Denna avhandling handlar om ledarskapet i skolan. Skolan är en sammansatt verksamhet och i ledarskapet handlar det om att hantera många olika uppgifter på olika nivåer. Samtidigt som skolledare och lärare skall leva upp till samhälleliga förväntningar på skolverksamheten skall de också hantera kulturella villkor inom skolan. I avhandlingen studeras hur ledarskapet formas i och av samspelet mellan skolledare och lärare i vardagsarbetet. En fråga fokuserar på hur skolledare och lärare ser på varandra och hur de influerar och förstår varandra i vardagsarbetet. En annan fråga uppmärksammar vilken betydelse skolsammanhanget har för samspelet. För att belysa samspelet används fallstudier som forskningsstrategi. I studien ingår tre F-6-skolor med förskole-, fritidshems- och grundskoleverksamhet. Det empiriska materialet består av intervjuer och observationer. Teoretiskt har studien en socialkonstruktionistisk utgångspunkt i betydelsen av att skolledarskap ses som ett socialt fenomen. Intresset riktas mot att belysa skolledares och lärares utsagor om hur de förstår varandra och varandras ord och handlingar i det vardagliga arbetet. Resultatet ger anledning att fråga vem som egentligen leder vem. Avhandlingen visar tydligt att ledarskap är något som skolledarna och lärarna oundvikligen formar tillsammans – därav titeln Samproducerat ledarskap. Studien visar hur sociala, kulturella och politiska dimensioner i samspelet influerar skolledarnas och lärarnas agerande och ledarskapet. Konsekvensen blir ett ifrågasättande av den allt populärare bilden av ledaren som med stark hand förväntas styra sin organisation. En förståelse för att skolledarskapet är samproducerat, och att sociala, kulturella och politiska dimensioner har avgörande betydelser för hur det utövas medför en mer realistisk syn på skolledarskapets förutsättningar. / This thesis is concerned with aspects of school leadership. School work is characterised by its complexity, and school leadership requires the ability to deal with many different tasks at different organisational levels. At the same time as school heads and teachers are expected to respond to social expectations, they must also be able to deal with and respond to existing cultural considerations and prerequisites. The present study focuses on the formation of leadership during and as a result of the interplay between school heads and teachers in everyday educational practice. One research question concerns how this is formulated in heads’ and teachers’ statements, and how they perceive, influence and understand each other in their daily work together. Another research question highlights the importance of school contexts in the interplay between school heads and teachers. The underlying research strategy applied in order to illustrate the interplay between school heads and teachers is based on three case studies of so-called ‘F–6 schools’, i.e. three comprehensive schools including years 1–6, as well as pre-school classes, and leisure-time activities. The empirical research material consists of interviews and observations. This study takes a social constructionist point of departure, in the sense that school leadership is regarded as a social phenomenon, and focuses on creating a further understanding of this based on statements by school heads and teachers on how they understand each other and each others’ verbal communications and actions. The results give reason to the question of who is in fact leading who. The thesis clearly shows that leadership is produced and formed by school heads and teachers together – hence the title Co-Produced Leadership. The study shows how social, cultural and political dimensions in the interplay between school heads and teachers influence their actions and the formation of school leadership. This leads to a questioning of the increasingly popular image of the independent leader who is expected to govern her/his organisation with a firm hand. An understanding that school leadership is a product of intimate collaboration, and that social, cultural and political dimensions are vital in the formation of leadership, leads to a more realistic view concerning the possibilities and prerequisites of school leadership.

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of principles and ethics that dominate four schools with a Muslim profile, two in Sweden and two in England. The specific objectives of the study are:  to examine educational policies with regard to primary schools with a confessional orientation in Sweden and England; to compare two primary schools with a Muslim profile in Sweden with two such schools in England; and in these four schools to describe and examine the manner in which school heads, teachers and other staff deal with the encounters between the values found in the national curriculum of Sweden and England respectively and the principles and ethics embodied in their private philosophy of life; to describe and examine the views of school heads, teachers and other staff on school leadership and any educational, ideological or personal role model they emulate; to describe and examine the expectations and views of parents with regard to the school with a Muslim profile; and describe the views of the pupils regarding their schools and the norms and values in school and; finally, to examine the attitudes of some local authority politicians in Sweden to MP schools. The findings indicate great difference between the two schools with a Muslim profile in Sweden, on the one hand, and the two schools in England, on the other. The fundamental reason for that lies in the parameters which had been established in these countries as the conditions for being permitted to establish and run a school with a confessional orientation. Since the schools in both countries had conformed to the relevant legislation and framework in their respective countries with regard to such schools, they had therefore consequently developed in different directions. / Partly financed by Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Research Council)

In this study, the researcher aimed to investigate and explore the instructional leadership role of the high school head in creating a culture of teaching and learning (COTL), with specific reference to high schools in the Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. In an attempt to realise that end, a qualitative approach drawing from ethnographic studies was used to collect data. Therefore, the research instruments included qualitative observations, individual and focus group interviews and document analysis. The participants included five high school heads, ten heads of departments (HODs), ten assistant teachers, and twenty five parents. These were drawn from the five high schools selected for the study. The main findings of the study are that a model for effective instructional leadership aimed at creating a culture of teaching and learning (COTL) consists of long-term and short-term dimensions. The long-term instructional leadership dimension comprises: visioning, communication of the school vision, value management, professional development of staff, and empowerment. The short-term instructional leadership dimension comprises of characteristics of the instructional leader, characteristics of the followers and characteristics of the situation. Characteristics of the instructional leader include his or her perception of stakeholders, task or people orientation, personality, knowledge and experience, value system and trust in followers. Characteristics of the followers include their readiness to take responsibility, motivation to excel, knowledge and experience. Characteristics of the situation include the school climate and culture, relationships among members of the school community, structuring of tasks, availability of human and material resources, and the use of incentives. The effective application of the instructional leadership model for effective practice by the high school head as the instructional leader in creating a culture of teaching and learning (COTL) takes into account both the long-term and short-term dimensions of effective instructional leadership in order to achieve meaningful educational change. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Education Management)

The overall performance of secondary schools in Zimbabwe has been of grave concern to all stakeholders in education. Several reasons for this downward trend have been proffered but perhaps without getting to the bottom of the problem. Poor student achievement at ordinary level (O-level) in most schools, including schools that seem to have adequate facilities and qualified teachers, is experienced every year. The purpose of the study was to examine and explore the instructional leadership roles of the secondary school principal towards quality school improvement in Zimbabwean schools with specific reference to Harare and Mashonaland East provinces. The research methodology that was employed was the qualitative design drawing from case and ethnographic studies to collect data from the participants. A total of ten secondary schools, their heads, and fifty teachers from the same selected schools took part in the study. While parents were not directly involved in the study, the few that l came across during visits to schools were asked for their views as seen appropriate. The research instruments that were used included qualitative document analysis, interviews and qualitative observations. Each of the ten secondary schools was visited at least eight times for the purposes of collecting and verifying data. While field notes were made during visits, an audio tape was used during interviews in order to capture what was said word for word. The results indicate that for effective instructional leadership that improve quality of schools, heads needed to exercise both instructional and managerial roles effectively. However, the findings of the study indicated that heads tended to concentrate on managerial roles and performed instructional roles indirectly although these have a direct focus on quality school improvement. School principals in the study spent a lot of their time outside the school attending meetings called for by District and Provincial Education officials and other activities that did not seem to directly impact on quality school improvement. Instructional leadership is about spending a lot of time with teachers and students in the school and in particular in classrooms, among other things. As a result, teachers in the study lacked motivation and greatly missed opportunities to be assisted by the ‘’head teacher’’ which would translate to teacher growth and development and ultimately, school improvement. Instructional leadership was relegated to heads of departments. Heads attributed their failure to perform instructional tasks to lack of appropriate interventions to improve their leadership roles, too many meetings and too much paper work which they felt needed to be reduced so that they could be able to focus on instructional leadership tasks. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Education Management)