Sense-making of autonomy and control: Comparing school leaders in public and independent schools in a Swedish case

Abstract

This article analyses how school leaders depict their autonomy and how they make sense of the relationship between autonomy and control. Attention is drawn to three leadership focuses: the pedagogical direction of the school, decision-making over the internal organisation, and school improvement work. The article integrates survey data on Swedish school leaders (n = 1286). In addition, two theoretical categories were applied in the qualitative data analysis to explore how school leaders and local education authorities and its independent counterpart make sense of the relationship between autonomy and control: technical sense-making (TSM) and critical reflective learning. The findings showed that school leaders, both in public and independent schools, experienced a rather high degree of autonomy within the three focuses. The findings also indicated that school leaders in independent schools experienced a higher degree of autonomy regarding the pedagogical direction of the school and school improvement work. However, the effect sizes were low, indicating that the results must be considered with caution. The qualitative data analysis, in turn, revealed an overall emphasis on TSM among school leaders both in public and independent schools, reducing the possibilities for a novel and vibrant leadership. Based on these results, the article concludes that autonomy could constitute an important prerequisite for school leadership, but making sense of the relationship between autonomy and control stands out as even more important for successful school improvement.