Examining Policy Intersections: Democracy, Technologies, and the Implications for School Leadership

Distributed school leadership has the capacity to build democratic schools. To investigate whether the policy preconditions for this assertion exist in Australia, three inter-related policy priorities in Australian school education are examined: the role of school leaders in Australian schools; supporting teaching and learning with technologies; and the provision of school education that is democratic. Little Australian research about school education has focused upon how distributed school leadership approaches can contribute to fostering a democracy. Similarly, little Australian research has been conducted into the links between school leadership and teaching and learning with technologies. Furthermore, little Australian research has investigated the place of technologies for building students’ knowledge, understanding, and experiences of a democracy. This chapter provides a policy analysis of the current overarching national policies for curriculum and personnel in Australian schools, to examine the intersections and symbiotic relationships between the three policy priorities, that of democracy, technologies and school leadership. It is argued that if school leaders are to actively implement distributed leadership styles and implement democratic values and processes in all aspects of school life, then the preconditions for this have to exist in Australian curriculum and personnel policy priorities.