Schools have a mission that includes both individual and public good, by qualifying students so they can earn a living, foster them to be good citizens and help them to make independent choices that contribute to a good life (Biesta et al, 2014; Biesta 2020). Principals’ have a significant responsibility and impact on their schools, their results and development processes, regardless of students’ background and capabilities. Recent research show that the role is complex and needs to adhere to layers of governance as well as competing aims (Gurr and Day, 2024). External policy and expectations put the focus on results and accountability, while at the same time on issues such as equity, social justice and wellbeing as part of educational responsibility (Connolly, James & Fertig, 2019, Gonzales & Firestone, 2013). With a constant regard for context, the work of principals needs different forms of leadership authority for stability or/and reconstruction of school operations (Johansson & Rönnström, 2024).

How principals understand their leadership in relation to the current contexts and schools’ policy and mission affects what leadership authority and actions are necessary for school success. In this paper, we study how principals in Sweden, USA and Australia understand their own principalship and its relation to successful schools both in terms of accountability – looking back and responsibility – looking forward for improvement. The aim is guided by three research questions,

RQ 1 What do principals regard as important to be successful in their role?

RQ 2 How do principals explain their responsibility and accountability for the school’s work and quality?

RQ 3 How do principals understand and work with issues such as equity, wellness and social justice in relation to creating success in their school?

Theoretically, we use complexity theory, Systems thinking and the relation between authority and accountability (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Shaked & Schechter, 2019;  Grinshtain & Gibton, 2018).

The article is a part of the International Successful School Principalship Project where cases with several actors in local contexts in various nations have been studied through the use of multiple perspective and mixed method cases studies of principal and school success. In the case studies, principal, school board members, teachers, students and parents were interviewed, and a teacher survey administered. In this study we focus on the principals understanding and perceptions on their role and their work towards success. As one of our hypotheses is that principals need to adhere to the local school context to be able to improve and sustain successful results, we have therefor chosen principals who work in various contexts and from three different nations. The empirical parts build on multiple interviews with 3 principals from Sweden, 3 from Australia and one from USA.The principals represent schools that work in areas with indigenous students, rural areas, small towns and in a low socio- economic area in a larger city. To be able to do a comparative analyze we read the interviews country specific to create initials codes covering both similarities and what was unique in relation to the research questions. Thereafter we compared the codes between the three countries to again find similarities and differences. This helped us to discuss the empirical findings in relation to both national and local contexts.

) Early results show that principals strive to both meet individual and public good and has a good sense of the aims of schooling (Biesta, 2020). They are astute at meeting system accountabilities – what Leithwood and Riehl (2005) call acknowledging the accountability-oriented policy context in which they work. However, they also need to go beyond system policy contexts and system requirements to meet the local needs of their students and families; besides being accountable to the system, issues like social justice, student health and equality are important to handle. What is seen as successful and what counts as a good result is connected to the national and local structures and cultures. What we know from these cases, and indeed from the ISSPP overall, is that successful schools have a sophisticated understanding of success which include a wide range of student, school and societal outcomes – see, for example, the 11 case studies from 10 countries reported in Day and Gurr (2024). As principals need to navigate among competing aims and handle upcoming problems and issues with current (and not always enough resources) it is important to discuss success in relation to both short-term and long-term results. In that process, concrete examples of principals’ decisions, accountability and responsibility contribute to a more nuanced understanding of what is supportive and hindering principals work and abilities.

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