Abstract
PurposeIn the rational model of the democratic governing chain, intervening spaces at all levels are neglected in relation to the policy process. An intervening space is a group of persons with the power and responsibility to interpret policy at their level in an organization. The research question is as follows: How are democratic policy ideas visible in the intervening spaces of a governing chain in public schools?Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on two municipalities representing the 25 most populated cities in Sweden. The data are based on interviews with 66 informants with leadership roles on the district level and two schools in each municipality.FindingsLeadership is obviously more than making decisions. It is also about facilitating and creating trust, engagement, motivation and willingness to take responsibility. In this process, intervening spaces are central. They exist at all levels from the national ministry to the classroom. The empirical examples show the importance and challenges in how different leadership roles, relationships and interaction transform policy intentions to practice on the local level.Originality/valueThe authors contribute by highlighting the parallel interpretation processes that take place at various leadership levels locally. There are possibilities and challenges in aligning the intervening spaces into a rational governing chain. The findings indicate that intervening spaces and policy drift is vital to support, control and use professional competence in the process to transfer political ideas to classroom practice.
Highlights
Introduction and purposeThis article examines how national educational policies are affected by intervening spaces in the Swedish school system governing chain
By describing and analyzing how politicians, superintendents and principals in public schools think about their leadership in relation to the context in which their leadership is situated, it is possible to acquire a deeper understanding of how local actors use intervening spaces to realize policy intentions
Following Karen Louis’s interest in the learning cultures of school systems and how professional communities are developing organizational learning and trust to improve student learning (e.g. Leithwood et al, 2012; Louis and Lee, 2016; Murphy and Louis, 2018), we argue that studies on educational leadership should consider context at all hierarchical levels
Summary
Introduction and purpose This article examines how national educational policies are affected by intervening spaces in the Swedish school system governing chain. In the rational models of the governing chain, intervening spaces at all levels are neglected in relation to the policy process We argue that their importance has increased because of democratic organizational ideals such as governing by relationships, trust, inclusion and equity. An intervening space is a group of persons with the power and responsibility to interpret policy at their level in an organization Such actors understand and form new policies, routines and activities to transform ideas into actions. An important aspect in a democratic culture is to recognize that there are multiple voices and perspectives on how to reach a common ideal society. They can be seen as a prerequisite for realization of national policies in local schools. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
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