Since 2014, the main requirement for Spanish school principals to be recruited consist of an initial training course of at least 120 hours. While its goals and content are stablished by a nation-wide order, the course is implemented by the Departments of Education of the 17 regions plus 2 autonomous cities. A variety of education professionals are eligible for teaching its content, including supervisors, experienced school principals, university lecturers and researchers. Additionally, other institutions like universities or private companies can obtain the permission from the regional authorities to organize the course. Such pre-service training is considered by consulted experts as scarce, too theoretical, and too focused on bureaucracy. Besides, induction for newly appointed principals is almost inexistent. There is also a wide margin of improving principals’ in-service education, as it is mainly based on traditional methodologies and very few courses keep a focus on the analysis of the practice. Activities like participation in colleagues’ networks for professional development, or peer observation and orientation under formal structures are clearly below OECD average, according to TALIS 2018 report. However, we are in the way of improving leaders’ professionalization, fuelled by an increasing claim for better results to the schools and their management teams. The aim of the presentation is to give overview of the educational governing system in Iceland and historically map the existing research trends on governance and leadership in upper secondary and compulsory education to identify research opportunities. In doing so we focus on the six topics stipulated by the World School Leadership group (hereafter WSLS). The preliminary findings reveal a growing field and a hidden treasure of research in the area. We found studies that fall under all the six topics set by WSLS. Some fields are still weakly represented, such as values and professional understanding. The available topics are highly depended on the manpower within the academia, educational opportunities, political interventions, and other development. The study suggests the importance of filling the gaps we identified and highlights the important role of the universities to uphold and renew academics and educational opportunities within the field to construct more diverse knowledge.

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