Democratic governing ideals and the power of intervening spaces as prerequisite for student learning

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. These groups can have a formal function in the organization or they can comprise informal groups in the governing chain. 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 also be seen as a prerequisite for realization of national policies in local schools.

Democratic values are ideological fundamentals in many societies. They raise issues regarding how to balance respecting the individual and pursuing the best outcome for all citizens (Rothstein, 2000). This causes debates on equality, inclusion, individual choice and opportunities.

Because schools reflect and educate the next generation of adults, we analyze how democratic ideals, norms and values in educational policy documents are visible in school leaders' intervening spaces in the governing chain. The empirical observations derive from two Swedish school districts. Our research question is as follows:

The literature on leadership in public-sector organizations is usually oriented toward the function of school leaders in administration and their accountability for student outcomes (e.g. Leithwood and Azah, 2017; Gu et al., 2018). Educational policy improvement has been a research area for many years (Lawn and Lingard, 2002). Often the results indicate what is successful or not in a specific process or event. We contribute by highlighting the parallel processes that take place simultaneously at various leadership levels. Ideals such as inclusion, transparency and involvement create opportunities and challenges related to turning ideas from one level into actions at the next. Actors in formal leadership positions are expected to use both managerial and leadership abilities to reach decided goals and obtain results above expectations. The formal and informal interactions between leaders in the same school organization form priorities and working conditions within the system.

By describing and analyzing how politicians, superintendents and principals in public (municipal) 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. We assert that policy drift is inevitable, necessary and positive in the governing chain. Powerful intervening spaces create motivation and engagement that is necessary to realize policy intentions in practice. These activities in the intervening spaces bind intentions and practice. One reason to highlight the intervening spaces is that many of the interactions in organizations are complex, sensitive and taken for granted. How one level communicates and relates to another can contribute to higher achievement or to conflicts and mistrust.

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. By context, we mean both the local setting in which the municipality and/or local schools work and what national policy constitutes (Louis and Smith, 1991). The logic and guiding principles behind the governing system is part of the context. These democratic principles should guide both political decision-making and political leadership and should also be used as guiding principles for civil servants such as superintendents, principals and teachers. In the Swedish case, one basic principle is that teaching and administration follow the democratic principles and respect the intrinsic value of all individuals. The system of governing has the potential to facilitate and constrain different types of leadership ideals and actions in relation to democratic and participatory practices, as well as accountability and control. This makes the relationship between the formal rational governing structures of policy and the more informal power of the intervening spaces an interesting knowledge area.

The empirical study design

We used a mixed method approach. The qualitative data are a set from in-depth interviews conducted with actors in the governing chain at the municipal level.

Our data set comes from a study conducted in two municipalities representing the 25 most populated cities in Sweden. The study was conducted during two research visits to each city conducted eight months apart. The first visit was aimed at providing an initial overview of leadership roles and organizations. This was complemented with official documents and statistics. In the second data collection, we conducted interviews with leaders on the district level and two schools in each municipality. We conducted interviews with superintendents (n = 2), deputy superintendents (area managers; n = 5),  politicians related to governance of education at the municipal level (n = 4), quality assurance coordinators (n = 4), principals (n = 4), assistant principals (n = 5), school secretaries (n = 2),  first teachers (teacher leaders; n = 11) and teachers (n = 29). Of the interviews, 41 were conducted as individual interviews,  and  9 were organized as group interviews, for a total of 66 informants. All informants hold leadership positions in the local governing chain. Two researchers conducted each interview. One researcher asked questions, while the other took notes and supported with additional probing questions. All interviews were recorded and transcribed.

To obtain a more nuanced understanding of relationships and interactions, we completed the interviews with a visual exercise (Grimm et al., 2021). During the interview, we had a large blank paper divided into three sections and put an adhesive note with the interviewee's name in the middle. We then asked the person to think about their organization and that an organization has several organizational leadership levels which were symbolized by the lines on the paper. They were informed that they could move their own name to the most appropriate place. Thereafter we asked them to add notes with the names of persons with important functions as well as colleagues at their workplace. Our purpose in visualizing these relationships was to reflect with the respondent on formal roles and expectations in relation to individual experiences of their understanding of the power relations and their relationship with the formal structure.

School institutions are dependent on the local context. A focus on interactions and relationship can contribute to a larger understanding of both the whole system and its parts (Shaked and Schecter, 2017). In this article, our intention is not to compare or understand the relationship within each municipality or local school. Instead, we have used the empirical data to give examples of the dynamics and interactions on both vertical and horizontal organizational levels.

The Swedish school system – a bird's-eye view

In most countries, various laws and policy documents contain mission statements that describe the purpose of schools, as well as an education policy describing how the associated goals should be achieved. Most of those statements contain two overarching missions: passing on knowledge from one generation to the next and facilitating the upbringing of good and harmonious citizens who can lead and continue to develop democratic societies. Those goals can only be fulfilled in schools that take full responsibility for ensuring that students acquire and develop the knowledge that is necessary for each individual's understanding of what a democratic society means and what the alternative could be.

The Scandinavian countries have generally been represented as having a distinctive type of education system that is strongly influenced by a social democratic ideology embodying the comprehensive values related to providing education for all, fostering support for democratic values and emphasizing the equality of opportunities (Trujillo et al., 2021). This view of education has been and remains an issue for continuous debate, both endogenous and exogenous (Ozga et al., 2011; Gunter, 2016). This has led to changes in how education is planned and carried out in all Scandinavian countries. Some scholars argue that there has been a move away from collectivist, comprehensive values toward more individualist values (Lundahl, 2012; Leo, 2013; Pashiardis and Johansson, 2020).

The national expectations are that school leaders will adjust their leadership in relation to shifting policy focus and societal changes. When politicians in the parliament make new national policy decisions, their mission is almost always based on the desire to improve schools. Therefore, they want implementation to be quick and effective (Lundgren, 2012).

For many years, there was little or no discussion about the role of leaders as models in relation to educational policy change. If the goal of national policy is to create democratic schools that foster the next generation, there is a need to review the style of leadership used in the schools. Students should not only learn about democracy but also experience democracy during the school day (Leo, 2013).

In research, there is a great deal of evidence that school leaders are important change agents (e.g. Day and Leithwood, 2006; Louis, 2013; Ärlestig et al., 2015). How leadership is practiced in relation to staff and other leaders in the formal structure is important for the quality of policy application and practice changes. Teachers' behavior and priorities in their practice with students is vital to their work with new policies. Lately, in many countries, there has been a focus on how teacher teams can improve activities with students through collective learning in professional learning communities (Stoll and Louis, 2007; Timperley, 2011). These teacher teams can also be viewed as intervening spaces and are, as such, of interest for our understanding of the governing chain.

In the late 1970s, a decentralization process began in Sweden that increased municipalities' ownership of schools. This occurred gradually, but the process was complete by the time the new school law was accepted in the early 1990s. Decentralization was key, so the state started giving lump sums to the municipalities to finance the local schools. At the same time, the municipalities could support the schools with additional local tax money. The municipality acquired full responsibility for organizing and implementing school activities in 1991. This included the municipality's becoming the employer of and responsible party for principals and teachers and the daily work done in schools (Johansson and Ärlestig, 2022).

In 1992, independent schools were introduced in Sweden and were given the same rights as public-sector schools to work; they were financed by a voucher system from the municipalities. The following year, Sweden granted parents the right to free school choice, including public and independent schools within the municipality in which they lived. This gave the municipality a new role: It would now both own the public schools and transfer student financial vouchers to the independent schools in the community (SOU, 2015:22).

On the more ideological side of the school policy, it was clear that the schools should give the students the knowledge necessary to become citizens. Students should be trained in and be able to think in democratic ways and should respect that all people are equally important. They should also be informed, so they can make active individual choices and know how to participate and be involved in issues they consider important. This was expressed clearly as a central task for teachers and principals.

The different reforms did not meet the intended expectations which underline that the work and quality of the intervening spaces had not received enough attention. Different political intentions regarding how to solve issues give power to the intervening spaces in the chain of government. We discuss enactment processes at the school level, but there are important intervening spaces at all levels in the chain of government, and these do not always apply to a rational implementation process. In one early publication, political scientists Pressman and Wildavsky (1984) pointed out that laws are implemented by persons who have different understandings of their meaning and who sometimes do not view the decision as important for effective implementation. This study was followed by many more implementation studies both internationally and locally in Sweden, and our study follows in their tradition. People having different understandings of policy happens in schools all the time in relation to the teachers' freedom to teach, as well as principals' and superintendents' priorities. There is a drift in understanding every time an implementation process moves from a political decision to an administrative process (Johansson and Ärlestig, 2022).

The challenges in the governing process underline the importance of intervening spaces. The actors in these spaces have the power at their level in the governing chain to adjust the intention with local policy. These adjustments start a policy drift to transform policy ideas into local context and prerequisites for classroom teaching.

Our empirical case and its local governing spaces

In Sweden, a high number of reforms, together with an increasing focus on control and accountability, have contributed to an increase in the number of leaders during the last decade. Notable here is that the number of leaders that have increased most is different kinds of middle leaders below the top leaders. This fact has a direct effect on the intervening spaces in the policy chain (Johansson and Ärlestig, 2022). How leaders interact builds partly on the structure and culture of the organization and partly on the historical experience of various attempts to organize for improvement. As shown in earlier research, organizational structure and culture are dependent on each other and are prerequisites for leadership (Höög et al., 2005). At all levels, we find statements on how structure and culture form and are formed by individual leaders and their relationships and interactions with other leaders and staff members in the intervening spaces. The empirical data are examples of how the interaction within the intervening spaces creates both possibilities and challenges. Individual actors' agency, competence and abilities will be mixed with organizational prerequisites which again highlight the complexity that forms actions within organizations. Our empirical data revealed similarities, and it was not unusual that superintendents, principals and first teachers gave similar answers even if they did not work in the same municipality or school.

Conclusion

This article discusses the intervening spaces that are necessary for converting policy intentions into practice. During the last decade, with the importance of efficiency and accountability, we have seen a growing number of actors in the governing chain from national politicians to classroom actors (Pashiardis and Johansson, 2016; Ärlestig and Johansson, 2020).

Democracy cannot be taken for granted even in a stable welfare country such as Sweden. Many policy reforms have implications for how resources are distributed and how to prioritize missions. Societal changes, together with ambitious political intentions, lead to reforms that must be interpreted and transformed into action at the local level. These processes involve many organizational levels and require further research (Norqvist and Ärlestig, 2021).

The link between the policy developments we described at the beginning of the chapter and the opinions expressed by local actors in the school system support the idea of a democratic school system, a system where actors on all levels have an important role in realizing the ambition to give all students a high-quality democratic learning experience and democratic school experience. For that to happen, all actors working in schools must understand the concept of democratic schools and work accordingly in relation to their leaders, staff, colleagues and students.

This needs to be mirrored in the leadership processes, as they model the behavior within the organization which includes involving and engaging actors on all levels. In our interviews, the respondents verified that they strive toward inclusive and trustful relationships in which support is the main aim.

Our results mainly affirm and point at the importance of leaders taking intervening spaces into account. Without an understanding that interaction and interpretations will determine the quality of both processes and results, there is a high risk that important initiatives and reforms will not be sustainable. This is visualized through comments such as “We need to do this together,” which indicates that, in this case, the superintendent recognizes the knowledge and ability at the local school level.

Even if leaders on all organizational levels have good intentions, it seems that leaders have an implicit understanding of the importance to translate and interpret each levels understanding and mission. Intervening spaces open up for handling conflicting understanding and priorities. How relationships and interactions are built will determine how successful the organization is to engage and use all levels knowledge and work.

The superintendent's leadership will determine whether there is enough dialogue and room to maneuver at the lower levels. The superintendent's role becomes more of a facilitator than a manager in principle's enactment of various challenges. As a leader, it becomes important to foster both independence and loyalty at the same time. This is possible in intervening spaces that have the same goals and embrace the democratic ideals that also should be visible in the classroom.

All groups verified that horizontal conversation and informal dialogues between colleagues in intervening spaces is important in forming and moving the process forward. Such spaces clarify aims and intentions and form arguments, actions and teaching content for students. These meetings help to strengthen and make each level more independent and still working within the organizational frames. Here, the vertical meeting plays an important role because they can visualize perspectives from several organizational levels. They also help to use managerial resources and decisions to support educational challenges.

Statements at the school leadership level demonstrated the importance of involvement and being heard, which is a foundation of democracy. Remarks such as “It was a good process in which everyone had to buy in even if they were of another opinion” focus on processes that involve everyone instead of the single leader making a decision by himself. Through conscious actions, the principal empowered the teachers and gave them responsibility for the situation. Even if there are different understandings and conflicts, leadership relationship and interaction will determine how other actors will perceive the challenges that all organizations have. It is obvious that without intervening spaces or if they are poorly handled, there will be gaps and mistrust between actors which will obstruct the ideas of a democratic school where all actors are respected and take responsibility for their assignments.

In the strict formal local governing structure, it is obvious that the chair of the political board, the superintendent, the principals and the teacher leaders exhibit variation in terms of accountability and support. The deputies and teacher leaders talk much about policy changes related to coaching and problem-solving, whereas the chair, superintendent and principals tend to return to organizational objectives and results. A challenge is to balance the current problem-solving with strategic processes. A superintendent described his leadership as follows: “Sometimes I am engaged early in the process when they need my support.” In this way, he gave the principals his trust and the possibility of taking responsibility and showing that they had the competence and professional skills to solve the problem.

Taking time to involve actors and to interpret and create policies that allow the next level to make their own interpretations is necessary for sense making and engagement. Providing enough time and balancing information, interpretation and control to move processes forward is a continuous challenge.

It is natural that leaders focus on the interactions and relations with the coworkers who are close to them. To take responsibility for the whole organizations development, it is necessary to increase the understanding of how interpretation and involvement helps to translate general and abstract goals into practice. The process of making schools more democratic started in the 1950s, and it has been in focus ever since. Now we can see changes in how schools are governed. In the formal model, the governing chain of the educational sector has no boxes for intervening spaces when described in rational terms. In our analysis, leadership is obviously about more than making decisions. It is also about facilitating and creating trust, engagement, motivation and willingness to take responsibility. In this process, can a continuous work with intervening spaces on all levels make it possible (Johansson and Ärlestig, 2022). Our empirical data for this research are from the local level, but the intervening spaces have the same function even at higher levels in the national educational system.

School organization will always have improvement areas and challenges. Leaders with different opinions and competence secure a vivid discussion. This is a part of healthy organizations and should have more attention. To fully understand leadership and organizations, it is necessary to sometimes focus on parallel processes and how these contribute to overlaps and gaps. More research on what creates tensions and how these are handle in intervening spaces can give more knowledge on democratic processes and how organizations work to create support, control and use professional competence at all levels.