This PhD project investigated what leading education for democracy looks like in an age of accountability. The thesis reports on what I have coined the LED (Leading Education for Democracy) project. Focus was placed on how policy expectations of education for democracy in the wake of a national education reform are interpreted and translated by educational leaders in Norway.
The first sub-study reports on how professionalism and the democratic mandate in education are constructed and legitimized in key education policy documents. The second sub-study examined what characterizes professional discretion and professionals’ stories of policy enactment. The third sub-study examined how teachers perceive the state of democracy in their schools.
The findings contrast with approaches to democracy in high-stakes contexts such as Chile and England, and suggests the existence of a viable alternative to leading education for democracy whereby educational professionals are given leeway in interpreting and translating policy expectations while showing awareness of the wider power structures in which schools are embedded.