In the marketized school system in Sweden, upper secondary schools compete for students. The principal is responsible for the school and the principal’s leadership actions are crucial for school and staff development. The purpose of this thesis was to explore and analyse the leadership actions of five principals responsible for upper secondary schools in rural areas, characterised by several years of a decrease in student enrolment. The empirical data was sampled through semi-structured interviews and analysed from an ecological approach to agency, which considers the principal's leadership actions in the interaction between individual capabilities and contextual factors (structural, material, and cultural factors), as well as temporal dimensions. The research questions were: What do the principals emphasize as important leadership actions to manage their current situation? How do they consider and justify these actions? In what ways are the principals' leadership actions enabled or hindered by cultural, structural, and material factors? How do the significance of past experiences and expectations for the future emerge when the principals talk about their leadership actions?The most significant leadership actions underlined by the principals involve ensuring the quality of education through necessary organisational changes, establishing effective collaborations and interactions with the local community, creating structures for new initiatives, and adapting to changing conditions and expectations of performance.The study concludes that principals can use their leadership actions to influence internal contextual factors within the school's organisation to achieve agency. However, when it comes to external contextual factors (outside the school), such as segregation or local structures in the municipality or declining student enrolment, the principal's room for action is very limited. All in all, the principals' opportunities to achieve agency in solving the critical situation of the school is thus limited, but as this study has shown, they rely on and enact a range of different leadership actions to maintain quality of education and ensure survival of the school.

Individens roll har gått från att vara en del av ett kollektiv till att vara primär i den svenska skolan. Samtidigt har tidigare forskning visat på hur olika konkurrerande utbildningskonceptioner, som marknadisering, instrumentalisering, kommunikativa osv, format läroplanerna. I detta ställs individ mot kollektiv, effektivitet mot kommunikation och frågor om demokratiska värden samt etik och moral blir högst aktuella. Syftet med detta arbete är att se hur läroplanen eller mer specifikt värdegrunden från år 2011 förhåller sig till dessa konceptioner. Genom kritisk diskursanalys av värdegrunden i läroplanen från 2011 i förhållande läroplanen från 1994 samt till fysikämnets kursplan (1994/2011) diskuteras dessa konceptioner utifrån möjliga konsekvenser för lärares sociala praktik. I detta syntes tydliga indikatorer på ett marknadiserat, målstyrt och instrumentellt förhållningssätt till kunskap som ökat från 1994 till 2011. Kommunikationens roll blir därför avgörande för att kunna fullfölja vissa av de, i viss mån motstridiga, uppdrag läroplanen förmedlar i förhållande till demokratiska och moraliska värden.