Re-centering the Critical Potential of Nordic School Leadership Research : Fundamental, but Often Forgotten Perspectives

This volume contributes significantly to the ongoing international and Nordic paradigm shift in educational leadership research. It advocates for going from a contemporary, mainstream functionalist paradigm to a reflexive paradigm, based on educational values and knowledge. The volume is built on the shared basis, that the purpose of education is, and must be, fundamental for school leadership practice. However, that is often forgotten in educational governance and policy. The basis of the argument is, that educational leadership needs to change from focusing on effectiveness and narrowly defined accountability towards focusing on leadership that is contributing to the general education of students. That entails that leadership research need to focus on complex perspectives like context, relations, trust, sense making and social and human values, and less on control, outcomes, accountability and testing. The volume reminds readers about the need to raise awareness of the contexts of education and research, be they political, cultural, economic or ideological. Chapters analyze, discuss and compare research from Nordic educational leadership research systems: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The cross-system insights clarify the fundamental relations between policy/governance and research/practice are and discuss forgotten dependencies and opportunities. Front Matter ....Pages i-xx Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 Critical Potential of Nordic School Leadership Research (Lejf Moos, Elisabet Nihlfors, Jan Merok Paulsen)....Pages 3-33 Front Matter ....Pages 35-35 Forgetting our Intellectual Histories and the Implications for Educational Professionals (Helen M. Gunter)....Pages 37-52 Local and Global? Challenging the Social Epistemologies of the Educational Leadership Field (Merete Storgaard)....Pages 53-68 Front Matter ....Pages 69-69 The Press for Technical Rationality & Dilemmas of Professional Practice: Managing Education in a Pluralistic Institutional Environment (James P. Spillane, Jonathan M. Sun)....Pages 71-87 Study Environments – A Neglected Leadership Concern (Eric Larsson, Pia Skott)....Pages 89-105 Horizontal Structures – A Fundamental but Forgotten Perspective for Superintendents in School Governance? (Cecilia Bjursell, Annika Engström)....Pages 107-125 Front Matter ....Pages 127-127 The Struggle for Data – A Ghost Goes Through the World (Finn Wiedemann)....Pages 129-144 Principals Decision-Making for Organising the Educational Organisation (Tina Bröms)....Pages 145-160 Local Evaluation Practice as a Mediating Tool (Renata Svedlin)....Pages 161-170 Front Matter ....Pages 171-171 Leadership in Upper Secondary School: Exploring New Roles When Teachers Are Leaders (Kristin Helstad, Hedvig Abrahamsen)....Pages 173-189 The Impact of the University on Upper Secondary Education through Academic Subjects According to School Leaders’ Perceptions (Guðrún Ragnarsdóttir, Jón Torfi Jónasson)....Pages 191-207 External Expectations and Well-Being, Fundamental and Forgotten Perspectives in School Leadership: A Study on New Leadership Roles, Trust and Accountability (Ulf Leo, Roger Persson, Inger Arvidsson, Carita Håkansson)....Pages 209-229 Front Matter ....Pages 231-231 Re-centring Critical Potentials of Nordic Leadership Research (Lejf Moos, Elisabet Nihlfors, Jan Merok Paulsen)....Pages 233-247 This volume contributes significantly to the ongoing international and Nordic paradigm shift in educational leadership research. It advocates for going from a contemporary, mainstream functionalist paradigm to a reflexive paradigm, based on educational values and knowledge. The volume is built on the shared basis, that the purpose of education is, and must be, fundamental for school leadership practice. However, that is often forgotten in educational governance and policy. The basis of the argument is, that educational leadership needs to change from focusing on effectiveness and narrowly defined accountabilities towards focusing on leadership that is contributing to the general education of students. That entails that leadership research need to focus on complex perspectives like context, relations, trust, sense making and social and human values, and less on control, outcomes, accountability and testing. The volume reminds readers about the need to raise awareness of the contexts of education and research, be they political, cultural, economic or ideological. Chapters analyze, discuss and compare research from Nordic educational leadership research systems: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The cross-system insights clarify the fundamental relations between policy/governance and research/practice are and discuss forgotten dependencies and opportunities