The focus of this article is to explore the role of the principal in promoting school development activity (SDA) in Norwegian compulsory schools. The sample included 81 schools from 42 randomly selected municipalities. Results suggest that the principal can promote SDA among the teaching staff by playing an active role in creating an innovative culture at school. Moreover, results suggest that the principal may have a more important role in promoting SDA in secondary than in primary schools. Finally, results indicate that support from local authorities was related to SDA involvement among secondary school principals, whereas it was unrelated to such involvement among primary school principals.

This article is based on a survey covering 1,435 Norwegian teachers in compulsory schools in 47 municipalities. It examines associations between teacher involvement in school development activity (SDA) and teachers' attitudes toward SDA as well as their perceived working environment concerning innovation activity among staff and the principal's involvement in SDA. Results showed that teachers' perception of SDA as a relevant task was the strongest predictor of the variables examined. Furthermore, teacher perception of the innovation culture among staff and of a principal's involvement moderately accounted for teacher involvement in SDA. Results suggest that the relevance of SDA has a stronger effect on teacher involvement in SDA if the innovation culture is perceived to be positive and the principal is seen to be involved in SDA. Finally, the results indicated no significant differences between elementary and junior high school teachers with regard to the predictors for teacher involvement in SDA. InNorway,asinotherWesternsocieties,teachershaveexperiencedthatthedemands and expectations placed on them have changed enormously over the years. This is due both to new technology and changes in society as well as to school reforms implemented to meet the new demands of society. Thus, development activity and learning have to be a continuous and natural part of the teachers' working lives (e.g., Day, 1999). The issue of school development is tightly linked to organizational learning as well as teacher learning 435

This paper is based on a study of 7,372 students in grades 5-10 (aged 11-16) in a representative sample of Norwegian compulsory schools. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between students' reported socio-economic status (SES) and their perceived social inclusion (SI) in school in the whole sample. We also considered separately a sub-sample of students with additional social background disadvantages, i.e. children taken into public care and placed in a foster home or children's home, those whose parents have alcohol-or drug-related problems, or students who are refugees and belonging to ethnic minority groups. For the sample as a whole, results showed a weak but significant relationship between SES and SI. In the disadvantaged sample, this relationship is stronger. These results suggest that additional social background disadvantages intensify the effects of SES on perceived social inclusion in school.

In 2002 the Prime Minister of Norway initiated a central Manifesto against bullying and invited all schools to participate in anti-bullying programs. Two programs were supported by the central authorities. This paper draws on a Norwegian project where six compulsory schools participated in one of those programs. Our focus was on the implementation process in the schools. We wanted to see how the schools' readiness for the program influenced the implementation. Group interviews with the project groups at the schools and telephone interviews with the headteachers were used to collect data. Results indicate that the headteacher's role is important, during both initiation and implementation of the program. The schools that were familiar with anti-bullying work and had firm leadership seem to have implemented the program most successfully. One lesson from this study is the need to investigate differentiated implementation support for different schools depending on their readiness.

The anti-bullying programme 'Zero' was implemented at 146 Norwegian primary schools. The outcome among pupils was evaluated after 12 months of the total 16-month period using an age-equivalent design. The present study shows that bullying was reduced among pupils in the schools participating in the Zero programme. Moreover, National surveys in spring 2001 and spring 2004 showed a reduction in pupils being victimised in Norway over 3 years. The high profiled national Manifesto Against Bullying started officially in September 2002 and the first period lasted 2 years. The majority of the schools comprising the 2004 national sample reported a substantial increase in anti-bullying work compared to the three-year period before 2001. Interactions between national concern and programme effect are discussed.