A fair share of prominent school/educational leadership researchers from the Nordic Countries (Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden) have been participating in a Nordic researcher network for three years. The purpose of the network was to find out how Nordic educational politics and practice is influenced by the signals and advices given by transnational agencies like the OECD and the European Commission.

                  As a ‘Nordic Model’ of education seems to be better known outside our countries than inside, we wanted to find out if the new expectations are furthering or limiting the development of such a model: Are the transnational influences homogenizing educational politics and practices or are traditional cultures and discourses persistent?

                  In order to get a clearer picture of similarities and differences this symposium will display of six themes: We have found these themes by looking at research in Nordic systems, that we are carrying out presently and we have chosen those themes, because they are important in several systems. The thematic chapters thus give comparisons and discussions that clarify where differences and similarities are found.