Advancing Democratic Leadership through Critical Theory

Abstract

Critical interpretation of leadership and democracy in today's society and educational institutions has created conflict and division concerning empowerment, social justice and the credibility of a leader's moral practice. Democracy needs to be redefined, especially by those educational institutions that approach leadership through traditional models of hierarchical oppression. It is through critical theory that democratic leaders have begun the task of self-reflection in order to uncover immoral procedures in an effort to reconstruct the social drama of human decency. Democratic leaders, as public servants, have a moral obligation to the people they represent, and that only as a collective unit can they aspire to. We are challenged then, as transformative intellectuals, to continue the struggle for democracy in institutions of education for justice of all people, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or class.