Schools as Sites for Living Democratic Practice: Distributed Leadership, Teacher Well-Being, and Practitioner Insights

This paper reconceptualises schools as dynamic sites for living democratic practice, foregrounding the interplay between distributed leadership, teacher pedagogical well-being (TPWB), and practitioner-informed insight. Moving beyond formalised notions of participation, it examines how democratic values are enacted in everyday school life through relational practices, shared decision-making, and professional trust. Drawing on a qualitative design that combines secondary data analysis of the Erasmus-funded Teacher Well-Being and Diversity (TWBD) dataset with original interview data from the Researchers in Residence Scheme (RiRS), the study offers a dual perspective on both established and reflective teacher practices. This methodological integration enables the identification of implicit patterns within existing practice alongside the explicit articulation of those practices by teachers themselves. Conceptually, the study advances understanding by integrating TPWB with the Council of Europe’s competences for democratic culture (CDCs) through the development of the Democratic Teacher for Pedagogical Well-Being (DTPWB) rubric. Empirically, findings indicate that TPWB-oriented pedagogical practices, particularly those grounded in collaboration, reflection, and relational engagement, are closely aligned with the enactment of democratic competences such as cooperation, openness, and respect. These competences are often embedded implicitly within everyday teaching rather than introduced through discrete democratic education initiatives. The findings suggest that distributed and relational leadership may function as enabling conditions for democratic professional learning by creating opportunities for shared decision-making, professional voice, and collaborative inquiry. At the same time, tensions associated with structural constraints and accountability pressures highlight the limits of participation in practice. Taken together, the paper contributes a grounded and integrated account of how democratic practice can be sustained in schools, arguing that democratic teaching emerges not as an additional demand but as a natural outcome of pedagogical well-being. In doing so, it positions schools as sites for living democratic practice and highlights the role of teacher learning communities as key structures for fostering both teacher well-being and democratic capacity.