This paper arises from an ongoing, three-year national programme of research which investigated teachers’ views about their professionalism. The early stages of the research was survey based. The outcomes of this supported an intervention in which teachers are invited to participate in a programme aimed to enable them to exercise leadership to improve the conditions of teaching and learning in their schools. Data were collected through questionnaires (n=2702) and focus group (n=99) with teachers in mainland Portugal. An intervention project is currently underway in five schools in order to better understand the ways in which teachers construct their professionalism and to develop strategies to enhance teacher leadership in schools. Issues of lack of motivation, low morale, job satisfaction and commitment arising from the data will be explored in the paper. Conditions for teachers to exercise leadership and to maintain hope through the development of leadership strategies will also be discussed.