Eureka! Institutional Repository

Starting from the bibliographic labeling of vision, as a power of influence and a dominant functional element in the management of educational units, vision is first considered in the light of interpretive literature, then as conceptual construction with positive and negative aspects that justify or not, the necessity of its existence in an organization, it is combined with modern theories of leadership in education and finally, is correlated with parameters that contribute to its formation and implementation in a modern school. The centralized and rigid bureaucratic Greek educational system has in recent years been called upon to adapt to international trends that impose more autonomy in schools and shift responsibility for planning and taking initiatives to school leaders in order to respond to the changing and competitive environment. In the absence of sufficient empirical data, a pilot qualitative approach to visionary leadership in contemporary Greek primary and secondary schools is attempted in order to investigate its characteristics as they bibliographically emerged and its contribution to changes in the external environment. For this reason, primary data obtained from individual interviews of 12 school principals and 4 focus groups of 19 teachers, was collected to highlight the existing perceptions of vision, the possible existence of a common vision in the school units and its design and implementation elements. Analysis of the data showed that despite the constraints of the central system, there is a vision on a personal level, but much less a collective one. Teachers appeared more pessimistic about the prospect of joining a joint mission, but at the same time highlighted the need for appropriate leadership and realistic planning. Although personal visions of executives and teachers are not subject to subversive changes, they have a common pedagogical orientation, they advocate human values and invest in emotional commitments, and all this shows that there are individual elements that, under the influence of leadership, can build a common culture and unite to a common vision.