Guest editors: Lejf Moos, Elisabet Nihlfors, Jan Merok Paulsen

The aim of the special issue is to discuss governance, leadership and education in the Nordic countries. A particular focus is on the battle between two very different discourses in contemporary educational policy and practice: an outcomes- and standard based discourse and a Democratic Bildung based discourse of Citizenship of the World. Our point of departure is that there we need to analyse the close links/couplings/ relations between the core of schooling, student’s learning/Democratic Bildung, and the leadership and organising of schools. The relations can be seen at all levels: discourse context, vision, themes and processes.