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The Teacher Leader: Words of Wisdom From Those Who Know Best

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The Teacher Leader: Words of Wisdom From Those Who Know Best

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This article provides real teacher responses to questions that pertain to teacher leadership. I chose to read this article because even though it was published in 2000, a lot of the beginning workings of teacher leadership are still relevant today. I also wanted to hear from actual teacher leaders who are putting the practices I have read about in our course texts into action. Teachers discussed barriers such as time, feelings of sacrifice with standardized tests, and balancing other daily responsibilities. The educators interviewed also offered valuable suggestions into how to be a prominent teacher leader. Persistence, goal setting, and celebration of successes go a long way to becoming an effective teacher leader. Those interviewed also agree that fellow teachers are the key to unlocking an educator’s true potential.

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From this highly charged congregation of inventive teachers emerges some strong prose and considerable craft knowledge to which other teachers, their principals, parents, officials in the central office, and, yes, policy makers would do well to attend.

Credit: Steven Vallot

Who Benefits?

The Principal

If there was ever a time when a principal could ride in alone on a white horse, like John Wayne or Joan of Arc, and save a troubled school, those days are certainly over. The astonishing complexities and demands of the job are well known. . . . Ample evidence suggests that effective principals don't work harder; they work smarter. Principals who encourage and enlist teachers' leadership leverage their own.

The Students

A Rand Corporation study of governance patterns within 1,000 schools found that "in high-performing schools . . . decision making and leadership are significantly more democratic. The teachers are more involved and influential in establishing discipline, with selecting textbooks, designing curriculum, and even choosing their colleagues than are teachers in low-performing schools."

What can we take from this study? Students learn when teachers lead.

The School

In order to create communities of learners, teachers must model for students the most important enterprise of the schoolhouse -- learning. A teacher who has stopped learning cannot create a classroom climate rich in learning for students.

A powerful relationship exists between learning and leading. . . . This is where teacher leadership intersects with professional development. Teachers who assume responsibility for something they care desperately about -- a new pupil-evaluation system, revising the science curriculum, or setting up that computer lab -- stand at the gate of profound learning.

The Teachers

"I love to learn new things, and I'm an avid workshop participant. Most of the things I've learned . . . have found a way into my classroom and into the classrooms of many of the teachers and preservice teachers I work with. Spending time with other biology teachers and reading information from professional organizations and keeping in contact with other biology teachers on the listserv have helped me improve my own learning." --Judy Hede McGowan

Credit: Jonathan Brower

Impediments

Why, then, do so few teachers contribute so little beyond their classrooms to the life of their schools? Severe, crippling impediments stand in the way of realizing this dream. What teachers have to say about the barriers they experience to teacher leadership is important for our profession to hear.

Our Plate Is Full

"Recently, the only thing about our schools that the majority of faculty members could come to consensus on was that our plate is full." --Diane Kern

Responsibility after responsibility has been added to each teacher's working day: responding to parents, overseeing after-school activities, attending professional-development activities, and, of course, maintaining standards. . . . As one teacher told me, "When was the last time someone said to me, 'Sandra, you are no longer responsible for . . .'? It's always an add-on."

Time

It is all about time. Time is why the plate is full. Time in schools is in finite supply and in infinite demand.

Teachers also lead demanding lives outside of school. Three-quarters of teachers nationwide are women, many of whom bear major responsibility for their children. Others are fathers, spouses, or caretakers of elderly parents. Still others hold outside jobs to make ends meet.

All these facts leave unexplained the puzzling paradox that those teachers who seem to have the least time and the most on their plates are the very ones who always seem ready and able to take on the additional work of schoolwide leadership.

The Tests

The current wave of quantifying accountability and standards has been widely translated into standardization, tests, and scores. Increasingly, the feeling in schools is that everything must be sacrificed on the altar of the standardized test. . . . Standardized tests are having a chilling effect on both the teaching profession and on the inclination and ability of teachers to assume broad leadership within their schools.

The tyranny of the test rules the day, every part of the day, and its tentacles work themselves into aspects of schooling that go far beyond the content of a student's class.

Caution

Coupled with institutional inertia is another quality familiar to many school cultures: aversion to risk. . . . One of the Sizer Fellows reported that he had given up pursuing his project because it had been dependent on his teaching a certain class, which was assigned to someone else at the last minute.

The more he thought about it, however, the more he found himself asking hard questions about himself: "Why didn't I go to the superintendent and explain what the schedule change was doing to my work? Why didn't I go to the teacher who got assigned to that class to see whether we might pursue the work together? . . . Instead, I threw up my hands, railing against the system when I should have been helping make the system work for me and for my students." . . . Ours is a very cautious profession top to bottom.

Personal and Interpersonal Skills

A final source of passive resistance to the teacher leader, found in many schools, is the primitive quality of the relationships among teachers. Few teachers would characterize themselves as collegial. Many seem to lack the personal, interpersonal, and group skills essential to the successful exercise of leadership. The following story suggests the intent of the deficiency:
"Recently, I sat with a group of educators from several school districts to talk about student reading responses and to share our craft knowledge. . . . I thought that all teachers would love to talk about student work . . . so I envisioned a worthwhile conversation. . . . I was completely taken aback at how miserably the morning went.
"Two teachers sat red faced and unable to contribute for at least an hour. One teacher was combative. . . . One teacher interrupted others. . . . The majority of the group felt the need to defend why their students did not do as well on this test as they would have liked. . . . This task was too risky for a majority of members." --Diane Kern

Credit: Steven Vallot

Opportunities

Happily, fellow teachers also hold the power to unlock teachers' leadership potential and to foster its growth. . . . One definition of leadership I like very much is "Making happen what you believe in." If a teacher believes in strengthening parent involvement in the school, say, and wants to make that happen, there are several choices.

Lead by Following

Perhaps the least risky, demanding, and complicated -- and therefore most common -- way to influence the life of one's school beyond the classroom is to follow the lead of others. By selectively enlisting behind the efforts of fellow teachers, one teacher can help others move mountains. This can mean showing up and speaking out at an important public meeting, signing petitions, writing letters, and participating in the cheering section. Followership is an art form many educators have yet to discover.

Join the Team

One teacher put it this way: "If schools are going to be run by committee, then I want to make damn sure I'm on the committee."

So they join in a collective effort, not as followers, but by sharing leadership with others. Teams offer some safety in numbers for the cautious, companionship for the gregarious, challenge for those attempting to influence others, and greater hope of making a significant difference through combined strength. They also often lead to better decisions because more perspectives are considered.

Lead Alone

One of the Rhode Island teachers described it this way: "In the past, I have taken the correct route to try to get things done. I go to the principal and get told no. Then I write a letter to school committee and superintendent and get ignored. Then I just go and do it myself. . . . Many teachers conceal their attempts to improve their schools, such as applying for a grant to get the school wired into the Internet. They become covert, guerrilla warriors. . . . If the effort succeeds, however, the impact of the guerrilla leader is often blunted. . . . There is no one to share in the celebration, as there was no one to share in the project." Despite the many impediments the teacher who set out to lead alone faces, a great many find success.

Lead by Example

Different from their guerrilla cousins, teacher leaders who stay out in the open are more likely to have a positive influence on the larger school community when they take the risk to provide a constant, visible model of persistence, hope, and enthusiasm, and simultaneously pursue their worthwhile goals.

"The best teachers I have known have shown leadership by holding out their excitement for teaching like a beacon and by keeping it focused on student welfare. Their model inspires other teachers. It also brings other teachers along with them in their zeal." --Helen Johnson

What It Takes

The Rhode Island teachers suggest that their success as teacher leaders is related to three factors:

Have a Goal

"I had a goal to try to get a scanner purchased for my school. I decided to create a school Web page so my principal could see the benefit of it. She loved it and has agreed to make the purchase for the scanner, a color printer, and a digital camera. I will be running a faculty workshop on how to use this new equipment."--Lisa Zavota

Persist

"Tenacity, persistence, and handling rejection well are admirable qualities of a teacher leader."--Michael Neubauer

Teachers who succeed in influencing the school are tireless, incessant, and undeterred by the obstacles that seem to leap from behind every bush.

Learn to Enjoy Half a Loaf

The teacher leaders who succeed . . . seem to be able to settle for, and to even celebrate, small, partial successes.

"When we built our first weather station, many teachers came to me and said it wouldn't last and that the kids would trash it. It hurt, but I was stubborn and felt it was worth a shot. . . . Unfortunately, the teachers who thought it would never work were right: The station was trashed. . . . The following fall we rebuilt it for the third time, only to find that our phone line was pulled because the school was installing a 56K line in the building. ... The GLOBE computer is constantly in use in my classroom, and the activities I learned have found a place in my curriculum even if my students and I could not participate . . . the way I wanted to.

It was not my most successful project, but I learned that it was OK to try new things. I don't like to fail, but I did learn from the failure."--Judy Hede McGowan

So, how might more teachers reconcile their crucial classroom work with equally crucial schoolwide responsibilities? To capture the potential of these teachers, the profession needs to invent, expand, and honor other opportunities so there will be more choices than "either" principal or teacher. If greater teacher leadership is to be attained in our schools, educators will also have to explore multiple conceptions of the role of the teacher: team leader, lead teacher, teacher researcher, master teacher. There is no more important form of school restructuring.

Recognition

"I personally think teachers are crying for respect. They want to feel they are valued and productive members of the school community."--Michael Neubauer

Teachers will not for long go through the heroic efforts of leading schools, in addition to teaching classes, if the consequence of their work goes unnoticed, unrecognized, or unvalued by others.

Positive recognition comes in many forms: a title such as "master teacher," additional compensation, reduced teaching load, responsibility for a budget, allocation of prime space, an appreciative note from a parent, acknowledgment by the principal in the school newsletter, writing for publication about the work of teacher leadership, or taking some responsibility for the profession beyond one's school.

It's ironic that teachers, principals, and parents see clearly the value of student recognition and have assembled an array of ways to offer kudos to them, from gold stars to scholarships, while developing no comparable offerings for the outstanding work of teachers. Recognition costs little, sometimes nothing in dollars, but when the alarm rings at 6 A.M., it is among the reasons a teacher keeps bounding out of bed with alacrity.

Text and drawings excerpted with permission from The Teacher Leader, 1999, published as a monograph by the Rhode Island Foundation. Copies may be purchased for $6 (including shipping and handling) from the Rhode Island Foundation, The Teacher Leader, One Union Station, Providence, RI 02903.

Roland S. Barth is a former public school teacher and principal. He was founding director of the Principals' Center at Harvard University and the author of several books: Open Education and the American School, Run School Run, Improving Schools from Within, Cruising Rules, and (coming in 2001) Learning by Heart. He is an educational consultant who lives in Maine and Florida.

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The Teacher Leader: Words of Wisdom From Those Who Know Best

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From this highly charged congregation of inventive teachers emerges some strong prose and considerable craft knowledge to which other teachers, their principals, parents, officials in the central office, and, yes, policy makers would do well to attend.

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As an online teacher, I wanted to read an article or post discussing leadership in a virtual school environment. I have found Michigan Virtual to be a great resource for research and articles pertaining to cyber education. This particular blog used research to discuss instructional leadership roles for cyber teachers. This relates to our course text as a potential role of a teacher leader focuses on common instruction and goals. Effective instruction in an online environment includes digital pedagogy, community building, diverse instruction, and assessment/measurement. The blog also includes suggestions for how administration and teacher leaders support educators within their school. An educator will know they have truly made an impression if the impact is seen at both home and school.

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While many school leaders feel comfortable supporting teachers in a face-to-face setting, some school leaders have little to no experience working with or supporting teachers in an online environment.

Whether you are working with teachers or in an online environment for the first time or this is familiar territory, we all know that successful online programs require very strong leadership.

We also know that school administrators have a LOT of responsibilities, one being instructional leadership.

In order to understand what you can do to be an effective leader, we will first define what instructional leadership is, why it matters, and what effective online teaching looks like.

What is Instructional Leadership?

The NSQOL Quality Online Programs standards define the standard of "leadership" as:

"The leadership of a quality online program is accountable to the program's governance body and is responsible for setting and meeting the operational and strategic goals in support of the program's mission and vision statements."

In the subsequent indicators, key objectives are included, such as maintaining knowledge of trends in the educational environment and providing a productive collaborative environment for learning and work to take place.

You can see examples of these indicators in "Standard C" of the NSQOL Quality Online Programs Standards.

School leaders focused on instructional leadership are not only concerned with their administrative and programmatic leadership duties - they make teaching and learning their priority.

They involve themselves in the curriculum, the instruction, and in helping to mold and support effective teachers.

Why Does Instructional Leadership Matter?

Opportunities for school leaders to show understanding about and vision for developing successful online programs typically occur at the professional level.

However, the impact of instructional leadership occurs at home, at the district and school building level, where the superintendent and principals set the tone and expectations for students, staff, parents, vendors, and community.

A successful online program requires strong leadership.

Most school administrators may not have much experience establishing and maintaining online learning programs, but many have a good start on the endeavor and can and do provide ideas, encouragement, and support to their colleagues who are at earlier stages of development.

Administrators at all levels are important advocates for online learning policies and options that expand opportunities for students and prepare them to be successful digital citizens in post-secondary studies and their work lives.
Learn more about strategies for successful online learning leadership in our Administrator Guide to Online Learning.
What Does Effective Online Teaching Look Like?

Effective instructional leaders know what is expected of their online teachers, understand what effective online teaching looks like, and give their online teachers the support that they need.

As outlined in the NSQOL Quality Online Teaching standards and as discussed in Michigan Virtual's Teacher Guide to Online Learning, some of the core responsibilities of the online teacher include:

Digital Pedagogy: Use digital pedagogical tools to foster communication, collaboration, encourage learner interaction, and monitor and motivate learner engagement.

Community Building: Facilitate interactions and collaboration among online learners, their parents/guardians, and the student's on-site mentor to create a supportive online community.

Diverse Instruction: Personalize instruction, implement accommodations and modifications indicated on 504s and IEPs, provide opportunities for differentiation, and understand the variety of culturally diverse students that teachers may provide instruction to online.

Assessment and Measurement: Design reliable and valid assessments to pinpoint areas for further instruction and make sure to offer meaningful feedback.

By more clearly understanding the role of the online teacher, school leaders are able to provide them with appropriate support so they can in turn better support their students.

How Can School Leaders Support Online Teachers?

So given what we know about their core responsibilities, how can you best support your online teachers?

Here are some suggestions based on information in Michigan Virtual's Administrator Guide for Online Learning and the NSQOL Quality Online Programs standards:

Participate in ongoing professional development to maintain disciplined knowledge of educational trends

Technology, pedagogy, and best practices in online teaching are changing very rapidly, so it is crucial that administrators at all levels participate in professional development in order to meet the challenges of online learning and to provide the optimum learning environment for students, teachers, and staff.

Offer best practices and guidance

When leadership exhibits knowledge of and support for best practices in online learning, your teachers will feel more comfortable exploring new strategies and stepping out of their comfort zone to implement them in their classroom.

Provide your online teachers with ongoing training, support, and professional development, which are aligned to the National Standards for Quality Online Teaching

Professional development specifically for online teaching is crucial for the success of not only your online program but also of your online teachers. Whether they are new to teaching online or not, teachers need ongoing professional development specifically related to online learning pedagogy in areas such as:

Student motivation

Interaction and involvement between students in the course and the teacher

How to differentiate and personalize instruction in the online learning environment

Meeting the learning support needs of special education students in the online learning environment

Effective communication (email, discussion posts, tone of writing, etc.)

Comprehensive formative assessment techniques for the online learning environment

Academic integrity

Create a teaching environment supportive of change

Give your online teachers the trust, confidence, and support to try new things and take risks.

Provide your online teachers with regular, timely feedback in the form of evaluations of their performance and student achievement

Make sure to use consistent, clear measures. Evaluations and timely feedback help teachers determine areas in which they excel and also areas for improvement.

Offer your online teachers opportunities for collaboration and encourage participation in a mentoring program

Provide teachers newer to online learning with a more seasoned mentor who can help guide them. Ensure that your online teachers are provided with opportunities to collaborate, share ideas, build relationships, and learn from each other.

Final Thoughts

Strong, invested leadership is critical in that it sets the direction of the K-12 online learning program.

Leadership is responsible for steering the program towards its mission and taking steps to achieve that mission.

Support your online teachers where they are, giving them what they need and making sure to give them the confidence and support to try new things.

One of the most important ways that you can support your online teachers will be discussed in the next blog post in our Success in Online Learning blog series, which will be all about professional development.

Success in Online Learning blog series

In our Success in Online Learning blog series, we discuss all things K-12 online learning in Michigan and across the nation. Our hope with this series is to provide a primer on K-12 online learning, cover established and emerging topics, and provide relevant research and resources. Stay up to date on future blogs in this series by signing up for email notifications!

About the Authors

Christa Green

Christa received her master's in Curriculum and Instruction from Kent State University, as well as a bachelor's degree in Business Administration. She taught middle school language arts and social studies for seven years before coming to work for Michigan Virtual in 2018. As a Research Specialist with the Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute, Christa enjoys using her passion for education, curriculum, research, and writing to share and shape best practices in online and blended learning with other educators not only in Michigan, but nationwide.

Kristen DeBruler

Dr. Kristen DeBruler received her doctorate in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology from Michigan State University. She taught in the Master of Arts in Educational Technology program at Michigan State University for three years. Her work focuses on K-12 online learning policy in Michigan and nation wide as well as understanding online learning best practices.

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Instructional Leadership: Supporting Online Teachers | Michigan Virtual

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Supporting your online teachers seems like it should be easy, but what do they really need? Where should you start? In this article, we explore what it means to be a good instructional leader and give you some guidance as to how you can get started.

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How to Build a Professional Learning Community With the Framework for Teaching

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How to Build a Professional Learning Community With the Framework for Teaching

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This blog, posted by the Danielson Group, explores the importance of Professional Learning Communities, or PLCs, within a school community. The purpose of PLCs is to analyze relevant data regarding a specific problem. Two things can be determined from this data: the root of the problem and solutions to address the issue. PLCs allow every member of the team opportunities to take on teacher leadership roles. They are also mentioned throughout our course text as an effective way to involve educators in the leadership process. I chose this particular article because my school has established PLC groups that meet weekly. Therefore, I could reflect on what is being done and what should be done to support the true purpose of these learning communities.

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Join The Danielson Group and Teaching Channel at a free webinar to learn more about how to utilize the Framework for Teaching this school year. You'll get to see great teaching in action and explore research-based strategies that support the individual and collective efforts of teachers and administrators in positively impacting student learning. Our panel of expert educators is ready to help you get the tools you need to support both students and teachers during a school year like no other.

Few would argue the necessity of professional learning in the education space. From classroom teachers to school leaders to district administrators, we all have identified areas of growth in our professional practice. But there is some debate about the 'how' - whether educators should rely on experts to lead their professional development or lean into the knowledge and experience of colleagues. While there isn't one right answer for every circumstance, it is generally agreed upon that the 'stand and deliver' model is as antiquated in the professional learning context as it is in the classroom.

To increase your teams' engagement in and ownership over professional learning, consider establishing Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) at your school or district.

What is a Professional Learning Community (PLC)?

A Professional Learning Community is a group of three to five people who are engaged around a common problem of practice to identify solutions, put them into practice, assess their efficacy, and iterate as necessary. PLCs can exist at any level within a school system - from classroom teachers to district leadership - that is bound by the commonality of their work.

PLCs engage in a cycle of inquiry around a specific problem that is identified by analyzing data and identifying the root cause of that problem. For example, if an interim assessment identifies that children are struggling with vocabulary, we know there is likely not enough discussion in the classroom. A PLC would set goals for increasing discussion, research, and share knowledge about effective practices in classroom discussion, implement new solutions, and assess and iterate as the group works towards its goals.

Inquiry cycles - from data analysis through monitoring and adjusting practice - should be between six and nine weeks and are often bounded by the availability of new data, such as interim assessments.

What Principles Should Guide a PLC?

1. Shared ownership

A PLC is not a passive form of professional development where participants are hearing from experts. The responsibility and ownership for the group is shared, without hierarchy among the group. The focus should be on collective agency, self-regulation, knowledge sharing, and building trusting relationships.

2. Anchored

A PLC must be anchored in a shared vision of instructional excellence and student success. This could be a chosen curriculum, research, or instructional model such as the Framework for Teaching . Having this anchor will allow participants to have a common language and reference point for their inquiry.

3. Learner-Centered

A PLC should be learner-centered in that the learning opportunities attend to the whole person, with particular consideration given to the cognitive, social, and emotional needs of the participant. Doing so will allow participants to feel safe and be vulnerable during the learning process.

4. Symmetrical

Effective professional learning should be symmetrical to the student learning environment, with adult participants doing the heavy lifting in the PLC just as we expect students to in the classroom. The PLC should be highly collaborative, with participants engaging in problem-solving and deeper learning, and the skills and mindsets that we seek to develop in students should be modeled in the PLC.

To be successful, PLCs need mutual trust among participants and protected time to engage. In a school or district, this is a unique opportunity to build cross-functional collaboration amongst professionals in different roles, allowing teams to interact in ways that traditional planning and professional development may not allow.

Now more than ever, educators need opportunities to collaborate and learn from each other as remote and hybrid learning models have required innovation from everyone within a school and district community. Professional Learning Communities are a proven practice improvement strategy that can establish a culture of inquiry, continuous improvement, and trust among your team, and ultimately lead to better outcomes for students and higher levels of satisfaction from educators.
This blog was originally published on The Danielson Group's blog. It has been republished here with permission.

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How to Build a Professional Learning Community With the Framework for Teaching

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Join The Danielson Group and Teaching Channel at a free webinar to learn more about how to utilize the Framework for Teaching this school year. You'll get to see great teaching in action and explore research-based strategies that support the individual and collective efforts of teachers and administrators in positively impacting student learning.

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What Does Research Tell Us About Teacher Leadership?

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What Does Research Tell Us About Teacher Leadership?

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Reading Rockets posted an article about the concept and practice of teacher leadership using research from the last two decades. They determined that a school should support three key areas to foster the growth of their teacher leaders: school culture and context, roles and relationships, and structures. Using the infographic above can assist educators in expanding teacher leaderships in schools. The authors also provide some insight into challenges a teacher leader may face. I chose this article because it gave a helpful overview into many aspects of teacher leadership, including challenges an educator might need to overcome. These challenges also related to course texts I have read so far in this course.

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References
References

Click the "References" link above to hide these references.
Suggested Readings
Cooke, P. D. (2001, Fall). Generating teacher leadership. On Common Ground, 9. Retrieved September 1, 2005, from http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/pubs/A22/Cooke.html

Crowther, F., Kaagan, S. S., Ferguson, M., & Hann, L. (2002). Developing teacher leaders: How teacher leadership enhances school success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Lieberman, A., & Miller, L. (2004). Teacher leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Miller, S. (2002, July). Teacher leadership for effective schools. (Prepared for the Oregon Education Association). Oregon State Action for Education Leadership Project. Retrieved September 1, 2005, from http://www.ous.edu/aca/SAELP/OEA_ldrshp.pdf

Sweeney, D. (2003). Teacher leadership: Switching roles. In D. Sweeney, Learning along the way: Professional development by and for teachers (pp. 87-96). Portland,ME: Stenhouse. Retrieved September 1, 2005, from http://www.stenhouse.com/pdfs/0343ch08.pdf

U. S. Department of Education (1998, April). Teachers leading the way: Voices from the National Teacher Forum. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved September 1, 2005, from http://www.ed.gov/pubs/TeachersLead/index.html
Web Sites
The Center for Teacher Leadership, www.ctl.vcu.edu/
This nonpartisan, nonprofit organization was established to promote and support teacher leadership in order to improve teaching and learning.

Teacher Leadership Network, www.holmespartnership.org/teacher.html
This group works to promote teacher leadership in schools that work with colleges, encourages continuing education of teacher leaders, and recognizes the contributions of teachers.

References
Suggested Readings
Cooke, P. D. (2001, Fall). Generating teacher leadership. On Common Ground, 9. Retrieved September 1, 2005, from http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/pubs/A22/Cooke.html

Crowther, F., Kaagan, S. S., Ferguson, M., & Hann, L. (2002). Developing teacher leaders: How teacher leadership enhances school success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Lieberman, A., & Miller, L. (2004). Teacher leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Miller, S. (2002, July). Teacher leadership for effective schools. (Prepared for the Oregon Education Association). Oregon State Action for Education Leadership Project. Retrieved September 1, 2005, from http://www.ous.edu/aca/SAELP/OEA_ldrshp.pdf

Sweeney, D. (2003). Teacher leadership: Switching roles. In D. Sweeney, Learning along the way: Professional development by and for teachers (pp. 87-96). Portland,ME: Stenhouse. Retrieved September 1, 2005, from http://www.stenhouse.com/pdfs/0343ch08.pdf

U. S. Department of Education (1998, April). Teachers leading the way: Voices from the National Teacher Forum. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved September 1, 2005, from http://www.ed.gov/pubs/TeachersLead/index.html
Web Sites
The Center for Teacher Leadership, www.ctl.vcu.edu/
This nonpartisan, nonprofit organization was established to promote and support teacher leadership in order to improve teaching and learning.

Teacher Leadership Network, www.holmespartnership.org/teacher.html
This group works to promote teacher leadership in schools that work with colleges, encourages continuing education of teacher leaders, and recognizes the contributions of teachers.

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What Does the Research Tell Us About Teacher Leadership?

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References Click the "References" link above to hide these references. Suggested Readings Cooke, P. D. (2001, Fall). Generating teacher leadership. On Common Ground, 9. Retrieved September 1, 2005, from http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/pubs/A22/Cooke.html Crowther, F., Kaagan, S. S., Ferguson, M., & Hann, L. (2002). Developing teacher leaders: How teacher leadership enhances school success.

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This blog, posted by Elmhurst University,  discusses the certain characteristics you can expect to find in a teacher leader. The author provides six teacher leader traits using the word EXCITE. These traits are...

1. Experts

2. eXceptional Communicators

3. Change Agents

4. Inspirational Leaders

5. Trustworthy Colleagues

6. Explorers

I selected this resource because it gave a breakdown of characteristics you can expect teacher leaders to have. As I work on becoming a teacher leader, I like being able to use these EXCITE traits to evaluate which of these qualities I possess and which I can grow in. This is connected to other course texts because it starts by defining what teacher leadership is so educators can consider the kinds of informal leadership roles they can take within their schools.

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Across the United States as well as internationally, the term "teacher leadership" is used to label a variety of different teacher roles and teaching assignments.

Teacher leadership is a process. Teacher leaders are the professionals who carry through with this process to lead change in their schools for the benefit of all students. Teacher leaders step outside their classroom doors and accept the challenges to improve their practice through working with colleagues, school administration and professional staff-as well as students and their families.

One of the confusions in defining teacher leadership and identifying teacher leaders is that "leadership" is not found in a position or title. In most schools there are teachers who are the designated leaders of their grade level teams or departments, but being named a "team leader" is not the same as being a teacher leader.

Teacher leaders exemplify certain defining characteristics. While all teachers possess several of these traits, only teacher leaders consistently and simultaneously integrate them into teacher leadership.

Six Teacher Leader Traits

Experts

Teacher leaders share their expertise. Expertise may come in the form of knowledge and skills about specific content (e.g., mathematics, social-emotional learning) or teaching skills (e.g., teaching with technology, questioning strategies). Their expertise may also come in the form of leadership skills (e.g., helping teams build consensus, making data-driven decisions).

At the same time they are sharing their expertise, teacher leaders are acquiring expertise as they pursue professional development to help them solve problems their teams have identified. They seek to learn from their colleagues-believing that the collective knowledge of the group is essential to successful teaching and student learning-further building on their knowledge and skills.

Expert teachers are not always teacher leaders. However, building expertise is essential to becoming a teacher leader. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards supports teachers working to improve their instructional prowess. For many teachers, National Board certification is an important step in becoming a teacher leader.

eXceptional Communicators

Teacher leaders are excellent communicators. A key teacher leadership skill is the ability to prioritize listening over speaking and seeking to understand different perspectives. Teacher leaders clarify, probe and synthesize ideas and questions to understand the concerns and leverage the expertise of others. They also strive to establish open communication, where all ideas are heard and all possibilities explored. Teacher leaders want to solve problems by getting a group to think outside of the box.

One of the essential qualities of their communication is honesty. Teacher leaders communicate in ways that are professional and truthful, reflecting what is working and what isn't. They acknowledge where mistakes have occurred and where changes are needed rather than avoid difficult conversations. The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) is a professional resource for leadership. ASCD dedicated an entire recent issue of its flagship magazine, Educational Leadership, to communications skills for leaders, which I recommend exploring. (Note: Some of the articles can only be read with a subscription.)

Change Agents

While most teachers are experts and have effective communication skills, teacher leaders differentiate themselves by being change agents. They take up initiatives and work to make them successful. Education is a professional field that is constantly being "reformed" and reacting to social, economic and political changes. This continuous change makes being a teacher exciting and exhausting, and it is why teacher leadership is so important-every school needs teachers who will "lean in" when change happens.

Changes may stem from a school district's administration (the principal, the superintendent, the school board), or from a state mandate, such as new state or federal law. Change also may be needed within a grade-level team or a department and be focused on helping a particular group of students. Teacher leaders themselves might initiate change based on evidence that things need to be done in a different way. When teachers are change agents, they are leading a transformation in their schools or their local and professional communities by supporting (and inspiring-up next) others to make changes that will have a meaningful and positive impact for students.

The Collaborative for Teaching Quality (CTQ) is an online collaborative that supports teacher leadership. One of the recent blog posts on this site-by Tiffany Osborne, a National Board-certified teacher and Middle School assistant principal-delves into " harnessing your change agent superpower."

Inspirational Leaders

People in educational leadership are familiar with the concept of the transformational leader. Transformational leaders work with others to problem-solve and implement and monitor strategic initiatives. They inspire everyone to be their very best because a transformational leader believes that everyone has important contributions to make and that everyone needs to be involved.

Inspiration is at the core of transformational leadership-and it is not easy to master.

One of the resources I like to use to explore leadership models is MindTools. Although this website is for business leaders, many of the models apply to education. Read this brief overview of transformational leadership to see an example.

A word of caution: the phrases transformational teaching and transformational teacher leadership are not the same. Transformational teachers inspire within their classrooms and transformational teacher leaders inspire outside their classroom doors. Inspirational teacher leaders get their colleagues to step up, not because they feel they have to but because they want to. They take risks, solve complex problems, and position change as possible and worthwhile.

This inspirational role of teacher leaders is critical and often overlooked. Because teacher leaders are colleagues-not supervisors-successful leadership depends on other teachers wanting to follow their lead.

Trustworthy Colleagues

To be a teacher leader, others must trust you enough to follow your lead. Teacher leaders build trust through what they do and say-as well as what they don't. Megan Tschannen-Moran and Anita Woolfolk Hoy explained that trust between teachers involves five core qualities:

Benevolence. They share their confidence that others will act with goodwill.

Competence. They share their belief that the group has the ability to be successful.

Honesty. They communicate and act in authentic and equitable ways.

Openness. They share information, even if it shows their personal vulnerabilities.

Reliability. They always do what they say they will do.

Trustworthiness is important across all aspects of teacher leadership, and engendering confidence in others is key to being a transformational leader. Competence is part of shared expertise. Honesty is essential in effective communication. Openness is seen in the willingness and ability to explore new possibilities. Reliability is essential to all these parts of the teacher leadership process because no one follows an unreliable leader.

Learningforward is a professional learning association that offers many freely accessible resources on teacher leadership. On this website, high school instructional coach Jill Kind shared how she builds trust with other teachers.

Explorers

Teacher leaders are trailblazers. They are first adopters, willing to try out new ideas and discover the unseen "potholes" in new initiatives. They volunteer for pilot projects and pursue professional development opportunities to learn more so they can improve their practice, share their experiences, and collaborate with others to solve problems and reach team goals.

An important part of this explorer quality is that teacher leaders-because they are willing to go first-share their vulnerabilities by being open about their successes and failures.

They demonstrate honesty, an important part of building trust, by sharing their mistakes and "hard lessons" with their colleagues as they encourage them to take the trail they have begun to blaze.

All teachers need to explore more, and this can begin with new teachers. As Christopher Bronke, a principal, wrote in a recent post on the TeachingChannel, he tells new teachers:

"You were hired for a reason; because you are a rock star. When you're in PLCs and department meetings, your voice matters just as much as everyone else's. Go be you!"

Teacher Leadership is a Professional Process

Teacher leaders reflect all of these qualities (and many more) in their teacher leadership through everyday interactions with students, colleagues and the school community. Teacher leadership is a "package" of attitudes, knowledge and skills that are continually developed.

Teacher leaders are cautiously excited about change. They are ready to pursue new ideas that will result in more meaningful learning experiences and more positive and inclusive spaces for all students. They care not only about the students who share their classrooms but also about the students in their colleagues' classrooms and throughout the school.

Teacher leaders believe that meaningful and sustained change happens when teachers work with administrators, staff, families, students, and the community to do what is best based on evidence about what students need.

What is teacher leadership? It is a set of roles bundled with the motivation to inspire educational change and move beyond the status quo in collaborative ways. Teacher leaders lead alongside others, not from the front. They have their feet firmly planted in the classroom and their eyes on what is possible for all.

Every school needs a cadre of teacher leaders. When administrative leadership changes in a school, there should be a network of teacher leadership that will sustain that change in a productive way. And every teacher needs to understand the pathways to teacher leadership. Teacher leaders are critical in establishing school cultures that ensure change is always meaningful and relevant.

About the Author

Deb Meyer is a professor of education at Elmhurst University and a former classroom teacher in Mesa, Arizona. She teaches undergraduate courses to prospective teachers in educational psychology and upper elementary/middle school literacy methods and graduate courses in teacher leadership.

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What Is Teacher Leadership? | Chalking the Line Blog | Elmhurst University

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Across the United States as well as internationally, the term "teacher leadership" is used to label a variety of different teacher roles and teaching assignments. Teacher leadership is a process. Teacher leaders are the professionals who carry through with this process to lead change in their schools for the benefit of all students.