The professionalization of school leaders is frequently developed and debated all over the world. Almost all OECD countries and EU member states have invested massively in school leader professional development and training (Huber, 2010), and a recent research overview suggests that such investments have enormous potential for high quality education and student learning (Grissom et al, 2021). One important reason for these investments is the growing recognition of school leaders as essential for the quality of teaching and learning in schools (Bøje & Frederiksen 2019). School leaders are increasingly perceived as key agents for the quality of teaching and learning, teacher professional development but also for school improvement, school reform and capacity building (Rönnström, 2021).

 However, the meaning of ‘professional’ and ‘professionalization’ vary between a plurality of contexts and connoisseurs, but there are some converging tendencies in recent developments and debates. Some use the term ‘professional’ mainly as an indicator of being successful or good at one’s job which is reflected in research explicating the meaning of successful or effective school leadership (See Drysdale & Gurr, 2017; Hallinger, 2011; Leithwood, 2021; Leithwood et al, 2004; Robinson et al, 2009). Others use the term to indicate membership a of group of professional practitioners or a learning community, or as being a co-creator of communities of practitioners within or linked to schools (See Zachrisson and Johansson, 2010; Chirichello, 2010). There are also researchers who reserve the term for membership in qualified and closed communities as depicted in the sociology of professions. The latter researchers commonly argue that school leaders run the risk of de-professionalization despite massive investments in professional development and training (Bøje & Frederiksen 2019).

 However, the urgency of recent school leader professional development investments is not primarily linked to professionalization in the traditional sociological sense; rather, it´s linked to the increasing globalization, economization, rationalization and re-organization of the public sector in general and the education sector in particular (Pashiardis and Brauckman, 2019; Ringarp and Rönnström, 2021; Hood, 1995). In our hyper modern world, changing landscapes of professionalization and professions are emerging. They are growing in importance and they are important to questions about the meaning of school leader’s professional being and becoming. Consequently,  we can no longer grasp recent professionalization and professional development investments by exclusively focusing on skills, capabilities, professional membership or criteria drawn from standard textbooks in the sociology of the professions. There is a need for new frameworks and alternative ways of understanding the professionalization of school leaders in order to understand the scope, character and urgency of school leader professional development and training in present time.

 By discussing and analyzing the professionalization of school leaders in Sweden, this paper aims to contribute to the field of Continuing Professional Development (CPD). We will illuminate an ongoing global movement and converging strategies among many European nations with regard to the professionalization of school leaders, and we will discuss their scope, character and urgency. We will in depth discuss recent school leader professional development and training in Sweden and how these affects the professional identities of school leaders. Finally, we will argue that the school leader profession is steadily growing into an organizational profession in Sweden and elsewhere (Evetts, 2011; Ringarp and Rönnström, 2021). This is important but rarely recognized in recent investments, debates and research on school leader professional development. Organizational professionalization differs from occupational professionalization (as the latter is explicated within the sociology of the professions), and this development has consequences for the knowledge-base, training and autonomy of school leaders and how they are expected to relate to other professionals and their professional development in schools.

This study departs from recent development in the sociology of professions and studies in organizational professionalization and professions (Evetts, 2011; Ringarp and Rönnström, 2021). In the paper, we critically examine political, economic, organizational and professional motives for school leaders continuing professional development in Sweden and in the OECD countries. We examine and analyse OECD documents describing and discussing school leader professional development strategies in different countries in the 21st century. We elaborate further on the Swedish case and analyse national policy for school leaders and school leader professional development. We examine the Swedish national school leadership training program (NSLP) which is mandatory for all principals in Swedish preschools and schools, and we will examine how school leader unions and associations respond to recent strategies for school leader professional development and learning in Sweden. We have collected, examined and analysed data and documents from different sources. First, we have analysed OECD documents 2000-2023 focusing on the work of school leaders, professional development and national policy. Second, we have studied policy documents, laws, regulations and commissions relevant the school leader profession in Sweden 2000-2023. Third, we have followed the National Agency of Education and their governance of the NSLP from 2009-2023 (Goal documents, yearbooks, annual reports, conference invitations, evaluations and other documents). Fourth, we also follow the institutionalization of the NSLP at different universities selected as providers of the NSLP. We base our research on data and documents from all selected universities with regard to their program design, annual reports, study guides and course material for the period 2009-2023. All data and documentation are analysed with an analytical framework drawn from recent work on the changing landscapes of professionalization within the sociology of professions and the emergence of organizational professions (Evetts, 2011).

The recent globalization, economization, rationalization and re-organization of the education sector have created new conditions for the professionalization of school leaders, but also for our social scientific and educational understanding of professionalization which we argue is a changing landscape. We argue that the school leader profession is growing into an organizational profession, and that recent and ongoing professionalization investments are largely designed and carried out as organizational professionalization from above and not from within as discussed in the sociology of professions. School leader professional development in Sweden (and in many OECD countries) are examples of new of organizational professionalization growing of importance in society (Jerdborg, 2022). We argue that the professionalization of school leaders is only to a vanishing degree an example of occupational professionalization, i.e, the traditional understanding of professionalization as it is described in the sociology of professions. The professionalization of school leaders can be conceptualized as a professionalization from above (Evetts 2011), and the consequences for the school leader profession are revealed when we compare processes of organizational professionalization and occupational professionalization. In the paper we analyse how and conclude that recent professionalization of school leaders in Sweden and elsewhere affect the knowledge base, training and autonomy of school leaders as professionals, and how they are expected to relate to other professional groups and their professional development in schools. In short, the professionalization of school leaders means emerging organizational professionalization that differs qualitatively from our traditional understanding of ‘professional’ and ‘professionalization’. We argue that we need to develop new frameworks and concepts in order to fully grasp this development, and in order to critically discuss and fully grasp the professional development of school leader professional development in times when school leadership is recognized as is vital for the quality of teaching and student learning.

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