School leaders’ actions and hybridity when carrying out reform and confronting teachers’ responses: institutional and organisational perspectives

In 2008, Iceland launched policy reform in upper secondary education. This paper elucidates how upper secondary school leaders acted when leading reform and confronting teacher responses. The study is based on interviews with 21 leaders from nine upper secondary schools. The data were analysed usingfive response categories to macro-level demands for change,institutional and organisational leadership, and theories on subject hierarchies. The findings show how the school leaders from the nine participating schools experienced differently the policy enactment in their schools. Seven of the nine schools matched three out of Coburn’s five response categories. Adding the category of pioneering would enable appropriate categorisation of new schools. Polarisation appeared in the data both between and within the evaluated schools. Within some of the schools, many self-contained subunits were seen to be operating. The school leaders usually responded either as institutional or organisational leaders or they gave examples of hybrid interactions between both types, particularly when polarisation was operating within the schools. The most explicit resistance to change was reported to arise from faculty members of traditional academic subjects. The apparent isomorphism among education systems worldwide suggests that lessons from Iceland may be valuable for the global education community.