Schoolboards' expectations of the superintendent – a Swedish national survey

Superintendents as Boundary Spanners - Facilitating Improvement of Teaching and Learning

“…As reticulist, the superintendent has considerable power through information advantage and opportunities to influence the political agenda. The chairs of the Swedish school boards have high confidence in their superintendents and obtain their main knowledge about municipal school activity from them (Rapp et al, 2020). also have concluded that local school boards get their main information from the superintendent.…”

“…Even though evidence about school and student performance has been more transparent and more easily available and even though parents and other stakeholders have become more demanding regarding educational quality, school improvement has not been a priority on school boards´ agenda. Furthermore, the boards do not appear to have high expectations of superintendents concerning school improvement and improvement of teaching and learning (Rapp et al, 2020). We get a completely different picture when the superintendents themselves are asked to state what they think the school boards expect should be their most important assignments.…”

“…The outcomes from the study conducted by Rapp et al (2020) indicates superintendents´ boundary-spanning roles as reticulists, interpreters/communicators, entrepreneurs and organizers (Williams, 2002). In their positions, superintendents are positioned in a "structured social space" with its own properties and power relations, overlapping and interrelating with economic, power, political, and other factors.…”

“…Even if the chairs consider themselves to have the greatest influence on the school boards decisions, they still consider the superintendent to be the one who have second biggest influence (Rapp et al, 2020). The great trust and high expectations of the superintendent, at the hub, emphasise the role of the superintendent as interpreter/communicator, as well as organizer.…”

“…Based on a study of Swedish local school boards' expectations of superintendents (Rapp, Aktas & Ståhlkrantz, 2020), this study aims to develop a theoretical understanding of how superintendents as boundary spanners may facilitate the improvement of teaching and learning. Its research question is: How may superintendents as boundary spanners facilitate school improvement?…”