Drawing on the literature about responsible leadership in business administration, this article brings the concept of responsible leadership to the fore in the theoretical and empirical debates about educational leadership and to encourage scholars to study the particular characteristics and determinants of responsible leadership in schools. More specifically, several questions are explored: What should responsible leadership look like in schools? What makes a responsible educational leader? What needs to be done to develop responsible leaders? And, to what extent can educational leaders contribute to the enrichment of the large society rather than for their own personal benefit or that of the organization? It is the author's intention to challenge current conceptualizations of educational leadership as a technical enterprise using the terminologies embedded in the research on responsible leadership and to begin a debate about the tension between local organizational commitments (e.g. high student achievement, high school reputation) and the national, universal obligations of educational leaders (e.g. creating a better society).