Working together towards school success in a rural school context: “It works well but we are not satisfied”

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to extend knowledge of how school actors’ conditions, understandings, and priorities influence what is regarded as school success and successful principalship. Empirically, it is based on a detailed analysis of how school success and successful principalship is understood and acted in a rural Swedish school context. Design/methodology/approach Inspired by ecological system and complexity theories, together with protocols recently established in the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP), we applied a mixed method approach combining half–structured interviews and a teacher-survey. In total we conducted 16 interviews with school leaders, teachers, students, parents, a superintendent, and a student counsellor. Findings The interviewed school actors emphasized the importance of trust and combining efforts to maintain sufficiently good academic results with respect for students’ needs and wellbeing. They described success in their school context as being built on cooperation and teamwork that preserves well-proven values and practices, with flexible, well-qualified teachers supporting students’ efforts to attain their individual goals while simultaneously seeking to widen their perspectives and knowledge. Originality/value Previous research on principalship in rural schools has shown the importance of individual principals maintaining a high profile and closely cooperating with the surrounding community. We add nuance to this understanding of successful principalship by highlighting the value of principals focusing on teamwork, drawing on their schools’ existing culture and the surrounding community to create a stable learning environment for students, while striving to lead incremental changes.