Team Switzerland
Switzerland provides a particularly interesting research context, as school principals and teachers have a comparatively high degree of professional autonomy. Educational governance is not fully regulated on the national level, and responsibility for schooling lies largely with the cantons. This results in substantial structural differences across regions, creating a diverse and flexible school system.
Until now, existing research on school principal well-being in the Swiss context has often focused on regional or cantonal perspectives, with initial monitoring on school principal work challenges, resources, and job satisfaction being conducted on a national level. The Swiss team aims to enrich existing monitoring by investigating multiple dimensions of Swiss school principals’ well-being, providing insights into how the decentralized governance structures and high levels of autonomy shape school principals’ and teachers’ work demands, resources, and well-being.
The research is conducted in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, with more than 400 principals and their teachers from around 20 cantons participating in the first data collection in fall 2025. Their answers provide a rich dataset that captures the complexity and variability of leadership and working conditions within the Swiss educational context.
Would you like to learn more about the WESPA project in Switzerland? Please click here.
