School shyness may have immediate and long-term detrimental effects. Drawing on cultural-historical understandings of motivated actions and conceptual and material tools, the study examined how ten school leaders in three Norwegian elementary schools interpreted and responded to the demands on the school in their work with shy children. Data…

A qualitative study conducted in four lower secondary schools in Norway explored teachers' and school principals' experiences of collaboration with a variety of extended services (ES). Particular attention was directed to the ways (if any) they perceived collaboration to be relevant to helping teachers support pupils with mental health problems…

This study aimed to explore teachers' and head teachers' understandings of how they work to support pupils' mental health through their everyday practices. A qualitative study, including individual interviews with head teachers and focus groups with teachers, was conducted in lower secondary schools in Norway. Rich descriptions of teachers' and…

The main issue of this article is inclusive education for pupils with special educational needs (SEN). Inclusion in our study focuses on three core areas: the role of the school leaders, the role of teachers and the practice of curriculum planning. The results are based on interviews with school leaders and teachers in Norwegian primary and lower…

Being exposed to bullying increases the risk of severe negative consequences related to mental health problems and school performance. However, there is a lack of research regarding how school's follow-up with children and adolescents who were previously exposed to bullying to prevent or reduce this risk. This study explored key aspects regarding…

Preventing and reducing bullying requires long-term and systematic school-wide actions. Researchers on bullying have given little attention to the school organization and its influence on the ability to implement the necessary actions to prevent and stop bullying. This study examines the relationship between aspects of a school's professional…

Successful education systems are those that promote leadership at all levels, thereby encouraging teachers and principals, regardless of the formal positions they occupy, to lead innovation in the classroom, the school and the system as a whole. This report summarises evidence from the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey and the OECD…

This article aims to throw light on how the intentions behind inclusive and individually adapted education in Norwegian compulsory schools are followed up in practice with regard to central aspects of the roles of headteachers, teachers and curriculum planning. The study was carried out as a postal survey of compulsory school teachers in two…

In this article we investigate educational leadership as a site of practice, utilising the notion of "practice architectures" as our lens. The latter shifts Etienne Wenger's more individualising notion of 'learning architectures' to a broader study of the systems and organisations that prefigure educational practices and potentially,…

This article is based on a Norwegian study. The focus is two-fold, including the views of both new teachers and leaders on the issue of leadership and professionalism. First, the focus is on the way newly qualified teachers describe how they function in the school and kindergarten organizations. The discussion explores how new teachers' meetings…

This article aims at presenting some of the findings from the Norwegian part of the "Successful School Leadership Project". In order to adequately capture the complicated and dynamic nature of leadership in the participating schools, a distributed and micro-political perspective on leadership is chosen. The Norwegian team has been…

This collection of papers links policy, school leadership, and teachers' lives, three factors that are influential in creating quality learning opportunities for students. Each chapter provides contemporary insights and represents a range of original empirical and conceptual research focusing on the ideological, social, and educational policy…