In most of the Western world, high expectations of educational leadership exist. School leaders are regarded as important actors in the implementation of reforms, which are occurring at an increasing pace. Furthermore, they are regarded as professionals who can make judgments on behalf of their pupils, teachers, and schools. However, becoming a school leader is an underexposed process that typically involves a departure from one's previous professional identity as a teacher. In this article, we study this process by analysing qualitative interviews that were conducted with three school leaders in the Danish primary public school (Folkeskole): a young member, a middle-aged member, and a senior member. Our point of departure is Bourdieu's theory of habitus, as well as narrative theory. We find that all school leaders construct professional identities in continuation of their teacher identities but that these differ along the lines of what we refer to as professional leaders and leaders of the profession.

In contemporary western society, welfare work in general, particularly in education, has been struck by an endless series of policy reforms, discourses and technologies. These have consequences not only for the production of professional identity, but also for the way educational tasks are understood and handled. Inspired by the work of post-structuralist thinkers such as Foucault, Rose, Ball, Alvesson and Willmott, and the psychoanalytical thinker Ž ižek, the authors describe some of these consequences by analysing two examples which stem from the Danish educational context: upper secondary schools and vocational educational training. The first example shows how a 'strong' state logic results in a focus on numbers, which leads to a form of cynical leadership and an undermining of teachers' professional judgment. The second example shows how leaders and teachers in a vocational training school, with help from critical utopian action researchers, seek to innovate their practices in accordance with 'soft' market logic. As a consequence, teachers' professionalism is 'hijacked' by a new form of organizational professionalism.

This is a Magazine Article Learning to stay in school Selection, retention and identity processes in a Danish vocational educational training programme of basic health and care

This article describes ways in which the

The Danish upper secondary school is currently undergoing a hyper complex process of modernization where new organizational forms, teacher-student roles and principles of management are introduced. The process is set-off most directly by a new reform. This article explores the implementation of that reform by focusing on how it is interpreted locally and put into practice by the headmasters of two different schools. On the basis of that analysis the article discusses the consequences that different ways of interpreting and managing the reform might have for the students -how do they understand, recognize and execute the new pedagogical discourses and constructions of students that the headmasters are launching? The theoretical and methodological approach of the article is based on Basil Bernstein's sociology of education. Empirically the article draws on qualitative interviews with the headmasters under analysis.