What is Values-Based Leadership

This chapter describes the DREAM educational management and leadership approach, which the author has been implementing, researching, and developing for two decades. The DREAM acronym is based on ten principles inspired by teachers that ensure the educational teacher leader focuses on students and their learning by placing teachers at the heart of the institution. DREAM stands for develop, recruit, enhance, appraise, motivate and delegate, respect, enjoy, attend, and mentor. These ten principles are sequenced to provide a pathway of continuous teacher leadership development although they are all interdependent and practiced as a coherent whole. Each of the sections within the chapter is based on a principle and describes how it has been applied in a variety of contexts using feedback from previous course participants. The aim is to provide the reader with a series of short case studies of the DREAM approach in action.