This paper examines how superintendents and school principals enact national policy reform expectations and what characterises their local organisational arrangements. Furthermore, the paper investigates how superintendents and school principals deal with tensions as entrepreneurs. The study builds on qualitative interview data from two…

Traditionally, professorial recruitment has been controlled by scholars themselves selecting the best qualified candidates as a new member of the academic community according to scientific criteria. Recent studies have, however, documented that recruitment has become increasingly influenced by managers and HR personnel who approach professorial…

Purpose: This paper aims to conceptualize the role of leadership in organizational learning processes in multinational companies (MNCs). The authors present a model describing how managers in an MNC facilitated transitions between sub-processes of organizational learning at several organizational levels. Design/methodology/approach: The authors…

This study investigates how principals position specialized teachers (i.e., teachers with expertise in a specific area who are assigned to build the capacity of teachers through professional development) and how these positions might enable and constrain the teachers' actions. Today, a general tendency to foster professionalization by establishing…

A full academic career encompasses both successes and failures. The purpose of this study was to delve into academic successes and failures, going beyond the conventional focus on objective measures, such as performance, rankings, and funding. Through semi-structured interviews with twelve senior academics from seven countries, we explored…

This study explores how the protracted exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic influenced role expectations and leadership practices among Norwegian school principals. Following up Lien et al. (2022). School principals' experiences and learning from the COVID-19 pandemic in Norway. "Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research," 1-16, nine…

This study explores how Norwegian school leaders develop their capacity for instructional leadership, a leadership style that is strongly related to school effectiveness and school improvement across a range of national school systems. The concept captures important aspects of Norwegian school leaders' task preferences. To gain further insight…

This article presents a case study on changing food practices from traditional cold sandwich meals to hot meals in a Norwegian kindergarten. Data were sourced from interviews, complemented by non-participatory video observation and observational notes. Building on Fullan's model for understanding a change process, this paper presents the…

This synthesis report is based on a survey carried out during 2022 with Cedefop's reporting network ReferNet. It makes an important contribution to understanding the magnitude of early leaving from VET (ELVET) in those European countries where relevant data are available, and the mechanisms and support measures countries employ to measure and…

Previous research has contributed to the literature on what constitutes school leaders' and teachers' democratic practices in both high- and low-stakes accountability contexts, but less is known about how they interpret, legitimize, and translate the democratic purpose of education in a low-stakes, 'soft-regulation' system. The current study used…

Increased attention has been paid to school superintendents and their role in school reforms. Still, there are few studies on dialogue meetings between actors at different levels in the school hierarchy. The current paper investigates how a superintendent balances between trust and control while supporting school development through dialogue…

Continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers in vocational education and training (VET) in Norway has largely been either the responsibility of each individual teacher or a by-product of teachers' cooperation related to student placements. Additionally, VET teachers' professional development is influenced by external drivers. These…

Purpose: This article investigates how school leaders make sense of social justice and democracy in their practice in two settings, a high-stakes testing and accountability context, the San Francisco Bay Area, California, and a low-stakes testing and accountability context, Norway. It demonstrates how leaders view relationships among education,…

This article explores teaching practice concerning sexual harassment and abuse in Norwegian upper secondary schools based on phone interviews with 64 social studies teachers. This study portrays great variation in what extent teachers address these issues and discusses how this variation can be understood considering teachers' personal…