Successful Health Promoting School Leadership: A Question of Synchronisation

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Leading for Student Health and Well-Being

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to identify the role of the principal in establishing a whole school approach for health and wellbeing. Two questions are asked: (1) What do successful Swedish principals do when they take on a whole school approach? (2) How do these results relate to previous research on successful school leadership? It draws on document studies and interviews with principals, student health team members and teachers in Sweden. This paper argues that successful school leaders are crucial in establishing a whole school approach, because of the work they do to synchronise the health-promoting activities in schools. The study identifies four aspects of coordination that need to be enacted simultaneously when leading health-promoting processes.

Author

• Pia Skott, Stockholm University