Research topic/aim: 

By examining how Local Education Authority (LEA) officials interpret and implement systematic quality work (SQW), this study contributes to research by illuminating the sensemaking processes through which national policies are incorporated into daily SQW practices. Drawing on sense-making and organization theory (Czarniawska, 2004, 2006; Weick, 1995), the present study aims to adhere to the existing body of research on LEA quality work, by focusing on how LEA officials, as intermediators within the local organization of quality management, try to make sense of the quality system when constructing and executing SQW.

Theoretical framework: 

Our conceptualization of SQW is grounded in the theory of sensemaking (Weick, 1995; Weick et al., 2005), which frames SQW as a continuous process of action embedded within social contexts and collective structures, where actors share time, space, and meaning-making practices. As Czarniawska (2006) argues, such actions are inherently interconnected and situated within specific organizational settings. Theoretically, this study also draws on Czarniawska’s (2004) concept of story-telling in organizations. With inspiration from Weick (1995) and Czarniawska (2004; 2006), we understand SQW as an ongoing enactment – something that LEA officials, together with principals and other school actors, actively engage in to make sense of in trying to respond to the question “What is going on?”

 Methodology/research design: 

The study is based on a three-year investigation conducted from 2020 to 2023 across five Swedish municipalities, drawing upon data from semi-structured interviews with 16 LEA officials (e.g. quality and development managers, operations controllers, municipal lecturers), participant observations at SQW meetings (n=7), and analyses of internal policy documents from each of the five LEAs.  

Expected results/findings: 

Sensemaking takes place in the complex, ambiguous and uncertain situations under which LEA officials operate when attempting to translate the national SQW policies into meaningful, everyday organizational practice. As these policies are broad, visionary and lack direct relevance to specific, practical contexts, LEA officials face challenges in enacting them meaningfully – making the sensemaking process particularly difficult (cf. Weick, 1995; Weick et al., 2005). Grounded in Weick’s sensemaking theory, the research identifies three primary processes by which LEA officials are making sense of national SQW policies: professional sensemaking of SQW in an ambiguous environment; sensemaking as adapting to prevailing societal norms and values; and sensemaking as reducing complexity of SQW. 

Relevance to Nordic educational research:

By focusing on how LEA officials make sense of the quality system when constructing and executing SQW, this study contributes to Nordic educational research by highlighting sense-making processes through which national policies are translated into daily practices. We herewith supplement existing research, focusing on the intermediate role LEA officials have in relation to other school actors, and by theoretically showing the significant role sense-making plays in conducting SQW in educational organizations.