Designing temporary systems: Exploring local school improvement intentions in the Swedish context

This article targets local school improvement in Sweden and temporary systems as a model to organize improvement work. These data are based on a qualitative case study of teacher groups constituting a temporary system representing the different subjects in comprehensive school in a medium-sized urban municipality. A total of eight interviews were carried out with the head of the education administration, two central school developers, one school district leader, and four principals. The intentions and descriptions of the early start of the project were analyzed deductively using temporary system theory in combination with the social- versus the techno-structure qualities of an organization. The results show a dominance of techno-structure qualities through the time, task, team, and transition concepts of the temporary system. This is particularly significant with regard to transition. The findings suggest that knowledge of the features and functions of temporary systems in schools is insufficient, in spite of the fact that it is often used as an improvement approach. Therefore, the authors argue that the socio-structure qualities should be considered more centrally in order to successfully promote the innovative and learning functions of the temporary system.