Skolutveckling i praktiken En fenomenografisk studie av rektorers uppfattningar av pedagogiskt ledarskap och skolutveckling

Background: Many people comment on how to improve Swedish schools. Headmasters usually have visions for school improvement, but also have a large and complex mission, and are constantly in a cross pressure between different demands from various stakeholders. In the educational leadership there is a large free space, and diverse school improvement currents to relate to. Headmasters work with school improvement in different ways. The purpose of the study: The overall aim of the study is to explore the headmasters’ perceptions of the educational leadership, within school development. The specific purpose of the study is to find out the headmasters’ perceptions of the school development assignment, how they perform the school improvement work in practice, and what opportunities and obstacles they experience. Furthermore, I intend to explore what school improvement currents have influenced the headmasters’ in their work, and what the control documents’ requirements on a scientific basis mean to the respondents. Method: This study is based on a phenomenographically, qualitative method. To get as exhaustive answers as possible I have done semi-structured interviews, based on main issues. The sample consists of six headmasters from two different municipalities. The informants are between 41 and 58 years old. All of them have a background as a teacher. Result: The results show that the headmasters emphasize the importance of being challenging and confirmatory, and also responsive, present and involved leaders. According to the informants, the school development assignment is comprehensive, but at the same time it gives the headmasters a chance to effect on the school results. However, time and the complexity of headmasters’ mission are seen as obstacles for school development. Some of the respondents, but not all of them, find a distinct link between the systematic quality work and the daily school development work. The headmasters don’t believe that they have been influenced by different school improvement currents, but you can still see traces of the different alignments in their work. According to the informants, the control documents’ requirements on a scientific basis mean that they need to stay updated and use researched methods