Swedish school organizers navigating conflicting expectations. To whom do they perceive themselves accountable?

This article contributes to research on educational governance by showing how accountability relations shape the interpretation and enactment of national policy at the meso level. By approaching accountability as a social relation rather than a policy instrument, it highlights how formally similar governance arrangements may give rise to different practices. The study examines Swedish school organizers, an understudied group occupying a central position in the governance chain, and how they navigate partly conflicting expectations from actors across governance levels. Drawing on the Accountability Regimes Framework, it explores (1) which expectations and demands organizers identify, (2) how they prioritize when demands collide, and (3) what governance practices emerge from these prioritization processes. The study uses abductive qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews with thirteen superintendents representing public, private for-profit, and private non-profit organizers in Norrbotten County, Sweden. The findings show that all organizers face extensive state steering often poorly adapted to local conditions, yet respond differently depending on organizational context. Public organizers rely on legality and administrative procedure, for-profit organizers emphasize internal alignment and efficiency, and non-profit organizers draw on proximity, values, and trust. Similar arrangements are thus enacted as distinct governance practices across organizational contexts.