Abstract
Distributed leadership has become an increasingly accepted alternative perspective in the study of school leadership; it counters previous individualized leadership discourses that valorize the personal traits and actions of a single, "heroic" (typically male) principal. De-centering the individual leader, a distributed leadership perspective focuses on the tasks and practices that are stretched over personnel in the school or department. In this chapter I summarize what is known about distributed leadership, as well as illustrate some distributed leadership practices from recent case studies in science education. The case studies to which I refer cover a range of contexts in the USA and Australia. Finally, I suggest how schools might go about setting up structures that are more likely to foster distributed leadership practices in school science departments and classrooms.