Professional Norms Guiding School Principals’ Educational Leadership

• In Event: Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: The Process of Principal Leadership Development

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to identify professional norms regarding school development with a special emphasis on school principals’ educational leadership. The study uses a sociology of law perspective, a norm perspective, to identify possible links between legal norms, professional norms and actions. A web-based questionnaire was answered by more than 1700 principals enrolled in a National School Leadership Training Programme in Sweden.
The results show patterns of action instructions, what principals intend to do as educational leaders. Expectations on the principals come from various directions and the results indicate a strong top-down perspective, strong expectations derive from national level. Finally the relation between professional norms and accountability leadership is discussed.

Author

• Ulf Leo, Umeå universitet