This paper focuses on school leadership practices related to the introduction of instructional counsellors (IC) as vehicles for professional l development amongst teachers in the Danish compulsory school. ICs are a relatively new kind of ressource persons in schools in Denmark.  In the study ICs are analytically approaced as a new kind of leadership practice or ’technology’ which on the one hand expresses an  attempt of distributed leadership directed at leading and developing the professional community amongst the teachers of particular subjects in school. On the other hand  the introduction of ICs also requires and demands new leaderships practices from the actual school leadership team.

In order to approach the ICs as a leadership teachnology aimed at the development of the professional communicty at school, the analysis draws on Mary Jo Hatch’ theory of organisational culture in general, and in particular her application of Weick in a definition of strategic leadership of organisational culture. Through Weick, Hacth conceptualizes strategic leadership within organisational culture as ’strategizing’ understood as leadership practices as manifestations of cultural assumptions, both of the nature of a particular organisational – or in this case – professional culture, but also of how this culture may be changed and developed (Hatch 1993).   Within the theoretical framework of dynamics of organisational culture, ICs are analysed as ’cultural artefacts’ co-constitued through the cultural dynamics of the organisation or professional environment. Furthermore the practices of actual ICs are approached as strategizing leadership practices in relation to the cultural dynamics within the professional culture or community in question.

The analysis firstly points to how the IC relate strategically to how to approach their colleagues in order gain access, legitimacy and confidence. Within the dynamics of the professional culture, two major cultural dynamics are identified, which teachers and counsellors seem to share and co-construct in their understanding of what a IC may be. The IC and particularly the services offered are understood within an overarching cultural evaluation of ’usefullness’. Within this ’ideology of usefullness,’ ’usefull’ is defined as; practical advice, tips and tricks, handy and palpable soulutions as well as joint activities and actions. Futhermore ’time’ is regarded as a very scarce ressource, and as such teachers measures out whether or not it is worthwhile spending this ressource on the services offered by the counsellor. The ICs on their behalf use ’time’ as a marker of the teachers’ evaluation of whether or not the IC is ’doing a good job’. The analytical point is that the ICs relate to and exert leadership of the professional community of teacher through the cultural assumptions of ’the time-dimension’ and ’the ideology of usefullness’ as expressing major cultural values within the culture of the teachers, whom the IC’s are supposed to both guide and develop. Here their  considerations and actions show how they strategically relate to the professional culture in order to maneouver within, but also around these cultural assumptions in their attempt  to carve out a legitimate position for themselves and their leadership  practices.  

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