Up till the new millennium research within the field of educational leadership and administration was rather limited within a Norwegian context. However, during the last ten years there has been an increasing interest and investment in research on principalship in Norway, and several Ph.d. dissertations on school leadership have contributed to the development of the field. Most of these studies have applied qualitative approaches which provide sensitivity to variations in both organizational context and leadership practice, and some of them also include a historical and longitudinal perspective. Few are applying quantitative approaches, and hardly any of these studies have added the element of student achievement data to their findings. It implies that studies which have included focus on the relationship between leadership and student outcomes are mainly based on interview data about achievement. Based on these studies areas of discursive struggle can be identified. One is connected to contested issues of school leadership and teacher professionalism in a context of increasing