Towards new forms of educational leadership? The local implementation of förstelärare^† in Swedish schools

Abstract

In 2013, the Swedish government launched a reform of career services for teachers that introduced förstelärare (‘first teacher’) as a new category. This article presents results from an ongoing research project about the implementation of the reform in a municipal local context in public schools with attention to leadership practices förstelärare engage in and the impact on the educational leadership of the principals. The theoretical framework for the analysis provides perspectives on the interdependencies between and within different levels and sub-systems in the school organisation through the concepts of nested learning systems and distributed leadership. The main results indicate that the introduction of förstelärare strengthens the idea of distributed leadership through the fact that förstelärare engage in leadership practices mandated by the principals. However, it also challenges existing collegial structures through an increased need for collaboration and interaction among both principals and förstelärare.

• educational leadership
• advanced skills teachers
• school improvement
• career pathways for teachers

Notes

† The Swedish term förstelärare will be used throughout, which in English is translated as ‘first teacher’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniel Alvunger

Daniel Alvunger, Senior lecturer (PhD) in Education, is a member of the research group SITE (Studies in Curriculum, Teaching and Evaluation) at Linnæus University. His research concerns curriculum innovation, educational leadership, educational reform enactment and school improvement on local level.