While research on pedagogical leadership usually starts from an ideal idea of what this form of leadership might be, or from governing documents, in this article we add to the understanding of how preschool principals themselves comprehend, practice, and develop their pedagogical leadership. This is done, firstly, by recounting and problematizing how principals position themselves vis-à-vis their organization and employees; secondly, by generating metaphors to capture the essence of preschool principals’ own understanding, enactment, and progress of their pedagogical leadership. The study is based on 78 texts written by preschool principals, texts that each explicitly or implicitly relate to four crucial parts of the principal's assignment, with special focus on the pedagogical leadership: the principal's 1) image of the ideal leadership, 2) interpretation of the pedagogical leadership assignment, 3) individual leadership practices, and 4) leadership development. The texts analysis is followed by a metaphorical approach, where metaphors are established and then used to develop the understanding of preschool principals’ pedagogical leadership. We argue that five metaphors can represent the principals’ understanding, enactment, and progress of their pedagogical leadership: firstly, in four subordinate metaphors – sing-along leader, conductor, dissonance, and jam session – secondly, in an over-arching metaphorical concept: the ensemble.

Over the last 20 years systematic quality work has become the main tool for developing Swedish schools (Håkansson & Adolfson, 2022). According to the Education Act (2010:800), quality work – at the local educational authority level as well as in the schools themselves – should be conducted in a systematic and continuous way, with respect to planning, follow-up, analyses, and actions taken to develop education. By continuous assessments and evaluations, the goal of the systematic quality work is to identify and address issues that need improvement for students to achieve the educational goals (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2012a). A review of the literature reveals the problematic aspects of evaluation practices and quality management, such as the risk to focus on what is measurable rather than what is desirable as well as the diverse definitions of quality (Lundström, 2015). However, what the local quality systems consist of, how they have been designed, and what practices and perceptions of quality they entail is less understood.

Previous research has primarily focused on individual schools’ quality work (Håkansson, 2013; Jarl, et al., 2017) , while less attention has been paid to the way the local educational authorities conduct systematic quality work. Thus, the aim of this study is to fill this knowledge gap by investigating how the ideas of systematic quality work in the Swedish Education Act's requirements are interpreted, translated, and materialized at the local education authority level.

The following research questions will guide our study:

1. How do local educational authorities interpret and translate the systematic quality work regulations and requirements in the Education Act?

2. How do these interpretations och translations materialize in the local quality work practices?

Theoretically we approach the phenomena of systematic quality management within the Swedish school sector from an organizing (Czarniawska, 2014) and practice-oriented perspective (Gherardi, 2019; Nicolini, 2009; 2012). These theoretical perspectives provide us a framework to analyse how the institutionalized ideas (as mental images that are well spread within the society) of systematic quality management - through authorities, policies, regulations, and quality models - are translated and materialized (Czarniawska & Joerges, 1996) into the local quality work organization and practices. The latter refers to the practices of doing and saying something related to the ideas of systematic quality management in different social contexts and time (Gherardi, 2019; Nicolini, 2009; 2012). Although the national guidelines involve the entire school system, these are interpreted, translated, and materialized by actors operating in a local context, which means that quality is understood in different ways and that the systematic quality work is conducted in different ways. An organizational perspective also includes aspects related to the tensions that arise when different interests and logics collide (for example between political, administrative, and professional interests and logics; see Czarniawska, 2014).

Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedIn this project five Swedish municipalities have participated in a study of what systematic quality work means at a local education authority level and what practices materialize from the national regulations. At the heart of the study is the recognition that quality systems are locally designed to meet the national requirements, thereby allowing diverse interpretations and translations to occur.

The local education authorities can be understood as mediators, partly between state and municipal control, partly between needs and agendas at different levels in the chain of command. This understanding also characterizes the design of the study. The empirical data has been collected through three complementary methods: document studies, observations, and interviews. The document studies consist of analysing different central documents, e.g., quality reports, provided by the local education authorities covering the past two years. We have also observed meetings related to the systematic quality work (so called “quality-dialogues”). Besides the local education authorities, the key actors in these meetings were the principals, assistant principals, and teacher representatives of the school being followed up. 

The interviews were conducted with key persons in five different local Swedish education authorities individually by the authors. The duration of the interviews was approximately one hour, and they were conducted either face-to-face, via Zoom, or telephone. The interviews were based on an interview guide including questions about the participants’ role, their experiences, and activities in relation to the systematic quality work, the expected and actual effects, as well as challenges and potential for improvement of systematic quality work. The interviews were recorded with informed consent and were later transcribed verbatim.

All the research material described above is now gathered and will be analysed during the Spring 2023. As a tool for data analyses, we will apply Bacchi´s (2012) method “What is the problem represented to be?”.

Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsEqual education for all is includes three fundamental aspects: equal access to education, equal quality of education and the compensatory nature of education (Swedish National Agency for Education, 2012b). All students should receive an equivalent education, regardless of the area they live in, the socio-economic conditions they come from, or their functional variations. But study after study shows that Swedish students' schooling is not equal, and that who you are and where you live play a decisive role in the quality of the education you receive. Many of the last decade's school policy reforms and targeted initiatives have had as their overarching goal to address this lack of equality, so far with few concrete results. In order to break this trend, there has been an increasing focus on the local educational authorities’ responsibility for the individual school's shortcomings, quality, and development. Furthermore, lack of equality is a problem within rather than between different local educational authorities. Although there is paucity of research, the limited results show that schools are often isolated with their problems and that there is a lack of supportive structures and a functional systematic quality work (Jarl, et al., 2017; Swedish Schools Inspectorate, 2021).

The paper will present results from the ongoing study, results that we believe will have relevance both in the Swedish, Nordic and in a wider European context. Through our investigation we will contribute knowledge regarding how the National Educational Act's requirements for systematic quality work are interpreted, translated, and materialized at the local level, and how this in turn shapes, promotes or hinders the quality work of individual schools.

Förskolan präglas i dag av social, etnisk, kulturell, språklig och religiös mångfald, och ibland uppstår motsättningar när förskolans värdegrund möter medarbetares eller vårdnadshavares värderingar och traditioner. Barn behöver omges av trygga och tydliga vuxna, men riskerar att hamna i en förvirrande korseld av vuxnas olika uppfattningar och övertygelser. I den här boken visar författarna hur olika värdegrundsrelaterade problem i mötet mellan hem och förskola kan förebyggas och hanteras för barnets bästa. Alla exempel i boken syftar till att öppna upp för reflekterande samtal och diskussioner kring förskolans värdegrunds­uppdrag. I boken diskuteras även de juridiska krav som ställs på förskolans värdegrundsarbete, liksom på förskolors främjande, förebyggande och åtgärdande arbete mot kränkande behandling och diskriminering. Att styra förskolan med värdegrund är ett samarbete mellan forskare, utbildare, praktiker och jurister och riktar sig till såväl verksamma som blivande rektorer, förskollärare och barnskötare.

Det är affärslogiken som styr när statistik om skolor och betyg nu ska sekretessbeläggas. Samtidigt visar detta hemlighetsmakeri tydligt att friskolan blivit norm och att andra värden felaktigt får stå tillbaka, skriver forskare.

Description of the symposium A general aim for school systems around the world is to prepare future citizens to participate in and contribute to society. In most western countries, this is upheld and developed within notions and practices of democracy and citizenship. Consequently, there is a close relationship between education and democracy. In times of increased global movements and diversity among students, issues of democracy therefore gain further attention, becoming a high-stake concept, recently seen in for example the new OECD framework on Global competence. At the same time, marketisation and privatisation of education rapidly change the foundations of schooling (Ball, 2009; Rizvi, & Lingard, 2010). This could be understood as parts of global transformations and trends that in many cases are supported by neoliberal visions, visions that reshape educational systems (Beach, 2010; Popkewitz, 2008). This rearrangement influences all parts of schooling and creates consequences on many levels. To name a few, the rearrangement involves profitable businesses, competitive and governing structures, digitalisation, rearranging of decision-making and responsibility, and renegotiation of discourses, positions and processes (Ball, 2009; Bunar, & Ambrose, 2016; Dovemark & Erixon Arreman, 2017; Verger, Lubienski, & Steiner-Khamsi, 2016). Furthermore, new ways of acting and communicating can be seen when policy actors, private companies, NGOs, school leaders, researchers, and lobby groups collaborate in entangled networks resulting in blurring boundaries and interwoven practices (Ball, 2018; Simons, Lundahl, & Serpieri, 2013). This in turn impacts on accountability, risk-taking, responsibility and transparency. Thus, educational spaces become fundamentally transformed and issues of democracy, societal problems, citizenship, accessibility and the like need to be renegotiated in relation to a changed educational landscape. This symposium will illuminate and discuss these changes and their consequences. For example, what happens with decision-making processes, accessibility, diversity, and political actions? What logics becomes changed, manifested or inscribed? What can be marketed, and becomes possible to sell? Could one say that citizenship and democracy have become commodities, something to trade? These questions will be addressed at the symposium alongside the discussion of the role of educational research. We stress that researchers’ engagement in education are of great importance in our European context and have the possibility to affect schools, national and international policy-makers, so called edu-preneurs and all actors involved in education. The symposium consists of contributions representing a wide range of perspectives and approaches taken by researchers from Sweden, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, and Brazil. Consequently, the symposium will mirror a variety of national and educational contexts all with the dual focus on the theme of the symposium and the theme of the conference. Many of the researchers in the symposium belong to a newly formed network called Researchers on education and marketization (the REM network) founded within the Swedish research project Education Inc. The network now consists of nineteen researchers from three countries and eight universities that in different ways problematise and scrutinise marketisation and education and the urgent and necessary issues that evolves in when education becomes marketised and new logics change the conditions for schooling. The symposium has two parts. The first part starts with an introduction given by Anna Jobér, coordinator and co-founder of the REM network followed by presentation of six papers in two sessions. They are arranged in order to give a thought-proving and interesting symposium regarding the variety of research project, methodological and theoretical perspectives as well as cultural contexts. Finally, the symposium is wrapped up by a discussant, Professor Marie Brennan https://www.vu.edu.au/contact-us/marie-brennan.

Research topic: New actors in the field of education – ‘edu-preneurs’ – now offer a multitude of products and services to schools: digital solutions, school development models, teaching material, conferences, professional development, etc. This paper is part of a larger study, of which the purpose is to explore under what conditions, in what forms and with which consequences these ‘edu-preneurial’ actors market, sell and implement their products and services in Swedish schools. Theoretical framework: Theoretically this project learns from earlier studies concerning neoliberal governing, the marketization of school and the ongoing blurring of boundaries between public and private sectors. Methodological design: The larger study is accomplished through interviews with school leaders as well as with edupreneurial companies. In this specific paper we study what happens inside school because of edupreneurial engagement. We analyse the total amount of marketing material sent via mail and e-mail (and collected in this research study) to 12 participating school leaders during 2018-2019 and our interviews with these school leaders about the collected material. In focus of the paper are the implications for school leaders and how they experience the impact of edu-preneurial actors; what areas and tasks are outsourced, why and how the school organization is affected in terms of administration, teaching and learning. We are also interested in the strategies and marketing of the edu-preneurs themselves and what messages they want to convey to school leaders. The data is analysed from the following questions: • Quantity and distribution. What is the extent of the collected material and how is it distributed between different schools? • Stories. What does the empirical data tell us about the Swedish schoolÅLs challenges and solutions? • Themes. Is every possible school issue addressed, is there something for everyone, or is it all about one dominant theme? Expected findings: The data collection is ongoing and the results to be presented will be preliminary. We expect to have results telling us about 1) the extent and content of the marketing material sent out to school leaders by edu-preneurial actors in the Swedish context, 2) what products and services school leaders buy and under what terms and conditions, and 3) what kind of impact these external actors and solutions have, for school leaders, staff, pupils, and school practice. Relevance: Previous research has studied these questions on a policy-level. This study explores the micro-level where the operationalisation of different policies can be observed. We assert that knowledge about the micro-level help us understand the effects of outsourcing essential parts of education to external actors. As edu-prenurial engagement in education is a global phenomenon this is of importance in our Nordic context. We conclude by discussing this in terms of what counts as valid knowledge, good teaching and effective learning.

In their Inboxes, Swedish school leaders are confronted with offers of a multitude of products and services awaiting their action: digital solutions, school development models, conferences, professional development, etc. These emails are the point of departure of this study, aiming to analyse what happens inside school because of edu-preneurial engagement. Our study is part of a larger research project aiming to explore under what conditions, in what forms and with which consequences ‘edu-preneurial’ actors market, sell and implement their products and services in Swedish schools. An underlying thesis is that external actors are part of translating educational policy as well as offering tools for implementation of these policies. While previous research has studied these questions on a policy-level (Simons, Lundahl & Serpieri 2013; Ball 2009), our study explores the micro-level where the operationalisation of policies can be observed. Theoretically this project learns from earlier studies concerning neoliberal governing (Rizvi and Lingard 2010), the marketization of school (Bunar and Ambrose 2016), and the ongoing blurring of boundaries between public and private sectors (Ball 2007). The collection of empirical data is ongoing and consists of audiotaped focus group interviews with twelve school leaders as well as all the marketing material sent via mail and e-mail to them and gathered for three weeks (for each school leader, covering the whole year together) in 2018-2019. The data is analysed from the following themes and questions: 1) Stories, themes and policy. What does the empirical data tell us about the Swedish school´s challenges and solutions? How does this story, according to school leaders, resonate with school leaders’ actual realities and with ongoing national educational policy changes? 2) Quantity and distribution. What is the extent of the collected material and how is it distributed between different schools? 3) Content, timing and motive. What products and services do the school leaders eventually buy, when and why? In this symposium we expect to present results from all three themes, all though putting an emphasis on the first one: the stories emerging from the collected marketing materials and the stories about these stories. We assert that researching the educational micro-level in this way contributes to the understanding about the effects of national policies and the impact of external actors in implementing policy. As edu-prenurial engagement in education is a global phenomenon this is of importance in our European context. References: Ball, S.J. 2007. Education Plc: Understanding private sector participation in public sector education. London: Routledge. Ball, S. (2009). Privatising education, privatising education policy, privatising educational research: network governance and the ‘competition state’, Journal of Education policy, 24(1), 83-99. Bunar, N., & Ambrose, A. (2016). Schools, choice and reputation: Local school markets and the distribution of symbolic capital in segregated cities. Research in Comparative and International Education, 1, 1-18. Rizvi, F., & Lingard, B. (2010). Globalizing education policy. London: Routledge. Simons, M., Lundahl, L., & Serpieri, R. (2013). The Governing of Education in Europe: Commercial Actors, Partnerships and Strategies. European Educational Research Journal, 12(4), 416-424.