Abstract
Traditionally, initiatives for changes come from society and policymakers in the school sector. During the last decades, however, most European countries have adopted a more decentralised and deregulated school system, with increased autonomy of individual schools. This is an international change on a wide front (Sleegers and Wesselingh, 1995). A consequence of this, is an increased focus on schools as organisations, including a more direct goal and result-oriented management system, but also, possibly, a decreased freedom of action for teachers, since the local governance of schools get greater opportunities to influence and control their work, than was the case in the former more centralised system.