Democracy and values in public schools: A case study of founding members of the Visioning Institute of Texas

Little empirical evidence existed that measured how democracy and democratic values were instilled in American schools. The problem of this qualitative collective case study was to investigate in what ways the efficacy and praxis of the superintendents of independent public school districts as founding members of the Public Education Visioning Institute of Texas had been influenced by their participation, how their vision for public education for their school districts and for Texas had changed through creative and innovative leadership, and how educational leadership interacted as either more of a science or as an art. Through qualitative methodology, this critical, narrative, and interpretive case study design explored what values were promoted by the Public Education Visioning Institute of Texas and if/how the superintendents as school leaders were implementing these values within their schools. Data was gathered

through the use of qualitative tools of data collection, analysis, and management that

included a questionnaire, interviews, observations, field notes, archival data documents,

and the pilot study. This case study attempts to move from the public to the private

(Denzin, 2001) through narrative and interpretive story to discover if the participants in

the Public Education Visioning Institute of Texas had experienced epiphanies in regard

to democracy and democratic values. Study findings indicated a transcendent epiphany

in unity of values, vision, and passion for change among the superintendents through

their leadership and vision and a constancy of purpose to improve public schools not only

for their own students, but also for all children, and uncovered resources that informed

their leadership practice. Findings confirm the need for further development of the

Visioning Institute as a moral imperative to sustain democracy and democratic schools.

To know who we are and where we are going in public education, a requisite need arises

to conduct additional research in educational leadership as both science and as art.