This chapter attempts to ‘square’ the paradoxical relation between the discourses and practices of leadership and those of democracy and education that call upon equality of voice and decision-making as a basis for undertaking courses of action. It is common to argue that Western and Westernised societies are ‘democratic’. At its most radical, democracy demands both freedom and equality. In the Alliance the emergence of a horizontal infrastructure was enabled through the formation of cross-school groups having the purpose of reflecting upon and re-thinking practices. In this scenario, teachers deemed specialist lead educators are paired with a research assistant from another school and then work with a teacher in a third school on a curriculum area of this last teacher’s choosing. Reflecting methodologically, change began to take place at different phases of the involvement. Subjectivity is a place where power is continually contested directly in terms of ‘speaking’ – whether speaking out or holding one’s tongue, or paying lip service.