This article focuses on the use of case-based instruction in the National School Leadership Program offered by universities in Norway. The research addresses the following research question: How can case-based instruction promote leadership learning when used in school leadership programs? The study demonstrates case-based instruction's ability to…

This article examines the leadership of school principals who, based on the narrative case of the Blueberry School, discuss how they as principals would have responded to a similar problematic situation regarding a school change process. The study is grounded in the context of the Norwegian National School Leadership Programme. Theoretically, the…

In this paper, we investigate how a Benchlearning program for principals in Norway and Sweden supports changes in Norwegian principals' leadership practices. The program design builds on principles for practical action research. The aim of the program was to inspire changes in the principals' leadership practices that encourage innovative school…

Purpose: A number of empirical studies and evaluations in Norway and Sweden shows variabilities in the degree to which the municipalities succeed in their endeavors to support school principals' instructional leadership practices. In response to this situation, the Norwegian and Swedish directorates of education have developed a joint…

Over the past decades, principals have experienced an increased pressure emanating from the responsibility for managing change and building organisations, whilst striving to improve students' learning outcomes (Abrahamsen, Aas, & Hellekjaer, 2015; Hargreaves & Fink, 2006). Leadership learning programmes appear to emphasise the requirements…

Despite group coaching being used to facilitate goal-focused change in a range of organizational contexts, there is little research evidence of its use or efficacy in continuing professional development programs for educational leaders. In the first part of this article we define coaching and consider the benefits and challenges of several forms…

Professional learning and development of school leaders are considered keys to educational change. However, a growing body of research has identified how difficult it is to design professional leadership programmes that make a difference in leaders' professional practice. Drawing on the framework of expansive learning and data from the six-year…

This paper focuses on group coaching, one of the newer school leadership development approaches to recently emerge. Using a group-coaching methodology developed at the University of Oslo, we deconstruct the concept of leadership identity as it is reported in texts from students in the National Principal Programme. We suggest that leaders develop…