Mid Sweden University

This paper focuses on professional development for school principals, drawing on literature on the education of leaders and school leaders' development. The Swedish National Principal Training Programme (NPTP) is a state-regulated executive education for professional principals in preschools, schools, and school-age Educare centres. It has been mandatory for all newly appointed principals in Sweden since 2010. The NPTP is a mandatory in-service programme and consists of three courses: school law and governance, governing with objectives and results, and school leadership. The programme runs over three years, parallel to working full-time as a principal. The participants are expected to spend 20% of their working time on their studies. The NPTP uses a networked educational design, which is a valuable research topic from a networked professional learning perspective. This pilot study aims to explore the role of networked educational design for novice principals' professional development and strengthened professional confidence and identity. The research question that frames the study is: In what ways do novice principals' experiences of professional development contribute to the development of their professional confidence and identity with a networked educational design? The study employed a qualitative case-study design with a purposive sampling method to include novice principals undertaking Sweden's national school training programme. Data were collected during 2018-2022 from post-programme evaluations, including individual digital questionnaires with close-ended and open-ended responses and small group oral evaluations documented in a log book. The participants were novice principals studying in the NPTP at one university in Sweden. In all, 321 school leaders from 10 cohort groups in the programme consisting of principals and deputy principals from preschool, primary, secondary, and adult education participated voluntarily. The programme evaluations were carried out during the participants' last residential stay in the programme. Results indicate the importance of residential stays and networking opportunities in the educational journey of principals. These opportunities help connect with peers, establish contacts, and acquire valuable strategies. Completing the training increased principals' professional confidence, particularly in their roles as school leaders. The study shows that the networked educational design supports the development of a professional network among principals, which enhances their professional identity and confidence. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of this networked educational design, which helps shape principals' professional identity and confidence. The findings emphasise the value of networked professional learning

This paper critically reviews England’s National Professional Qualification of Early Years Leadership (NPQEYL) and Sweden’s National Principal Training Program (NPTP). The design and implementation of these programs are critiqued considering the process of professional learning, with view of offering recommendations for future policies on professionalisation through leadership professional learning. The study compares the professional development using a simple multiple case study design. Analysis of sources highlight common themes of leadership, curriculum, agency, and professionalism. These are discussed in relation to how such programs may contribute to the early years sector, leading to recommendations to inform future professional learning opportunities. 

This chapter explores Teacher Education as an ongoing professional trajectory, exploring the implications for both the policy and practice teacher professional identity, and how this has developed its later stages in career trajectory, in three different nation-states of the UK, Sweden and Russia. Here we choose to focus on the different national interpretations of leadership preparation and development, and the links between this and the support of Principals in schools. In the UK over the last decade, the development offered to senior staff has been led by an increasingly marketised approach, which has steadily moved further away from academic expertise and Higher Education qualifications. In contrast, the system in Sweden has thoroughly maintained its links in leadership preparation inside universities, building a rapport between senior staff in schools and their counterparts in university education departments. While in the Russian system these HEI links are also maintained, yet the national framework under which they operate is only now in its embryonic stages.

This study presents findings from a qualitative case study where principals (n = 193), studying a national principal training programme, participated in a study exploring novice principals’ perceptions of how their leadership was impacted during the recent Covid-19 pandemic. A model classification of stressful situations related to coping strategies was used as the theoretical framework for the study and used in the content analysis with a deductive approach. In small groups, the principals used a specific conversation model and discussed their experiences of how their leadership had been affected during the pandemic. The findings showed that principals identified a lack of clarity and situations linked to the adaption to new rules required over time when staff and student absenteeism were consistent challenges. The majority of situations that the principals described can be linked to unclear but affectable situations, where they had to make uncomfortable decisions but also provide security and solutions. Principals mainly used problem-oriented stress management strategies by searching for information, analysing and finding new solutions.

A growing body of research has emphasised the importance of school leadership for quality improvement in schools, which reinforces the importance of school leaders’ continuous profes- sional development in working life. However, less is known about the professional development of experienced principals. Against this background, the purpose of this study is to examine experi- enced school leaders’ sense-making of their professional learning in relation to their professional development. Drawing on sense-making theory, a qualitative case study design was adopted, and data consisted of semi-structured interviews, and course evaluations. Qualitative content analysis was performed using the Atlas 6.2 software tool. The findings showed that important sense-mak- ing for the principals related to the value of continuous professional learning and interactions with professional peers, and professional learning implications. This qualitative Swedish study can be seen as a contribution to experienced principals’ professional learning, as the professional devel- opment of experienced principals is under-researched.

The purpose of the study is to create a deeper understanding of teachers’ sense-making of principals’ leadership in the context of collaboration within and beyond school. Data were collected over three years, from semi- structured individual and group interviews with teachers, as well as a part of a teacher questionnaire. A qualitative content analysis, guided by an institutional perspective on organizations and sense-making theory, was performed, and the analysis revealed that important sense-making was related to the leadership practices and the formal leader. The findings provide an elaborated illustration of how intentional efforts to collaborate and develop the schools in various collaboration beyond school may affect the normative, and cultural-cognitive aspects within schools. 

This chapter uses the backdrop of the pressures created by international comparative analysis in a global education system through mechanisms such as PISA, PIRLS, TIMSS, and the OECD to compare the approaches taken by both Great Britain and the Swedish government over the last decade in their attitudes to leadership development with school staff, and particularly their leadership teams. It examines the national program rolled out in Sweden and the merits of tying this into university education departments. In England, this leadership development has moved away from universities to being centralized in a marketized process, with all the service provision outsourced to the non-profit and private sectors, thus having little to do with the higher education landscape, despite the international comparative analysis that is regularly published that demonstrates that this is where it is best placed.

The aim of this study was to examine experienced school leaders’ sense-making of their professional learning in relation to their professional development in Sweden. A case study design was employed, and semi-structured group interviews was conducted as the main empirical data. Preliminary results show that school leaders perceive that the course and the continuous professional learning in it have contributed to the development of their leadership in the profession. Collective learning through literature processing, reflections, inquiries in one's activities, and collective learning with other school leaders are presented as important aspects that have contributed to in-depth knowledge and development in the profession as a school leader.