The context Educational research is frequently criticised for its lack of effectiveness and usefulness. In other words: educational practice and educational policy cannot use the results obtained in the academic society. It is the case in many countries. One of the prominent advocate, Hargreaves (1997) uses the sentences that high standard is if the "research should provide decisive and conclusive evidence that if teachers do X rather than Y in their professional practice". Another illustrative statement highlighting the criteria for quality is "One of our prime needs is to be able to measure the size of the effect of A on B" (Blunkett 2000). Some of the proponents for an evidence based practice also generally support basic 'blue skies' research, but behind this view lie certain - often implicit - assumptions about the linear model, where knowledge has its origin in pure research, which can be followed by applied research leading to practical development.To sum up, the main content of the evidence based view is, that the point of departure is users needs and research must be reliable and cumulative. Our aim is to contest this "new orthodoxy" (Hodkinson 2004:10) as the single success criteria for research quality. Because it certainly raises some principal questions: What is quality? What is utility? Do users know their needs? Are users always capable to use new knowledge? What implications does this have for research design and methodology? Are these questions just a matter of methodology, or is it maybe more a question of how to interact with the studied field - to be liminal. Is applied research a request for usability for the practical field?Design of a research project Instead, we will focus on the researcher's role as being an independent part of the academic community and on the same time being involved in interpretation of the reform. In addition, that the necessity of immediately useful results are dependent of the research question. We will discuss this in light of an ongoing research project concerning the changed teacher role after a comprehensive upper secondary school reform in Denmark. The project is supported by The Danish National Union of Upper Secondary School Teachers and the Danish Ministry of Education. The two authors of this abstract are two of four researchers from the same department conducting the research, but there is continuous interaction with stakeholders. Once a year the research group must deliver preliminary reports, and to follow the project a reference group with participants from the union, from schools, and from other university departments was established.The reform does not live a silent life. There is an ongoing debate among upper secondary teachers about the actual reform and about this research project. And, as a consequence, several interests are involved in the research project. There will often be ambiguous or even contradictionary expectations, especially between teachers' and the ministry. Focus for this paper This paper will focus on one of the main topics in the project. This is leadership and organisational issues, which has become more crucial in contemporary upper secondary schools in Denmark. It is a growing field of interest in Denmark as well as in many other countries.As pointed out by several commentators (e.g. Harris 2005) many has emphasized that leadership is an important factor for school improvement, although it is difficult to measure school improvement and - furthermore - it is even more difficult to establish a causal relationship between leadership efforts and school improvement.Our aim is to develop both the theoretical concepts and their practical applications. We share light on how leadership is perceived by leaders as well as by teachers. We do not expect do build tools for leaders. This gives us another question: How do we measure application and how do we judge the quality of the research? Blunkett, D. (2000) Influence or irrelevance: can social science improve government? Research Intelligence, vol. 71.Hargreaves, D. (1999) The knowledge-creating school, British Journal of Educational Studies, vol. 47, (2).Hargreaves, D. (1997) In defence of research for evidence-based teaching: a rejoinder to Martin Hammersley, British Educational Research Journal, vol. 23, (4). Harris, A (2005), Leading from the Chalk-face? An Overview of School Leadership, Leadership Journal 1 (1). Hodkinson P (2004) Research as a form of work: expertise, community and methodological objectivity British Educational Research Journal 30 (1). Rogers B (2003) Educational research for professional practice: More than providing evidence for doing 'x rather than y' or finding the 'size of the effect of A on B', Australian Educational Researcher 30 (2). Weiss, C (1999). The interface between evaluation and public policy. Evaluation, vol. 5, (4). An international journal