On the Web,on Reclaiming “Spirituality,” “Authenticity,” and “Revolution”: An Argument for Leadership-With

Abstract

It is argued that the Web is transforming schooling in the 21st century, and as such altering the terrain of what leadership “means.” Theorizing our submersion in the Internet, we discover that the Web enhances a leadership-for paradigm, while at the same time it militates against what is defined as a leadership-with paradigm. For the power of the Web is its capacity to transform our desire for meaningful interconnectedness: transforming “spirituality” and “authenticity” into products for the self-help industry, and leadership into something not intended—disembodied leadership. In our postmodern culture, revoultionary leadership can act to counter disembodiment in its demand for an embodied, “incarnate” leadership. With embodied leadership comes our solidarity with one another: our passionate sense of commitment for social justice and where one acts with such intensity as to stretch the boundary we normally consider as being “professional” into being “revolutionary.” As such, revolutionary leadership is moral, spiritual, and authentic in that one is released from one's professional identity.

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