Between policy and practice: how school development consultancy takes shape in interaction with school leadership

School development consultancy has become a widely used policy-based support instrument within governance arrangements that combine increased school autonomy with reconfigured accountability. While policy frameworks position consultancy as supportive and non-directive, little is known about how it is enacted in everyday interaction with school leadership. Drawing on governance-enactment perspectives, this qualitative study examines shadowing observations and follow-up interviews with school development consultants working in schools and relates enacted practices to Austrian policy frameworks that define the normative positioning of consultancy. The study argues that school development consultancy does not implement policy in a linear way but emerges as an interactionally constituted form of governance mediation shaped by leadership positioning, negotiated participation, and organizational context. Its developmental relevance therefore depends less on formal program design than on relational interactional conditions, organizational prioritization, and locally sustained engagement. By linking policy framing with situated practice, the study contributes to research on educational governance and leadership by clarifying how external support acquires practical meaning within everyday school development processes and by outlining implications for policy design, professional preparation, and future comparative research.