Between vision and reality: Finnish school leaders' experiences of their own and teachers' roles in the development of co-teaching

Co-teaching has been brought forth as an inclusive teaching approach in research and in the Finnish core curriculum. The realisation of co-teaching at the school level puts great demands on teachers, but also on school leaders (SLs) who are expected to lead educational change. The aim of the study was to examine how SLs in Finnish schools were co-teaching has been realised experience their own and co-teachers' roles in leading the realisation of co-teaching as an inclusive approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with nine SLs in Finland. Inductive thematic analysis was used and revealed two overarching themes: SLs as facilitators of co-teaching and teachers as driving forces of co-teaching. The need for a more active and goal-oriented SL role focused on involving the whole school community in developing co-teaching rather than delegating the responsibility to single teachers is discussed through the lens of distributed leadership and earlier research.