Objectives or purpose. In Sweden and other Nordic countries the formation of educational systems has primarily been an issue for the national state in a rather homogenous society. Today, governance of education is embedded in global movements and a multicultural society influencing the role and function of the state. We will use two empirical cases, based in three recently completed research projects, to illuminate how curriculum and leadership research have worked in tandem to explain and develop both policy and practice. The cases focus on the assessment culture of the Swedish schools and implications of changes in governance for local educational leadership.

Perspectives or theoretical framework. In the Swedish curriculum theory tradition, the curriculum has been analyzed as a pedagogical, a political, a practical and research problem. In order to analyze data and develop curriculum and leadership research the central concept of curriculum code (Lundgren 1977) is further elaborated. We pay attention to different levels, actors and contexts in an era dominated by governance, new public management, accountability and international comparative tests. With mass education from preschool to higher education, marketization and an increasing number of stakeholders the complexity of education governance has also increased and curriculum processes have taken new forms. Lundgren elaborated the concepts of steering group, codes and contexts. Codes relate to the purpose, content and method of a curriculum. He raised questions on how the frames were constituted, and identified historically developed curriculum codes manifested in the selection and organization of school knowledge (e.g. Lundgren, 1977). Shifts in codes were related to changed relations between production and reproduction (Lundgren, 1983); neither the purposes of education nor the subject content were taken for granted.

Methods. In a recent empirical study, we used questionnaires, interviews and policy texts with analyses grounded in both curriculum theory and leadership research. The empirical base is Sweden from the late 1980s up until today, a highly reform intense period. Findings are presented, focusing especially on governance, leadership and assessment cultures. We include comparative studies and studies covering all 290 Swedish municipalities using both surveys and case studies.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions. By using empirical findings from projects relating curriculum activities taking place on different levels with a focus on interlinked curriculum processes, we discuss these processes and further develop contemporary curriculum theory.  We address conceptual issues on curriculum making including educational leadership as practice and actors. By linking research on curriculum theory with leadership studies, it is possible to attend to these problems simultaneously.

Scientific or scholarly significance. In conclusion, this paper is scanning new horizons for how to develop curriculum theory further as a relational practice appearing in various contexts. Specifically, we posit a new code to explain the contemporary situation for curriculum-leadership.