This middle leader may be labelled as study leader, educational leader, course coordinator, or programme leader. A common characteristic is that they are both teachers and researchers and additionally are formally appointed to take special organisational responsibility for coordinating and developing education/teaching. In research, a limited number of English-speaking and Scandinavian studies focus on the role (Lassen & Lassesen, in preparation). In some of the few studies, a common theme is that educational leaders often lack formal power to lead and thus, are caught in the middle between management and staff (E.g. Marshall, 2012). Despite existing individual studies and a certain degree of research on this topic, the field remains relatively underexplored and fragmented. A clear and comprehensive understanding of how these middle leaders are organisationally constructed and how they navigate their roles remains elusive.

Bio-notes
Sanna Lassen is a postdoc. researcher at Centre for Educational Development (CED) at Aarhus University. She is engaged in conducting research focused on Educational Leadership in Higher Education (HE). Additionally, she holds the position of course leader for an educational leadership program at AU.

Berit Lassesen is an associate professor at Centre for Educational Development (CED) at Aarhus University. Her research focuses among others on the systematic work on quality development in higher education, e.g., quality development processes in themselves, including the organization of these and their effects.

Literature
Marshall, S. G. (2012). Educational middle change leadership in New Zealand: the meat in the sandwich. The International Journal of Educational Management, 26(6), 502-528. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513541211251361