On democracy and leadership: from rhetoric to reality

Abstract

This paper resembles a personal narrative on leadership and democracy and outlines how an educational leader can conceptualize democratic leadership and take some steps towards transforming theory into practice. The concepts of democracy and democratic schools within the discourse of educational theory and research are briefly discussed. Based on reflections from leading a public primary school in Cyprus, the author approaches the meaning of democracy within the particular setting and discusses implications of the pursuit of democracy for a school leader. The author argues that although certain notions of the school as a dialogic institution can be applied, several challenges arise not only in establishing the structures necessary to promote an ethos for democracy, serving this as a principle, but also in shaping the school culture towards democracy as a virtue.