An emerging body of research shows that external support and partnerships with different actors in the surrounding community can support schools in their school improvement work and strengthen the school’s improvement capacity (Muijs et al., 2011). School leaders are vital in this work (Huber & Muijs, 2010; Sun et al., 2017). In this study, the intention is to deepen understandings of how principal leadership practices are constructed in collaborations beyond the school. Furthermore, how they relate to capacity building and school improvement at the local school level in a Swedish context. The main theoretical perspectives guiding the analysis of this study are an institutional perspective on the school as an organisation and a sensemaking perspective on principals’ and teachers’ construction of the meaning of the principals’ leadership practices. A qualitative case study design (Yin, 2011) with a purposive sampling method was used in this study, in which schools working with collaborations beyond the school within the local community in the framework of a collaborative improvement project were examined. Data was collected for three years and consisted of semi-structured individual and group interviews with principals and teachers at three schools. Qualitative content analysis was used (Miles et al., 2014). This study identifies key dimensions of principals’ practice: building professional capacity, fostering a supportive learning organization, and engaging actively in beyond-school collaborations. Principals co-created these collaborations, aligning them with schools' needs and establishing mutual goals. The principals’ roles in communicating school needs contributed to mutual trust and shared focus on improvement within the partnerships. External actors, acting as critical friends, played a pivotal role in shaping leadership practices and providing essential support. The research-based approach to working in partnership widened principals' views on educational leadership, fostering a qualitative shift in their reasoning about school development and leadership. External support, particularly through beyond-school collaborations, strengthened their formal leadership roles and professional practices. The study also revealed challenges such as time constraints, staff issues, conflicts, and turnovers affecting beyond-school collaborations. Principals’ practices raised awareness of these issues in partnerships, whilst also demonstrating how they might be navigated successfully. Collaboration beyond school not only supported distributed leadership but also encouraged teacher involvement, fostering collective responsibility for school development.

Huber, S. G., and D. Muijs. 2010. “School leadership-international perspectives.” School leadership effectiveness: The growing insight into the importance of school leadership for the quality and development of schools and their pupils 10: 57–77. Miles, M.B., Huberman, A.M. and Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook, Sage, Los Angeles, CA. Muijs, D., Ainscow, M., Chapman, C., & West, M. (2011). Collaboration and Networking in Education. Springer Science+Business Media B.V. Sun, Jingping, Pollock, Katina & Leithwood, Kenneth A. (2017). How School Leaders Contribute to Student Success: The Four Paths Framework [Elektronisk resurs]. Springer Yin, R.K. (2011). Qualitative Research from Start to Finish, The Guilford Press, New York, NY.