Abstract
This chapter looks at who superintendents in Sweden are – what roles they have, what they do, whom they contact, what positions they hold and their everyday work. We have gathered all of this information through many years of data collection from various surveys sent out to superintendents, school leaders, and chairs and members of school boards. Superintendents’ roles differ both within Sweden as well as across borders with our neighboring Nordic countries. Superintendents as a group seem enthusiastic about educational matters, the development of schools and the educational sector, but they sometimes feel distracted by budgets and financial matters, as well as by political issues with their superiors and boards.
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Notes
- 1.
Financed by the Swedish Research Council from 2009.
- 2.
This percentage represents the respondents who answered a five or six on a six-point scale.
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Johansson, O., Nihlfors, E., Steen, L.J., Karlsson, S. (2016). Superintendents in Sweden: Structures, Cultural Relations and Leadership. In: Moos, L., Nihlfors, E., Paulsen, J. (eds) Nordic Superintendents: Agents in a Broken Chain. Educational Governance Research, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25106-6_5
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