Bästa läraren! : En kartläggning av lärares handlingar, egenskaper och ledarstilar utifrån en grupp gymnasieelevers perspektiv.

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this paper is to try to map out and examine different leadership styles of the classroom and weighing in the students’ perspective and preference on those. This were done by asking a group of high school students what actions and characteristics they recognized and preferred. The structured interview questionnaire was based upon Christer Stensmo's definition of 5 essential teachers’ tasks - andthis was mainly discussed through four different leadership styles – as defined by Arne Maltén: Authoritarian, Democratic, Laissez faire and Situation-adapted leadership. And to a lesser extent through Stenmo's dimension of assignment-oriented or student-oriented leadership.The results show that the students have diverse preferences. Most of the students agreed that it is the teacher who should maintain order in the classroom. It seemed that many students attached great importance to teachers being knowledgeable in the subject and helpful, kind and well structured. Many students stressed that flexibility was the key to the best teacher. My conclusion is that the best leadership style is to be able to change your leadership style based on the situation. I also argue in this paper that all examined leadership styles have their benefits and can be seen as important teacher tools for the conscious classroom leadership.