The rationale behind the theme is that in most countries, there are mission statements in different laws and policy documents that describe the purpose of schools. Most of those statements contain two goals; passing on knowledge from one generation to the next and the upbringing of good and harmonious citizens who shall be able to take over and continue to develop the world's democratic societies. If it is decided to believe that the policy makers want to have democratic schools that foster the next generation, the style of leadership used in schools has to be reviewed. A question seldom asked is: What kind of leaders can be models for the goals and democratic values decided and what kind of training do they need? This special issue of Journal of Educational Administration presents a set of articles which explore this theme.