Susanne SahlinI have been an active member of BELMAS for the last 10 years, I have regularly presented at the leadership preparation and development research interest group, with colleagues from Sweden, and colleagues from Russia and England, too. I have worked in Educational Leadership in Sweden for more than 25 years. I currently work at Mid Sweden University in Sweden, I’m the Director of the National Principal Leadership Training Programme. From the autumn I’m starting a new position in Norway as an Associate Professor in Organisation and Leadership in Education. I have presented with a colleague from Iceland at the ECER, and I would like to be an international voice on Council representing Scandinavia, and our colleagues in continental Europe. BELMAS is an international organization, and I regularly come to events in England, but would also like to be able to ‘fly the flag’ more formally in Scandinavia, and I’m uniquely well-positioned to achieve this.
I am a social science researcher with extensive management and teaching experience, a great interest in pedagogy, and solid digital educational skills. My core interest has always been organizational and leadership development in the education sector, and I specialized in principals’ leadership practices in school improvement practices during my postgraduate, and now I specialize in principals’ preparation and continuing professional development, and principals’ leadership.
I want to contribute with a Scandinavian research profile and connect the Scandinavian perspective with the national and global perspective at BELMAS.
As a professional academic, I am organized, structured, responsible, learning, and development-oriented with a strong focus on collaboration and teamwork at all levels (researchers, teachers, students, practitioners, and external actors). I have good leadership qualities with great social and networking skills, I am communicative, relational, unpretentious, clear, committed, and with high ambitions and a strong drive to achieve goals. I also hope that I am happy and positive, good at seeing and confirming other people, to make other people grow and become their best selves with me. My colleagues and collaborators describe me as open-minded, well-organized, strategic, constructive, independent, a very reliable and active team member, positive and supportive, and a very good leader. My students, experienced principals taking a course in pedagogical leadership during 2019 and 2020, described me with the following words: “You have been a very positive and constructive teacher and course leader who actively created opportunities for us to learn from each other and take with us what you have to contribute. A big praise!” and “You, Susanne, have been a fantastically responsive course leader who gently and considerately guided us forward, all of which you have “carried” us in a nice way. So very happy that I got the opportunity to take this course. THANKS!”
I look forward to hearing from you. Do not hesitate to contact me for any further information you may require.
