In this inaugural lecture, I explore the relationship between educational policy governance and the space for professional discretion in the Swedish education system. As a point of departure, the lecture is situated in relation to earlier professorial inaugural lectures in Sweden, a tradition dating back to 1910. Drawing on completed and ongoing research, I demonstrate how changing societal expectations and policy frameworks have reshaped the conditions for teachers’ professional work over time. These dynamics are illustrated through examples such as the introduction and evolving meaning of the concept of quality, local initiatives to counteract school segregation, the increasing juridification of education, and finally three governance logics that conceptualize changes in how educational governance frame professional discretion. The lecture concludes with forward-looking reflections, emphasizing the importance of empirically grounded theorizing and further theoretical development that reconnects the changing educational landscape with fundamental questions about education and its relationship to society.