ABSTRACT
The co-operative schools movement is stepping into an already fast-moving stream of educational activity. Co-operative schools respond not only to the unremitting onslaught of new policies and initiatives but to an earlier educational framework. Co-operative schools can be seen as working within the confines of education policy while also challenging it. The rapid growth of co-operative schools has taken place alongside the gradual extension of understanding as new ideas are imported and adapted to an existing situation. The co-operative schools movement has re-emphasized schools as democratic and community based institutions and reasserted the role of common values within the arena of public debate. The co-operative schools movement has indeed facilitated joint working among schools on the basis of co-operative values. Leaders in co-operative schools have had to balance their own authority with encouraging action from below in working towards alternative conceptions of the professional leader.
