New public reforms have emerged in Denmark. The new Danish School Agreement and the Quality Program has recently been launched in 2024, and the policy program uses the word freedom or emancipation is named fifteen times.

The last Danish school reform in 2014 was named a leadership reform. School leaders gained more responsibility and competence, like also more central government instrument was introduced (Storgaard, 2020). In contradiction to that, the new school agreement introduces more local autonomy and decentralization. School leaders, teachers and actors in and around the school are expected to develop local solutions on various subjects. In a greater context the latest Danish school reform can be seen as a showdown with the New Public management paradigm, which has dominated the public sector, including the school sector, since the early 00s. Instead, the school's professionals gain greater responsibility and competence,

In a Nordic context reforms often change between central and decentralized initiatives (Gunnulfsen et al. (2023). The new Danish school agreement is in line with present reforms in other Nordic countries. 

The purpose of the research project is to investigate how the emancipating agenda, which accompanies the latest changes to the elementary school, is realized and what new dilemmas it gives rise to.

The research questions are: How do administration and school management make sense of- and enact the policy idea of freedom that are formulated in the current elementary school agreement, and does it require new roles for school leaders and administrators? Andwhat possible dilemmas do the freedom agenda give rise to?

The concept of freedom serves as the central theoretical lens for this study (Schantz, 2012.) Also, institutional theory (Scott, 2008), and theories about school leadership, micropolitical sensemaking and policy enactment (Bolden, 2011; Harris, 2005; Gunnulfsen et al., 2023; Ball, 2012; Weick, 1995) are used to discuss elements of policy formation in school leadership and at administrative level. Both municipality and school form an institutional reality characterized by norms, routines and values, which new reforms must translate into (Scott, 2008). Herby, the institutional forces create stability in the institutions, whereas new policy initiatives often initiate change. Sensemaking and enactment are central dimensions of the policy making processes and plays a vital role in translation of policy ideas into practice by the social actors. The school leaders play a central role in relation to the school's development, e.g. in relation to students' well-being and learning (Hall, 2016: Robinson, 2015), just as they play a central role in relation to education, democracy and dialogue (e.g. Moos et al., 2020, Gunnulfsen et al, 2023). Furthermore, the reform process immediately points to the development of new leadership roles and tasks as social change takes place in the institutions (Ragnarsdottir & Storgaard, 2023).

Research into school management indicates that two traditions at least characterize school management ideals. Moos, Nilfors and Paulsen (2020) define two current discourses that characterize the current Scandinavian school division research, respectively a discourse that is called outcomes-based-discourse and a discourse that is called general education discourse. The outcomes-based discourse, which can be translated as results-oriented management focusing on results, national standards and tests, while the other discourse is oriented towards bildung or education and democracy. This is a Nordic-inspired discourse that emphasizes the involvement of teachers and students and relations based on trust between school and authorities. In the analytical findings, the school agreement seems to draw the practice field immediately in the direction of a general education discourse. At the same time, three municipal case-studies reveals more contradictory and ambiguous results in the immediate sensemaking and enactment of the social actors and the leadership roles.

Methodologically, the study draws on concepts from the field of critical policy enactment and new institutionalism (Ball, 2012, Scott 2008). Through a qualitative case-study approach (Yin, 2009) the study was performed through three phases. First, the three municipal cases were selected based on a most different strategy. This approach was taken to enable both generalized findings, but also contextualized findings that potentially could reveal the social complexity of policy enactment in Danish education reforms. Second, the central policy documents from the national were analyzed inspired by critical policy studies (Ball, 2012, Ragnarsdóttir and Storgaard, 2023). Thirdly, qualitative, in-depth interviews were constructed with representatives from three different municipalities, respectively a large, medium and a small municipality. This methodological choice allowed for a rich and detailed exploration of personal and professional experiences, providing valuable insights into the lived realities of those working within the new educational framework.

The project is in an early phase. Earlier research dealing with self-governance attempts in two Danish municipalities pointed out that school leaders and administrators are satisfied with more local autonomy and on that background have developed local initiatives (Hjelmer et al, 2023; Schoop og Hjelmer, 2023). Our primarily analyses points to that administrators and school leaders in the three municipal cases look at the reform in a positive way, but do not find that the school agreement will result in significant changes in leadership roles. There is a weak tendency toward the general education discourse. But all the elements in the reform have not yet been introduced. The analyses also point to that the experiences are different from municipality to municipality depending on size and institutional routines and traditions. In some municipalities the freedom agenda and decentralization has traditionally played a significant role, while other municipalities are rooted in more centralized traditions. The primarily findings also show new dilemmas about governance and autonomy, eg., the need for municipal control and documentation and desires for local freedom. Another finding is that all domains (Kouzes and Mico, 1979) in the control chain are going to behave in a new way. Both politicians, administrators, school leaders and other interested parties in an around the school are going to develop new roles and understandings if the freedom agenda must gain success. The findings from the study hereby gives insights to how school leaders and administrators balance the new emancipatory initiatives and potentially develop new leadership roles to navigate the dilemmas between autonomy and accountability in an education reform.

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