This paper examines school leadership in schools facing socio-economic challenges in structurally disadvantaged areas in a metropolitan region in Sweden. School leaders have earned recognition as vital agents for justice, inclusion and equity in schools (Grissom et al, 2021; Leithwood, 2021). Moreover, in Europe, school leaders working in disadvantaged areas are singled out as agents capable of minimizing the decisive role of SES-factors, and capable of neutralizing detrimental factors obstructing school success (European Commission, 2022). The new founded hope, however, runs the risk of being an unfounded hope since school leaders are often asked to do too much with too little (Unesco, 2024). The paper builds on a collaborative partnership between researchers at Stockholm University and three local education authorities (LEA). The ongoing partnership started in 2021. It is designed as a learning network linking researchers, policy makers, LEA’s and principals together. It aims at leadership development in schools where it is needed the most, and to generate knowledge about and for school leaders in collaboration with approximately 50 principals and their LEA’s. Researchers follow the work of principals. They use field notes, surveys, group- and individual interviews to collect data. This paper is based on field notes and documents produced in the network, and twelve group interviews taking place on three different occasions 2022-2024. The first round focused on how school leaders build capacity for teaching and learning, the second round on capacity building for change and improvement and the final round on external collaboration. Drawing on prior school leadership research (Rönnström & Skott, 2019a, 2019b; Leithwood, 2021, Skott, 2021) and a capability approach to school leadership (Rönnström & Robertson, 2022; Duignan, 2012), the paper seeks to illuminate the nature of successful leadership in these contexts. It specifically examines and captures what school leaders are capable to do and what they actually do in order to build capacity for equitable education in schools facing socio-economic challenges. The paper shows how school leaders mobilize moral commitment for equity, and how they share leadership and master organizational complexity. The paper shows how they not only adjust to context factors, rather, they manage and create the internal and to some extent external context factors and resources they need in order to realize quality education in close collaboration with other agents across the school organisation. The paper adds to our understanding of the dynamics of successful leadership in schools facing difficult challenges.

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