Highlighting the inescapable paradoxes that educators must grapple with in their thought and practice as they seek to reconcile democracy and leadership in education, this book addresses the question of whether socially-just democratic futures can be realised through education.

Introduction. Part I: The Scenes of Debate: How theory opens avenues for action. Chapter 1: Power, Schools, Schooling and the Perversions of Democracy. Chapter 2: Towards a Society of Equals: Challenging the Neoconservative-Neoliberal Alliance. Chapter 3: Leadership: Living with and working through Paradox. Chapter 4: Democracy and education: ‘In spite of it all’. Chapter 5: Inscribing Discourses of Capitalism, Co-operation and Education on the Body and/or Mind. Chapter 6: A Crisis of Modernity? The implications for educating the public for socially just futures. Chapter 7: From Competition to Collaboration to Cooperation?. Part II: The Struggle to Develop Alternatives Within the Contemporary Scenes of Practice. Chapter 8: "Democratic commoning schools": First notes on producing democratic schools through commoning practices. Chapter 9: Working towards a democratic home-school imaginary. Chapter 10: Leadership, the Vanishing Mediator and Organisation. Chapter 11: Democracy in the Classroom. Chapter 12: Against Reconciliation: Constituent power, ethics, and the meaning of democratic education. Chapter 13: Populism, Democracy, Education and Freedom: Creating a world without walls. Conclusion.

A hugely important, timely response to contemporary dilemmas in education, democracy and society. Not only does it eloquently and incisively challenge contemporary norms, it explores grounded, inspiring alternatives that have the wisdom, imagination and power to help us develop new practices and possibilities. A deeply thoughtful, thought-provoking book; a book of integrity, power, possibility and occasional beauty. A book which, in its own words, helps us ‘Create the conditions for young people to write the poetry of their own futures’.Michael Fielding, Emeritus Professor of Education at the Institute of Education, University College London, UKThis important and compelling book is a much-needed challenge to the contemporary neoliberal framing of education. Richly theorised and convincingly argued, it presents a lucid and insightful analysis of the current disquieting state of play in education, before clearly setting out the possibilities for real democratisation of education and wider society. This book is a must-read for all those concerned about growing inequalities in education and what we need to do about them.Diane Reay, Visiting Professor, London School of Economics, UK, and Emeritus Professor of Sociology of Education, University of Cambridge, UK.Contemporary educational leadership is curiously poised between the promise of ever greater freedoms and the sober realisation of tighter regulation and control. The book is eloquent in its consideration of the inescapable paradoxes that beset educational policy and practice. Of how we are first tempted towards the possibility of a better future, espousing greater equality, liberty and inclusivity, before becoming unavoidably compromised through the pervasive exercise of power that both violates democracy and serves to naturalize instrumentalism. Such tensions and contradictions are not easily resolved and while the authors make no claim to do so they otherwise offer a sophisticated account of radically rethinking the formation of future educational practices: relations, institutions and leadership. Dean Garratt, Editor of Power and Education Journal.