En narrativ studie av rektorers erfarenheter kring rektorsuppdraget

Sammanfattning: The principal's assignment is a complex one, situated in a tense field between the profession and politics. Because of this multidimensional assignment, with varying tasks and contradictory expectations, a willingness to examine how principals choose to tell about their duties emerged.The purpose of this narrative study was to examine what experiences of different events have challenged principals, the support they received and/or what support they would have wanted in thesesituations. Based on the purpose of the study the following research questions were formed: -What does the principals’ choose to disclose about their duties as principals?-Which challenging events in the role as principal does the principals’ chooseto disclose?-What kind of support did the principals receive during the challenging events and what kind of support would they have wanted to receive?In this qualitative study the data is gathered through five semi-structured interviewswith active principals. By taking a narrative approach principals’ life-stories are created through the disclosed events, which in turn emanates from the research questions. The principal’s statements are analyzed by applying a social constructivist perspective where learning, knowing and acting are central elements. The principals’ life-stories testifies a number of emotions, such as vulnerability, loneliness, inadequacy, lack of understanding and lack of trust. In the conversations and reflections that arose during data collection, a lot ended up the principals themselves, what they could have done differently and why it turned out the way it did. The multidimensional assignment also emerged in the principals’ stories, such as difficulties in prioritizing tasks, that much of the time is spent on things not part of the core assignment as well as various tasks concerning matters outside their expertise.The study shows the importance of understanding how political and cultural contexts support, limit and are shaped by the personal elements that exist in identity creation. Bringing together different perspectives such as individual, group and organization to promote new knowledge and be able to adapt the knowledge to its culturaland social context is essential for school organizers to be able to create support structures based on principals’ needs.