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This article reports findings from a case study carried out in a Swedish municipality focusing on a school-to-school collaboration established to support implementation of a nationwide curriculum. The aim was to study how ideas for improvements in this temporary organisation were transferred to the local schools. The findings presented are derived from audio-recordings (n013) and semistructured interviews (n021). Community of practice theory and the concepts of boundary objects and brokering guided the analysis work. The results revealed that, generally, transfer was restricted to boundary objects with a closed character, meaning these objects should be distributed to and unpacked in the local schools without further dialogues and modifications. In addition, non-formal brokers had less capacity to extend and lead improvement processes in local schools. This approach also reduced the possibilities for principals and teachers in the local schools to benefit from more advanced learning discussions and understandings developed in the temporary organisation. The article shows that designers of improvement work must consider boundary objects with a more openended character, permitting an innovative interpretation and learning process. Finally, in this process the findings also reveal the importance of formal brokers underpinning a transfer process in which both participation and reification are considered.

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.

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