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Sweden – Good Will on All Governance Levels Is Not Enough to Create Sustainable Improvement

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Education and Democracy in the Nordic Countries

Part of the book series: Educational Governance Research ((EGTU,volume 21))

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Abstract

In Sweden as in the other Nordic countries schools are an important part of how individuals as well as society develops. How schools are led and governed therefore affects all citizens. In this chapter we discuss principals’ positions, responsibility, and expectation within the Swedish governance system. The chapter and our conclusions rest on current Swedish research and policy documents. In Sweden external expectations, support, and control from national and municipality (school owner) level has an increasing impact on the local schools. Traditions, values, and reforms puts a focus on contemporary change processes. In turn, these contemporary change processes affect to a high extent principal’s role and tasks in the local schools and create an increasing heterogeneity in prerequisites, expectations, and results. There is a strong will and high ambition to improve schools for better results on all governance levels, ambitions that often ask for fast effect which has backsides such as concurring reforms and a high turnover among school leaders.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Principal Development, Department of Political Science, Umea University, Umea, Sweden

    Helene Ärlestig & Ulf Leo

Authors
  1. Helene Ärlestig
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  2. Ulf Leo
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Correspondence to Ulf Leo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Ann Elisabeth Gunnulfsen

  2. Centre for Principal Development, Department of Political Science, Umea University, Umea, Sweden

    Helene Ärlestig

  3. Municipality of Svendborg, Svendborg, Denmark

    Merete Storgaard

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Ärlestig, H., Leo, U. (2023). Sweden – Good Will on All Governance Levels Is Not Enough to Create Sustainable Improvement. In: Gunnulfsen, A.E., Ärlestig, H., Storgaard, M. (eds) Education and Democracy in the Nordic Countries. Educational Governance Research, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33195-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33195-4_6

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