Extensive research studies have been conducted on school leadership internationally, but few studies have focused on placement schools. In placement schools, student-teachers are to experience teaching and learning in a variety of contexts, and to participate in school life in a way that is structured and supported. In Norway, school principals have an overall formal responsibility for their schools' educational and administrative decision-making and traditionally combine administrative and educational leadership roles, more often than in other European countries. The purpose of this study is to examine why, in spite of this, principals of placement schools in Norway handle their placement assignment primarily as an administrative task, thus ignoring mandated elements of their responsibilities. The ambiguity between instrumental demands and educative requests forms a backdrop for understanding the principals' patterns of behaviour and their resistance to change. Surveys are in this study combined with interviews and related to the international discussion on the same issues, exploring the dilemmas that principals face when they are trying to facilitate the development of a culture of learning in their placement schools.