Re Centering The Critical Potential Of Nordic School Leadership Research

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.

This book discusses principals’ prerequisites and work within the five Nordic countries and focuses on schools as formal institutions that carry out functions delegated to them by the social collective. It includes a discussion about what kind of state policy demonstrates autonomy in Nordic schools, as well as the ways in which school leaders as sense makers in local schools possess and enact policy in a globalized economy and a changing world. The book draws both on a range of theoretical frameworks and educational leadership and policy research to provide multiple comparative perspectives of school leadership in the Nordic countries, the moral purpose of schooling, school governance and power relations, expectations towards school leadership, handling of crises, and cultures of trust. The chapters range from in depth-case studies and policy document analyses to large-scale data sets and literature reviews. All chapters have multiple messages for practitioners, policy makers and researchers as they seek to engage with school leadership as a core activity in times of societal changes. As democratic welfare states, the five Nordic countries have many similarities, but also differences which makes it interesting to understand more about various ways to strive towards democracy and well-educated citizens.

This edited collection is a Festschrift to Helen M. Gunter, a leading scholar in the field of education policy and leadership. We draw on the concept of the Festschrift as a collection of papers, or chapters, that recognise, honour, and celebrate the work and contributions of an esteemed academic. Gunter’s work has opened up the field of critical education policy and leadership studies and provoked, if not revitalised, scholarly thinking about the origins, structures, patterns and impact of the field. Gunter’s personal commitment to intellectual leadership of the field and public education resonates across all her scholarly works. The core intention of this unique collection is to recognise Gunter’s scholarly contributions as an academic, practitioner and public intellectual. Invited authors have been asked to reflect critically on ways in which Gunter’s work and intellectual support have influenced their own research, teaching and academic engagement. In their reflections, contributors not only speak to the intellectual work of Gunter but suggest how they have taken this work forward and how this has advanced the field of education as well as the production of knowledge.

This open access book provides a comprehensive overview and in-depth coverage of contemporary aspects of leadership in the field of education in Finland. It brings together Finnish scholars to critically explore and discuss leadership in education in the context of the Finnish education system and in relation to international discourses around the topic. It discusses the phenomenon of leadership in educational contexts through several novel empirical and theoretical research designs. It includes themes such as distributed leadership and collaborative governance, changing aspects in the leadership profession, and contradictions in everyday organizational practices and realities. The work also combines conceptual discussions in educational and pedagogical leadership to analyze and to clarify the theoretical and conceptual multidimensionality and ambiguities.

This is an open access book. The International Conference on Educational Technology and Management (ICEMT) is held to bring together academics, researchers, teachers, educational entrepreneurs, practitioners, and policy makers. They are responsible for implementing educational technology by leveraging resources through education management to create and enable ecosystem capabilities and access to education. The Covid-19 pandemic teaches that aspects of information and communication technology in education management are full of limitations. Inevitably, educational users have moved dramatically to online channels. Students and teachers are accustomed to learning from home. There are opportunities, as well as challenges. Although the pandemic isn’t over yet, future updates are needed.

This work discusses how the complex relationship between welfare policies of equity and market efficiencies/deficiencies of education policies is handled in local practices. It offers contributions from the five Nordic countries - Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland - and pays special attention to questions about access and diversity in upper secondary education. The book draws on a wide range of theoretical frameworks and research projects and provides multiple perspectives of how upper secondary staff and students have experienced reforms of education governance during the last two or three decades. The research projects range from in-depth case studies to the analysis of large-scale data sets and inform practitioners, policy makers and researchers about practices of education policy that are highly influenced by market forces.

This book identifies the cultural and moral foundations of country-specific educational governance and school leadership and presents the principles of justice and the diversity of common goods that guide leadership practices in schools. It contributes to an existing research field that studies diversity and ethical leadership in schools. The social dimension of school leadership is not limited to issues related to equality and equity, or social inclusion. The capacity of leaders to promote civic-mindedness and social cooperation, consensus and acceptance of others, the right balance between freedom and duties, and reciprocity of obligations, are essential to maintain democratic rights and facilitate the life together while respecting ethnic and cultural differences. Therefore, the book gathers contributions from a range of international authors capable of reporting these moral and cultural features, while broadening the research perspectives on school leadership.

This book offers a detailed theoretical analysis of the fields of learning and management in the digital age. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it opens a dialogue between agile management theory and agile learning theory. The book argues that there is a tension between participative and action-orientated approaches on the one hand and neoliberal enclosure of the actor on the other hand. It takes this as an opportunity for interdisciplinary dialogue between learning theories and management concepts. With contributions from a range of international experts, chapters discuss the need for suitable theoretical, epistemological, and ethical foundations as well as practice-orientated methods for learning and management to implement appropriate strategies and meet educational challenges. This highly topical book will be of great interest to academics, postgraduate students, and researchers in the fields of digital learning, educational theory, management theory, and communication studies.