LEAD&LEARN: EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP in higher education

The aim of this study concerns how to investigate educational leaders' perceptions of educational and pedagogical themes. 

This study contributes to the scientific development of this field of research and aims at comprehending the processes underlying educational leadership. 

The study explores the school leaders’ perceptions of educational themes and how their pedagogical perceptions are reflecting their actions as leaders of teachers and their organization. 

The aim is to both explore how to investigate this field in a pedagogical manner and also to reveal insights to the Danish school leaders’ perspectives. The aim is not to prescribe or to give recommendations, but to reveal insights into the role of the educational leaders who have a significant part in the DNA of our education system.

How do Danish school leaders perceive their pedagogical role in education? 
For instance, do they follow a specific educational path such as striving to develop a learning community in a critical/emancipatory way or a hermeneutic or instrumental path? 
Or is the thinking of school leaders aligned with research on teachers’ thinking showing that the teachers’ own belief systems direct their actions? (Relating to research on teachers' thinking: Buehl, 2009; Carlgren, Handal, & Vaage, 1994; Elbaz, 1983; Kagan, 1992; Lund, 2017b; Richardson, 1996).The study draws on qualitative data from Danish high-school leaders.100 school leaders from all over Denmark participate.

Data sources: Focus group interviews, single semi-structured interviews, leaders written reflection journals, Leaders’ reflection during the process from Webinars Semester seminars, Midterm seminar. 


Lead&Learn: educational leadership is reporting from four projects:
1. An ongoing development and research project (KLEO) at five different schools and four different youth education programmes in the Central Jutland region.
2. An ongoing school model project (FPL) at three different youth education programmes and 16 different schools all over Denmark. 
3. An ongoing development and research project (DiDaK) with 20 schools and its leaders. All three projects focus on developing the role of educational management and ensuring closer links to the educational practice of teachers by working on the development of a common educational vocabulary shared by teachers and school leaders alike (Lund, 2017a). 
4. EDU:LEAD:Novice contains data on the first year of three educational leaders.