Teacher leadership is inextricably bound with learning – at the three levels of student, teacher and organisational learning. These are core elements of the Leadership for Learning framework (MacBeath and Dempster, 2009) which is concerned with the nature of leadership and of learning, and their interrelationships. The Leadership for Learning framework was developed through a seven country international project that included Denmark, England, Greece and Norway. Examples from these four countries will illustrate the framework’s five principles: a focus on learning; conditions for learning; dialogue; shared leadership; and a shared sense of accountability. These principles will be used to analyse themes from the other papers in the symposium. Thus, the potential of the Leadership for Learning framework as a robust and illuminative analytic tool (see Alexandrou and Swaffield, 2013) will be demonstrated by looking at themes in contemporary conceptions of teacher leadership.