Are we making sense? The logics and (il)logics of principals’ organizing towards quality assurance in school-age educare

Quality assurance (QA) is often considered a crucial step towards development in educational organizations and constitutes a staple of the current reform movement towards standardization and local quality management in the Swedish system. While shown to be implemented disparately within various educational contexts, challenges in implementation are especially apparent in those that lack standardized or clear assessment criteria. This study explores the perceptions of principals and deputy principals in relation to what enables and constrains their organizing towards QA in Swedish school-age educare (SAEC) – an extended education program facing these challenges. The results show that principals play a crucial role in shaping the outcomes of the implementation of QA practices in SAEC. Outcomes appear to depend on how they make sense (or don’t make sense/make nonsense) of external demands in relation to their internal practices – resulting in a lack of shared meaning, i.e. organizational dischronization.