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.

本文分析了学校领导如何描绘他们的自主权以及他们如何理解自主权与控制权之间的关系。提请注意三个领导重点：学校的教学方向、内部组织的决策和学校改进工作。文章整合了瑞典学校领导的调查数据（n = 1286）。此外，在定性数据分析中应用了两个理论类别，以探索学校领导和地方教育当局及其独立对应方如何理解自主与控制之间的关系：技术意义构建 (TSM) 和批判性反思性学习。研究结果表明，无论是公立学校还是私立学校，学校领导在三个重点中都经历了相当高的自主权。调查结果还表明，独立学校的学校领导在学校的教学方向和学校改进工作方面拥有更高程度的自主权。然而，效应量很低，表明必须谨慎考虑结果。反过来，定性数据分析，揭示了公立和私立学校的学校领导对 TSM 的总体重视，这降低了形成新颖而充满活力的领导的可能性。基于这些结果，本文得出结论，自主性可能是学校领导的重要先决条件，但理解自主性与控制之间的关系对于成功的学校改进更为重要。