The virtual classroom as a space of power: Ethical and unethical educational leadership in online education

Online education has profoundly transformed pedagogical practices, while simultaneously making power relations within educational leadership both more visible and more invisible. This article examines the virtual classroom as a space where teacher leadership is exercised, with particular attention to the ethical dimensions that emerge in contexts marked by social, technological, and emotional inequalities, especially in Latin America. Adopting a critical and reflective approach, the paper analyzes how educational leadership in digital environments is enacted through seemingly technical decisions that carry significant pedagogical, psychological, and moral implications. Through four analytical dimensions the virtual classroom as a space of power, digital inequality and exclusion, ethical leadership grounded in the principles of non-maleficence, beneficence, autonomy, and justice, and unethical leadership when power becomes invisible the article argues that online education is not merely a technological issue, but fundamentally an ethical and political one. It is emphasized that teacher leadership in virtual environments can act as a source of support, care, and inclusion, or as a mechanism of control, silencing, and perpetuation of inequalities. Likewise, the responsibility of management, educational supervision, and digital public policies in shaping the conditions under which such leadership is exercised is highlighted.From a humanistic perspective, it is argued that strengthening ethical educational leadership in online education is essential to guaranteeing fair, dignified, and socially responsible learning experiences in increasingly established digital environments