This paper reports on a study conducted within the Swedish national principal education programme at Karlstad university during 2021-2022, in collaboration between participating principals practicing within Swedish school for pupils with learning and severe learning disorders and a researcher. During the second and third year of the programme, principals have the assignment to examine some practices within their schools and formulate a strategy to reshape and improve practices. The assignment was particular challenging for the principals practicing within Swedish school for pupils with learning and severe learning disorders as the school form and its practices is research neglected. As a response, a research collaboration was set up between the principals and a researcher within the educational programme.

An action research approach was used in which principals were supervised to together problematize practice and formulate a common focus for examination and improvement. Moreover, they discussed how to systematically examine practice of focus, agreed to conduct interviews and constructed a common interview guide. Quality in interview method and analysis were discussed along the way. Principals examined their schools individually and wrote individual reports of their findings, reflecting on their own leading practice and how to reshape their leading practice to influence on and improve studied practices. Their written reports were then analysed by the framework of theory of practice architecture to identify principals practice architecture and its enabling and constraining traits on their school improvement efforts. 

Findings reveal a practice architecture in which enabling and constraining traits seems to be mostly influenced by social-political arrangements influenced by the educational complex, that oversees the unique mission of the school form and its preconditions, and tend to squeeze school for pupils with learning and severe learning disorders into mainstream schools’ templates for systematic quality work. This shapes principal’s interpretation of the schools mission which in turn shape their practice to adjust to these expectations. Principals’ findings and reflections of their practice led to the insights that their own altered relating of the mission of school for pupils with learning and severe learning disorders influence on local school politicians and school leaders’ expectations of their schools, as well as on teacher and paraprofessional practices. By embracing the uniqueness of the school forms ‘mission principals alter their arrangements and influence on a variety of practices within the educational complex which enable school improvement efforts. This means that principal may reshape their practice architecture from within. Findings contributes to the limited knowledge field of Swedish school for pupils with learning and severe learning disorders and its principals leading practice. The paper may also provide idea on how to set up education as well as research studies as collaboration between practitioners and researchers.