Research shows that leadership is crucial for professional learning, often highlighting principals' "or" middle leaders' leading practices. However, in leading, professions with differing roles work together. With a decentring perspective on leadership, we shift the focus from the individual principal or middle leader to joint leading…

The aim of the article is to examine first-line managers' experiences of their managerial role and gender in elderly care. Forty qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with first-line managers (35 women and five men) from four different organisations in Sweden. The findings suggest that the role of first-line managers was formed in…

The purpose of this article is to explore the development of the knowledge base on middle leadership in schools. Since the seminal reviews conducted by Bennett a contemporary scan only of the scholarly literature on middle leaders/leadership in schools has not been undertaken. Consequently, this article looks at outputs relating to this topic by…

Superintendents, functioning as the local school boards' chief executive officers, play a fundamental role in improving schools. While teachers and principals have been given a prominence in students´ learning outcomes, the perspective of superintendents as instructional leaders is often forgotten. Based on a nationwide survey of Swedish school…

This longitudinal study aims to create in-depth knowledge about the phenomena of middle-leadership and career in school by identifying (1) driving forces for seeking and maintaining middle-leading positions, (2) opportunities and difficulties in maintaining the middle-leading role over time, and (3) underlying thoughts of career disclosed in the…

Leadership has long been acknowledged as a significant dimension in effective school functioning and, indeed, school leaders can play a substantial role in professional development of staff. Here we have centred on the "practices of leading" as opposed to the qualities or characteristics of leaders, and this is emphasised by our use of…

The article is based on a comparative investigation of the training and further training paths into middle management on building sites in eleven countries in Europe. Using as its primary examples a comparison between Hungary, where vocational training takes place predominantly within the state education system, and Germany, where the dual system…

A study of 67 Swedish expatriate bosses and 104 local Hong Kong middle managers tested a quantitative needs assessment technique measuring work values. Two-thirds of middle managers' work values were not correctly estimated by their bosses, especially instrumental values (pay, benefits, security, working hours and conditions), indicating a need…