Background: Although Turkey has not been in the list of underdeveloped countries list for the last 10 years the country faces significant challenges. These are principally ones of substantial inequalities in wealth but also includes issues relating to democracy, human rights, ethnicity and language rights are also significant issues in society, and therefore in schools. While the country’s public education system has to challenge these inequalities it can also have a role in reproducing them. Two elementary school principals were interviewed. One of them was a male principal in a state school. The school has 1400 students. It is situated in a region where middle income families are predominant. The second interviewee was a female principal in a school with 480 students. Her school is in a region where low income families are dominant. Preliminary findings: Initial findings showed that the ‘social justice’ sense of principals is generally focused on issues of economic injustice and the problems of poverty. However, findings also indicated that principals sought to challenge authoritarian practices and that they sought to create a democratic school in order to act as a social justice leader.