ABSTRACT
Democratic leadership is a concept charged with positive feelings and connotations. Most people in Scandinavia would probably agree to the need for democratic leadership in schools, but clearly there will be disagreement about how democratic leadership is defined and how it should be provided. For instance, based on an analysis of the history of Swedish education, Tomas Englund (1986) has given evidence of the ongoing struggle between different conceptions of democracy. The educational concept which is dominant at any given time can be said to constitute the outer framework defining what is educationally possible in ideological terms. Even in the wider society the meaning of democracy is ambiguous, and that makes it even more difficult to agree to its meaning for everyday life in schools. The key question is what a worthwhile and valuable education, based on democratic principles, should look like, and what the consequences are for leadership in schools.
