Leadership in low- and underperforming schools—two contrasting Scandinavian cases

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate how professional cultures and situated, material and external contexts relate to dynamic low-and underperforming schools in Scandinavia, particularly how the leadership is constructed through the leader, the followers and the situation. The first school studied was a low-performing school in Norway called 'Toppen', which has shown improved student outcomes. The other school, Seaside, is a Swedish school that is considered underperforming because student outcomes are lower than expected based on the contextual prerequisites. Our results show that Toppen can be described as a turnaround school and Seaside can be described as a cruising school. Analysis reveals that, at Toppen, the principal has been developing a culture that can be described in terms of community and motivation. At Seaside, on the other hand, the culture can be described in terms of individuality and conservatism. From this analysis, we can detect how different contexts impact two low-and underperforming schools and how they are affected by different prerequisites linked to the situated, material, external and professional contexts. However, the development of a collective professional culture with a shared sense of commitment seems to be an important tool to plan and communicate organizational improvement strategies.

Looking back and forward: a critical review of the history and future progress of the ISSPP

“…Researchers in Norway and Sweden collaborated in exploring how a variety of contexts and professional cultures relate to low- and under-performing schools. One of the selected schools was located in a low socio-economic area serving many disadvantaged students, and the other school was located in a middle-class socio-economic area (Ahlström and Aas, 2020). The ISSPP interview protocol was used as a point of departure; but to illuminate the enabling and constraining factors in efforts to raise standards across schools, the authors used, in addition, four contextual dimensions developed by Ball et al (2012) as a heuristic device to situate each school in context.…”

“…The teaching culture was described as collective and with a strong motivation to promote equity and academic development. The researchers argued that developing a collective professional culture with a shared commitment among key players seemed to be crucial for successful progress (Ahlström and Aas, 2020).…”