Teacher Leadership

Teacher Leadership

Introduction

Teacher leadership is primarily concerned with developing high quality learning and teaching in schools. It has at its core a focus upon improving learning and is a mode of leadership premised upon the principles of professional collaboration, development and growth. Teacher leadership is not a formal role, responsibility or set of tasks, it is more a form of agency where teachers are empowered to lead development work that impacts directly upon the quality of teaching and learning. Teacher leaders lead within and beyond the classroom, they identify with and contribute to a community of teachers and influence others towards improved educational practice.

Discussion

In contrast to traditional notions of leadership, teacher leadership is characterised by a form of collective leadership in which teachers develop expertise by working collaboratively. So for example, they may be teachers working together on a particular aspect of the Literacy Strategy or teachers who are jointly preparing new materials and resources for a new topic area. There are two key dimensions of teacher leadership firstly, a focus on improved learning outcomes through the development work and secondly, a emphasis upon collaborative professional activity.

Teacher leadership incorporates three main areas of activity:

the leadership of other teachers through coaching, mentoring, leading working groups;

the leadership of developmental tasks that are central to improved learning and teaching;

the leadership of pedagogy through the development and modeling of effective forms of teaching.

Teacher leaders can be curriculum developers, bid writers, leaders of a school improvement team, mentors of new or less experienced staff and action researchers with a strong link to the classroom. The important point is that teacher leaders are, in the first place, expert teachers, who spend at the majority of their time in the classroom but take on leadership roles at times when development and innovation is needed. Their ...