly elaborated in the education act and other relevant steering documents, but the mission of the assistant principal is less defined. This means that the role and function of the assistant principal can differ greatly between school contexts. In addition, the role of the assistant principal as well as the relationship between the principal and the assistant principal is contested and up for negotiation since the Swedish education act and other steering documents provide none or limited guidance to these issues.

To further investigate how leadership in schools work, other leader functions than primary leaders such as principals needs to be investigated. In this paper assistant principals in the Swedish school system are investigated to further develop the understandings of how shared leadership can be understood in a Swedish context. The questions for this study are; What perceptions do assistant principals have about their role and responsibility in the cross-municipal management organization? What perceptions do assistant principals have about their role and responsibility in the school-specific management organization?

The selection in this study was six assistant principals who participated in the principal training program in Sweden. The assistant principals who participated in the study work at schools located in five different municipalities in different parts of Sweden. The size of the municipalities varied greatly in both area and number of inhabitants. All of the schools are public schools and consist of leisure center, preschool classes, grades 1-9 and compulsory school for pupils with intellectual disabilities. All of the participants had before becoming assistant principals’ a background in school as licensed teachers and had participated in various management functions such as first teachers, work team leaders, process leaders or other special development assignments. For two of the assistant principals in this study, this was their second assistant principal job, for the other four assistant principals’ it was the first time they had the role of assistant principal. One of the participants in the study has acted as an assistant principal for 11 years, but the majority of the participants in the study have acted as assistant principals for 4-6 years. For 5 of the schools, the number of students and staff was similar, from 340 students to 470 students, and the schools have about 70 employees. One of the schools is significantly larger and has 660 students and 80 employees. The respondents in the study are a relatively homogeneous group based on professional background, number of years as assistant principal, and size of school. Six assistant principals were interviewed from the end of January to the beginning of February 2022. The material was analyzed using thematic analysis because the purpose of the study was to make visible the assistant principals' perceptions of roles and responsibilities (Bryman 2018). The material was categorized based on Döös, Wilhelmsson, and Backström's (2013) three perspectives on shared leadership: organisational structure, task and responsibilities and manager´s experience. In the organisational perspective, the question is answered about what perceptions assistant principals have about their roles and responsibilities in the cross-municipal management organization. In the perspective task and responsibility, the question is answered about what perceptions assistant principals have about their roles and responsibilities in the school-specific management organization. The perspective manager´s experience includes the important components that assistant principals believe should be present for good collaboration in the school's management group are described.

All the participants in the study were introduced to their new job as assistant principals by the administration. The administration didn´t take into account the needs of the respective school’s management organization or the context in which the schools’ management organizations are located. The study also shows that most assistant principals have an unclear role in both the cross-municipal management organization and the school-specific management organization. In the cross-municipal management organization, the assistant principal is not included and their competence in the operational work is not utilized. Decisions are made in the cross-municipal management group on operational issues without the assistant principal having the opportunity to contribute with their operational competence. This leads to frustration among the assistant principals. The work as an assistant principle at different schools can include widely different assignments, ranging from shared leadership to working with delegated individual tasks. The roles were unclear for the participants in the management groups at most schools, which leads to a high workload because several people can be involved in the same matter without knowing about each other. The success factors that can be seen in the study are the local management organizations where the assistant principal’s role complements the principal. They can utilize that there is a good mix of experiences where often the principal stands for long experience and the assistant principal has good operational competence. The assistant principal can work closely with the teachers and support them in their teaching-related work. For this to be possible, the principal needs to take responsibility for clarifying the roles of the principal and assistant principal. Cross-municipal delegation orders and job descriptions exist for assistant principals, which are not used school-specifically as they do not reflect what the assistant principal does in practice.

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