In this paper I shall analyse and discuss diverse forms of influences that are applied on and in schools: At one level we see the emergence of national and local discourses of eg. schooling, learning and leading. Those are clusters of discourses that shape how we can think and talk about important issues in education and management. Some of those discourses are produced in the international and the national political fields and influence education and the agents around and inside schools. At this stage we see that the traditional, didactical way of talking about schools is being challenged by a new curriculum discourse that focuses on ‘effective schools’, ‘back to basis’ etc. At another level we see traditional social technologies being reshaped and new being formed and brought into schools and public sector management. Social technologies are technologies with a purpose (like a conversation being transformed into a staff interview). Contemporary social technologies in schools are eg. Contracts, national goals and tests and students’ plans. In the midst of those externally introduced influences agents in schools like principals, teachers and students have to find ways of interacting, communicating and influencing each the education and learning