School principal re-positioning in a system of professional relations: the case of newly appointed principals in Sweden

Abstract

International research has focused on changing the criteria for being considered a successful school leader. Principals’ recent professionalisation project, accelerated through education within the framing of New Public Management, might engender a role in conflict with teacher roles and needs further focus. This empirical study approaches newly appointed principals in how they experience their role and relate to other school professionals in an attempt to explicate historical traces of principals’ positioning. The findings revealed principals’ social contract to be resilient across time as their position within a system of relations changed. In practice, this meant becoming marginalised in attempts to fulfil their social contract. Embracing the position as a social agent of the teachers made new alliances possible. Principals’ professional project is understood as linked to a system of relations and principals’ role-taking over time, providing an analytical generalisation of how a ‘war of position’ might function concerning school professionals.