Teacher Leadership In Schools Research Articles

Scrutinising Driving Forces: Principal Leadership and Academic Emphasis for Teacher Leadership in Schools

Teacher leadership requires empirical evidence to reinforce several antecedent influences identified in recent reviews. This study attempts to examine the relationship between principal leadership and teacher leadership with academic emphasis in schools as a mediator. The study utilised a cross-sectional survey design. To ver¬ify the hypothesised research model, survey data was collected from a sample of 370 teachers working the schools of Maldives. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used for data analysis in this study. Findings revealed that principal leadership has a positive direct effect on teacher leadership and academic emphasis. Findings also demonstrated that academic emphasis is directly related to teacher leadership. The findings affirmed the role of academic emphasis as a significant mediator between principal leadership and teacher leadership. Besides contributing to knowledge in the area of teacher leadership, importance of both principal leadership and academic emphasis in cultivating teacher leadership were highlighted. Principals are recommended to enhance academic emphasis for teacher leadership to thrive.

Fostering Teacher Leadership in K‐12 Schools: A Review of the Literature

Teachers are in classrooms with students every day, and therefore it is essential that they be involved in school leadership. Teacher leadership has been shown to improve school culture, benefit teachers, improve student achievement, and improve the greater learning community. Teachers lead by getting involved in school-level decision making, improvement planning, action research, or leading new initiatives. They also lead professional development activities and play the important role of acting as mentors and coaches for their colleagues. In order for teacher leadership to be successful, schools need to develop a culture of collaboration and trust while promoting a shared vision and goals for the school. Shared leadership is a model that can enable the benefits of teacher leadership in schools. Administrators need to value teacher leadership and solicit the input of teachers in school matters. Administrators can promote teacher leadership by encouraging teachers to lead initiatives and creating teams to handle various aspects of running the school. Time must also be available for teacher leaders to carry out their regular duties and for creating opportunities for professional development. Administrators also must reward the efforts of teacher leaders and potentially partner with teacher leadership programs or organizations. In order for shared leadership to thrive, school leaders must create the conditions that allow teachers to share the responsibilities of leading the school. The research shows that when the necessary antecedents and enablers are in place, teacher leadership can grow and lead to positive outcomes for students, teachers, and the greater school community. Through a review of the relevant literature, this article will add to the relevant field of knowledge by analyzing what can be done to strengthen teacher leadership in K-12 schools.

Scaling standards-aligned instruction through teacher leadership: methods, supports, and challenges

BackgroundThe Common Core Standards for Mathematics and Next Generation Science Standards were adopted by states with the goal of preparing students with knowledge and skills needed for college, careers, and citizenry. Adopting these standards necessitated considerable changes in instructional practice. While teacher leadership is known to be important for instructional change, there is little research that articulates the processes through which that influence occurs, and how contextual factors constrain or support those processes. This paper provides a case study of efforts in the Chicago Public Schools to promote widespread instructional change around standards reform through a teacher leader model using retrospective from 2013 to 2017 interviews with 16 math and science teacher leaders serving grades 6–12, along with quantitative analysis of district-wide data showing patterns of change and professional learning. It builds off prior research to articulate a framework of how teacher leaders promote instructional change.FindingsThere were five patterns of teacher leader action: inspiring others, sharing with colleagues, working in collaboration, advocating for change, and providing individual support, and an interplay between teacher actions and school-level contextual factors, with some contextual factors more important than others for different types of actions. In particular, sharing and collaborative work were facilitated in schools with designated collaboration time, trusting relationships, and colleagues who were also trained and knowledgeable about the new standards. The degree of collective efficacy the teacher leaders felt seemed to be driven mostly by the presence of other knowledgeable change agents in the school.Conclusions and implicationsThe study adds to the existing literature on teacher leadership by articulating the mechanisms through which teachers exert influence around instructional improvement of their school peers and providing examples of each. Further, the study illustrates how these mechanisms are facilitated or constrained by the larger school context. Together, the articulation of mechanisms and contexts, along with illustrative examples, provides a guide for supporting instructional change through teacher leadership in schools and districts.

New Research on Teacher Leadership in Schools: Efficacy of a survey method for analyzing multiple dimensions of leadership

In the past decade, teacher leadership has emerged as a key strategy for improving the quality of education in U.S. schools. Major foundations, federal education programs, and professional organizations are providing significant support for teacher leadership as a key strategy for improving the quality of education in U.S. schools. Teachers in U.S. schools have a variety of roles and responsibilities in addition to their primary responsibility of teaching in classrooms. While teacher classroom effectiveness has been the focus of extensive research, the roles of teachers as leaders in their schools, districts, and professional associations have been the subject of less research and analysis. The research design for this study of teacher leadership takes a broad view of the roles of teachers in their school and their profession. The study design follows from research-based constructs of the relationship of teacher leadership to education quality in K-12 education.

The Role of Teacher Leadership in Professional Learning Community (PLC) in International Baccalaureate (IB) Schools: A Social Network Approach

This study aims to illuminate how professional interactions among teachers form different types of teacher leadership in schools, which, in turn, shape different levels of teachers’ involvement in activities related to their professional learning community (PLC). To investigate certain patterns of teachers’ interactions that contribute to the formation of teacher leadership and thereby the development of PLC, two international schools that offer a full continuum of three International Baccalaureate (IB) programs were purposively chosen. The schools have similar numbers of students and are located in two different countries in East Asia. Using a mixed-methods research approach, the patterns of teacher professional interactions were first examined using social network analysis. Next, the degree to which teachers in the case study schools enact practices related to PLCs was assessed and compared through a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) test. Further, based on findings from social network analysis, in-depth semistructured interviews were conducted with selected key participants to understand the linkage between teacher leadership and teachers’ involvement in their PLC in each case school. From the findings, we propose four conceptual types of teacher leadership that explain how teacher leadership shapes different levels of teachers’ engagement in PLC in the two case schools.

Teacher Leadership and Teacher Professional Learning in Schools of Maldives

Teacher leadership in schools has become a vital area of investigation in supporting teachers’ engagement in professional learning. Hence, this survey study aims to examine the influence of teacher leadership on teacher professional learning, using a sample of 371 teachers working in schools of Maldives. Teacher Leadership School Survey (TLSS) and Teacher Professional Learning Scale (TPLS) were used to collect data. The data was analysed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) version 21.0 with descriptive and inferential statistics. The results of the study indicated that teacher leadership was positively and significantly associated with teacher professional learning based on teachers’ perception. The findings also revealed that only two dimensions of teacher leadership - collegiality and developmental focus – found as significant predictors of teacher professional learning. Based on the statistical results, implications of the findings were discussed in the context of teacher leadership and teacher professional learning. The areas of significance identified by this study can guide authorities to provide leadership training to foster culture of teacher leadership in schools. Consequently, recommendations and suggestions for future research were also presented.

Teacher Leaders and Student Achievement: can the dots be connected?

Abstract This study was designed to determine the effects of teacher leadership on student achievement in middle school math and science. Participants were 173 8th grade students, and eight teachers — four of whom were identifed as teacher leaders. The experimental groups were comprised of students who were instructed by teachers identifed as teacher leaders; and the control groups were comprised of students instructed by teachers not identifed as teacher leaders. Each experimental and control group was compared using the Explorer test results to determine equivalence between groups. An ANOVA performed on End of Quarter Test data in advanced and non-advanced math and science revealed a signifcant difference in both the advanced science and math groups; teacher leaders are positively correlated with higher scores of the advanced math and science groups. No signifcant difference was found between the experimental groups and control groups in either non-advanced math or science classes; teacher leaders did not signifcantly impact the scores of the non-advanced math and science groups. Keywords : Teacher leadership, Middle school, Math, Student achievement. References ACT. Explorer Test . 2013. Retrieved from http://www.act.org/explorestudent/ ANDREWS, D.; CROWTHER, F. Parallel leadership: A clue to the contents of the “black box” of school reform. International Journal of Educational Management , 16,152-159, 2002. doi:10.1108/09513540210432128 BASS, B. M.; RIGGIO, R. E. Transformational leadership (2 nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2006. BEACHUM, F.; DENTITH, A. M. Teacher leaders creating cultures of school renewal and transformation. The Educational Forum , 68, 276-286, 2004. doi:10.1080/00131720408984639 BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION. Learning about Teaching : Initial Findings from the Measures of Effective Teaching Project. Seattle, Washington: Author, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.metproject.org/downloads/Preliminary_FindingsResearch_Paper.pdf BRUGGENCATE, G.; LUYTEN, H.; SCHEERENS, J.; SLEEGERS, P. Modeling the influence of school leaders on student achievement: How can school leaders make a difference? Education Administration Quarterly , 48, 699-732, 2012. doi:10.1177/0013161X11436272 COBURN, C. E.; RUSSELL, J. L. District policy and teachers' social networks. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis , 30(3), 203-235, 2008. CURTIS, R. Finding a new way : Leveraging teacher leadership to meet unprecedented demands . Washington, D.C.: The Aspen Institute, 2013. DANIELSON, C. Teacher leadership that strengthens professional practice . Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 2006. DANIELSON, C. The many faces of leadership. Educational Leadership , 65(1) 14-19, 2007. ELLIOTT, R.; KAZEMI, E.; LESSEIG, K.; MUMME, J.; CARROLL, C.; KELLEY-PETERSEN, M. Conceptualizing the work of leading mathematical tasks in professional development . Journal of Teacher Education , 60, 364-379, 2009. GARET, M. S.; PORTER, A. C.; DESIMONE, L.; BIRMAN, B. F.; YOON, K. S. What makes professional development effective? Results from a national sample of teachers. American Educational Research Journal , 38, 915-945, 2001. GIGANTE, N. A.; FIRESTONE, W.A. Administrative support and teacher leadership in schools implementing reform. Journal of Education Administration , 46, 302-331, 2008. HARRISON, C.; KILLION, J. Ten roles for teacher leaders. Educational Leadership , 65, 74-77, 2007. JACOBS, A. Examining the relationship between student achievement and observable teacher characteristics: Implications for school leaders. International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation , 7, 1-13, 2012. Retrieved from http://cnx.org/content/m44965/latest/ LEITHWOOD, K.; JANTZI, D. The relative effects of principal and teacher sources of leadership on student engagement with school. Education Administration Quarterly , 35, 679-706, 1999. doi:10.1177/0013161X99355002 ROBINSON, V.; LLOYD, C.; ROWE, K. The impact of leadership on student outcomes: An analysis of the differential effects of leadership types. Education Administration Quarterly , 44, 635-674, 2008. doi:10.1177/0013161X08321509 SNELL, J.; SWANSON, J. The essential knowledge and skills of teacher leaders : Asearch for a conceptual framework. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association, New Orleans, LA, 2000. WAHLSTROM, K. L.; YORK-BARR, J. Leadership: Support and structures make the ifference for educators and students. Journal of Staff Development , 32, 22-25, 2011. http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ941373 WATERS, T.; MARZANO, R. J.; MCNULTY, B; MID-CONTINENT REGIONAL EDUCATIONAL LAB., A. C. Balanced Leadership : What 30 Years of Research Tells Us about the Effect of Leadership on Student Achievement . A Working Paper, 2003. WHITAKER, T. Informational teacher leadership - The key to successful change in the middle school level. NASSP Bulletin , 79, 76-81, 1995. doi:10.1177/019263659507956712 YORK- BARR, J.; DUKE, K. What do we know about teacher leadership? Findings from two decades of scholarship. Review of Educational Research , 74, 255-316, 2004.

Personal professional development as a premise for teacher’s leadership

Strategic documents on education emphasize learning leadership, discuss teachers’ activities related to continuous personal improvement in professional activities: by involvement in improvement of school activities, conducting research, participating in specialized group activities, projects, collaboration with colleagues, etc. Innovative trends of teachers’ professional development are the basis for the development of efficient leadership: a challenge promoting to introduce changes in teachers’ improvement by creating new conditions and possibilities for both teachers and school leaders. It is important for school leaders to ensure coherence between personal and institutional development needs, to create flexible structures while organizing support for teachers and promoting fostering of continuous learning culture in the organization. The research aim is to analyze experiences of heads of departments with regard to teachers’ personal professional development possibilities in their professional activities. The results disclose that teachers ambiguously assess the activity of the head of the department: concrete, individual support, attention, encouragement are emphasised but teachers are against observation and assessment of their activities. This is related to several reasons: teachers’ attitude towards change processes, innovations in teachers’ professional development, competencies of heads of education departments, and general school culture. It is important to create conditions for manifestation of teacher leadership in schools, creating conditions for every teacher to continuously improve the educational process, develop personal competencies, actively and responsibly participate in group activities, get involved in school improvement processes. Middle level leaders, heads of departments, acting as mediators while implementing individual, group and organizational level tasks, promote the development of teachers’ competencies.

Teacher leadership development and principal facilitation: Novice teachers’ perspectives

This article explores novice teachers’ perspectives on their teacher leadership roles and their principal’s facilitation of their leadership development. A cohort of 20 novice teachers teaching in Hong Kong participated in this study. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and documentary evidence during a two-year period. The results show that six novice teachers performed principal-delegated and teacher-initiated teacher leadership roles facilitated by principals’ practices. Interplay of the teacher’s and principal’s roles as an interface of developing teacher leadership is evidenced. This has important implications for the roles of teachers and principals in fostering teacher leadership in schools. Teacher educators are also informed for enhancement of initial teacher education.

School–University Partnerships and Teacher Leadership: Doing It Right

Drawing on the author's experience as director of a long-lived school—university partnership, this essay describes how one such organization can “do it right” and enhance the development of teacher leadership in schools. It also provides a cautionary tale about how that same organization can “do it wrong” and achieve the opposite effect. “Doing it right” requires having a set of core beliefs that are enacted through key social practices. “Doing it wrong” violates those core beliefs and practices.

The Effect of Organizational Trust on the Culture of Teacher Leadership in Primary Schools

The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of the level of trust of primary school teachers towards their organization in relation to their perceptions of the school having a culture of teacher leadership. Participants of the study consisted of 378 teachers working in Burdur public primary schools. The data collection tool used two scales, the Teacher Leadership Culture Scale (TLCS) and Comprehensive Trust Scale (CTS). The TLCS consists of three dimensions including teacher collaboration, managerial support, and supportive work environment. The CTS has three sub-dimensions including trust in principals, trust in colleagues, and trust in clients. The data obtained from the participants was analyzed using the LISREL 8.5 program via structural equation modeling techniques such as the Maximum Likelihood Approach. The research results find the trust levels of teachers towards their organization in primary schools in Burdur to be positive and significant for the culture of teacher leadership in school. In addition, the trust level of teachers towards the organization are shown to explain 76% of the variability in the level of teacher leadership culture in their school. It was found that trust in principals has the highest correlation with managerial trust. Trust in colleagues also is found to have the highest correlations with teacher collaboration and supportive work environment.

Enacting teacher leadership

This paper attempts to identify leadership practices and qualities of school teachers as they engaged in effecting change initiated by a curriculum reform in Hong Kong. Based on interview data of teachers from nine schools, this paper shows how teacher leadership manifested itself in schools. Three approaches to teacher leadership were identified, each delineating how teacher leaders approached the implementation task – as a compliance exercise, an adaptive exercise, or as a capacity building exercise. This paper confirms that different levels of teacher–leader engagement in professional enquiries constitute different teacher leadership practices, which have differential impacts on teaching and learning practices and the effectiveness of school improvement efforts. Implications for developing teacher leadership in schools are discussed.

The Fundamental Dilemma of Teacher Leader-Facilitated Professional Development

Purpose: This article focuses on a specific model of teacher leadership in schools—the studio classroom. In answering the call for more targeted studies of teacher leadership, the study is designed to assist educational leaders in putting in place the organizational and social structures that allow teacher leaders to have the most positive impact on teachers. Research questions focused on perceptions, enactment, and impact of the studio classroom. Research Methods: The research took place over a 2-year period (2008-2010), with six teacher leader-participants from four school districts. Data collection included individual and group interviews and extensive on site observation, as well as administrator interviews. Analytic procedures were qualitative, grounded in the teacher leadership literature and a sociocultural teacher learning framework. Findings and Implications: Across sites, a diminished understanding and appreciation for the teacher learning process left no sanctioned space to learn from mistakes. Thus, logistical, social, and cultural barriers overwhelmed any studio classroom implementation attempts—and teacher leaders ultimately failed to open up their classroom doors as intended. Practical implications include a need to reexamine the term modeling as exhibiting qualities that encourage reflection on teaching rather than replication of teaching. Similarly, to stimulate learning from actual classroom practice, a new vision of teacher leadership needs to focus on improving rather than proving. Additionally, research on teaching will need to more strongly make the case that authentic teacher inquiry more strongly correlates with teacher and student learning than the importation and transmitting of “best practices.”

Teacher leadership: a survey analysis of KwaZulu-Natal teachers’ perceptions

The notion of teacher leadership is implicit in official documentation in the South African education system post 1994, which emphasises a move towards a more shared and participatory approach to the practice of leadership and management in schools. The concept of teacher leadership is embedded in a distributed leadership theoretical framing which emphasises that leadership need not be located only in the position of the principal but can be stretched over a range of people who work at different levels in a school. We report on a study in which the perceptions of teachers’ on their understanding and experiences of teacher leadership were explored. The study adopted a survey approach and utilised closed questionnaires to gather data from 1,055 post level-one teachers across a range of schools of diverse contexts in KwaZulu-Natal. We found that while teachers supported the notion of shared leadership and believed they were equipped to lead, their leadership was largely restricted to their classrooms. There was some evidence of teacher leadership amongst teacher colleagues in certain curricular and extra-curricular activities. However, teacher leadership in relation to school-wide and community issues was almost non-existent. We signal two problematics regarding the leadership of school teachers and consider the implication of these for the distribution of leadership, and therefore change, in schools. Keywords : distributed leadership; education leadership; power; school management teams; teacher leadership; teachers

Administrative support and teacher leadership in schools implementing reform

PurposeThis paper aims to explore how teacher leaders help teachers improve mathematics and science teaching.Design/methodology/approachResearch focused on a purposive sample of seven teacher leaders selected to vary in their time allocated to teacher leader work and their content knowledge. Each teacher leader was interviewed, as were two teachers and at least one administrator working with that teacher leader. Each interview was first subjected to a mix of deductive and inductive coding before a case study was written for each teacher leader. Ultimately, a cross‐case analysis was written.FindingsTeacher leaders conducted two sets of leadership tasks. The paper finds that support tasks helped teachers do their work but did not contribute to teacher learning. Developmental tasks did facilitate learning. All teacher leaders engaged in support tasks, but only four did developmental tasks as well. Teacher leaders who engaged in developmental tasks had access to one material resource and three social resources not available to other teacher leaders: time to work with teachers, administrative support, more positive relations with teachers, and opportunities to work with teachers on professional developmentPractical implicationsWhen teacher leadership is intended to facilitate teacher learning, the payoff comes from engaging in developmental tasks. A key to teacher leader success is administrative support. Schools and districts should not invest in teacher leaders unless they intend to support teacher leaders adequately through time, administrative follow through, and training to help teachers develop the positive social relations on which their work depends.Originality/valueThese findings have implications for how to integrate teacher leaders into larger school improvement efforts.

Teacher led school improvement: Teacher leadership in the UK

Teacher leadership is increasingly being seen as a key vehicle for school improvement and renewal. However, research on this phenomenon is limited, especially outside of the US. This article presents findings from an empirical study of teacher leadership in the UK, aimed at exploring both the ways in which teacher leadership can influence school and teacher development, and what in-school factors can help or hinder the development of teacher leadership in schools. The study was undertaken using a qualitative case study approach, purposively selected as being sites where teacher leadership was operational. Data indicated that teacher leadership was characterised by a variety of formal and informal groupings, often facilitated by involvement in external programmes. Teacher leadership was seen to empower teachers, and contributed to school improvement through this empowerment and the spreading of good practice and initiatives generated by teachers. A range of conditions needed to be in place in schools for teacher leadership to be successful, including a culture of trust and support, structures that supported teacher leadership but were clear and transparent, strong leadership, with the head usually being the originator of teacher leadership, and engagement in innovative forms of professional development.

The Nature of Teacher Leadership in Schools as Reciprocal Influences Between Teacher Leaders and Principals

As part of a comprehensive qualitative study of 6 schools noted for teacher leadership 28 respondents were interviewed. It was noted that teacher leadership often involved the mutual influence between teacher leaders and principals. These influences are discussed from the perspectives of each of the 6 schools and respondent status as teacher leader, teacher nominator, and administrator. Further to these influences, the data suggest relationships between teachers, teacher leaders, and principals, in these schools, which are reflective of 3 models of “leadership reciprocity” based on unique features found to be typical of these schools.