Why Does Leadership as Position Matter for Some and not Others?

Abstract

The focus for this chapter is understanding why it is that some teachers view leadership work as separate from an individual’s position, role, and status. The chapter begins with three vignettes illustrating pathways to teacher leadership which emphasise conceptions of leadership tied to positional roles. These vignettes demonstrate how teachers’ lives, aspirations, and realities are shaped and constrained by who they are as individuals, the people who surround them, and the school environments in which they work. This realisation is important for understanding why leadership is associated with a named position for some while for others it is possible without such an appointment. A discussion about readiness for leadership work and how acting professionally draws teachers to a different form of leadership, namely a learning orientation, is described in terms of teacher leadership activity. This links to the appeal of teachers engaging in a reciprocal process of learning through leading, in order to make sense of their own teaching knowledge and practices whilst helping others. The chapter ends with an emerging definition of teacher leadership which is based on research work with the Teachers of Promise study and an analysis of the teacher leadership literature.