Leadership in a democratic school: a case study examining the perceptions and aspirations of an educational community

Abstract

In this case study, we aim to understand the leadership practices in a two-site rural school (schools in rural areas located on two or more sites) in the province of Valencia (Spain), by examining the perceptions and aspirations of the educational community. Results reveal two points of view in perceptions of leadership in the school: on one hand community members hold a classic, traditional view of leadership; on the other hand, they recognize that leadership is opening up to all the groups in the educational community, which inspires positive attitudes to taking part in leadership processes. The types of leaders identified in the school, educational community participation in decision making, and teamwork are some of the aspects that advance the development of a more distributed form of leadership. However, resistance to change by some families has hindered the community’s aspirations to distributed leadership. There is therefore a need to revisit the way this concept and its characteristics are constructed, and to pool ideas to decide what direction the community wants to take in the future. Additionally, one way to advance the school’s democratic, distributed leadership model is to continue working on the relationships between sections of the educational community through cooperative organization in the school.