Democratic School Culture and Democratic School Leadership

The paper presents the results of research exploring the relationship between democratic school leadership and democratic school culture in primary schools. The research is based on the present knowledge that points to the significant role of principals in the process of developing and changing school culture (Fullan, 2005). The aim of the research was to determine the extent of primary teachers' perception regarding the level of development of selected characteristics of democratic school leadership and its connection to their estimate of the level of development of selected characteristics of democratic school culture. The research comprised 651 teachers from the City of Zagreb and Zagreb County. The research was conducted by means of a survey using a questionnaire containing two instruments: the Instrument for the measurement of characteristics of democratic school leadership (designed for the research) and the Instrument for the measurement of characteristics of democratic school culture (adopted from Spajic-Vrkas, 2016). According to the teachers' perception, principals in the City of Zagreb and Zagreb County implement characteristics of democratic school leadership to a significant degree. They perceive the level of characteristics of democratic school culture as moderate. In addition, the research has determined a statistically significant high positive correlation between characteristics of democratic school leadership and democratic school culture.