My Capstone by Terry F Erickson (read an ebook week TXT) 📕

I reviewed. This may be a result of the many forms leadership can take. I found the following terms used to name various forms of leadership: participative, instructional, democratic, transformational, moral, distributive, teacher professional partnerships, and strategic. Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom (2004) labeled these variations as “leadership by adjective,” and cautioned that these terms might not fully reflect their functions in a school environment.
In the literature I reviewed, some authors provided a conceptual definition of leadership, while others cited examples of the types of roles teacher leaders hold. Chart 1 shows the characteristics of each.


Chart 1
What is Teacher Leadership?

Conceptual Roles
Characterized by Characterized by
definitions what teachers do


Conceptual
Walsey (1991) reflected upon several case studies in her book about teacher leadership, and wrote this definition: “It is the ability to engage colleagues in experimentation and then examination of more powerful instructional practices in the service of more engaged student learning” (p. 170). Crowther, Kaggan, Ferguson, and Hann (2002) claim to offer a contemporary definition of the term “teacher leadership”: “Teacher leadership facilitates principled action to achieve whole school success. It applies the distinctive power of teaching to shape meaning for children, youth, and adults. And it contributes to long-term, enhanced quality of community life” (p. 10). Pellicer & Anderson (1995) state, “Instructional leadership is the initiation and implementation of planned change in a school’s instructional program, supported by the various constituencies in school, that results in substantial and sustained improvement in student learning” (p. 16).
All three of these definitions have student achievement at their core, and why would they not? Leadership in any field is designed to bring about positive change and forward movement. Since student achievement is the core mission of any learning institution, it only makes sense that this is the goal of teacher leadership.
Long-time activist and public servant John W. Gardner wrote this: “Leadership is the process of persuasion or example by which an individual or leadership team induces a group to pursue objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his or her followers” (p. 3). This concept of leader and followers is comparable to Gehrke’s and Romerdahl’s (1997) servant-leader model. In this model, teachers will gladly follow a leader who is “using appropriate power to help the school community and all those in it” (p. 17). Gehrke and Romerdahl also define several styles of leadership: “going in advance," “marching at the head and directing movement," “conducting by argument," and “holding the hand with gentle persuasion” (pp. 23-27). A “going in advance” leader tries something innovative and then shares the results with others to convince them of its worth. A “marching at the head and directing movement” leader is similar to a military commander who does not have a superior-subordinate relationship with others. This type of leader shows others the way, gives directions, and takes responsibility for success or failure. A “conducting by argument” leader uses logic to convince others that he or she has the best idea. A “holding the hand with gentle persuasion” leader is loving and respectful to others, much like an adult-child relationship. I’m sure everyone could recall a leader that would fit into at least one, if not all, of these different type of leadership styles. I have worked with three principals in my education career and each of them had a distinct style of leadership.
I asked the principal of my current school for his characterization of teacher leadership. He wrote a conceptual definition.

Teacher leadership is the understanding of what is best practice in education, applying it to teaching in the classroom knowing, understanding the data, and then using that to inform decision making in the building or district. It is always keeping a focus on the student as a whole person. It is the ability to pull together available resources (people, materials, time) and use them to focus efforts on student success. It is mentoring other teachers in the school and inspiring them to become even better at their teaching. It is conversations with teachers about what is good teaching and learning. It is taking advantage of opportunities in the building, district, or educational organizations. It is to become involved in leadership activities. It is continuous improvement as a professional (personal communication by E-mail, December 5, 2005).
Roles
Many authors and researchers define teacher leadership by the roles, functions, and responsibilities a teacher-leader is assigned or assumes. York-Barr & Duke (2004) conclude that it is easier to define leadership by what the leaders do, instead of by what they are. In their sweeping review of literature about teacher leadership, York-Barr and Duke found that the roles of a teacher-leader vary state-to-state and even from district-to-district. They divided leadership into two categories: formal and informal. Formal leadership roles were such things as “union representatives, department heads, curriculum specialists, mentors, and members of site-based management teams” (p. 263). Informal leadership was defined as “coaching peers to resolve instructional problems, encouraging parent participation, working with colleagues in small groups or teams, modeling reflective practice, or articulating a vision for improvement” (p. 263).
Pellicer and Anderson (1995) define leadership similarly as a “wide variety of behaviors” (p. 34). Sugar and Warren (2003) define leadership by roles or jobs and as sharing responsibilities with the principal. Barth (2001) concludes there are eight roles teacher leaders hold that are characteristic of a healthy school:
“Choosing textbooks and instructional materials;
Shaping the curriculum;
Setting standards for student behavior;
Deciding whether students are tracked into special classes;
Designing school budgets;
Evaluating teacher performances;
Selecting new teachers; and
Selecting new administration” (p. 444).
Stone (1997) termed leadership as “teacher empowerment” and defined some of those roles as committee members, grade-level heads, curriculum developers, grant writers, members of the school site council, staff development chairs, and technology leaders. Lashway (2003) compared distributed leadership to the social learning that takes place in a classroom when students are asked to solve problems in a group.
Livingston (1973) claims that teacher-leadership roles can be pathways to other careers at the central office or at a college, where “teachers can have an even greater influence on education” (p. 5). These roles would be such things as: “Grade level/subject area leader, vertical leader, backup leader, mentor, peer coach, note-taker/recorder, parliamentarian/timekeeper, presenter, conference attendee, speaker/writer, school-plan chair, faculty representative, host teacher, instructional audit leader, search-committee panelist, community leader, student-activities coordinator, technology leader, Web page curator, supplies coordinator” (pp. 5-14).
The supreme level of teacher leadership is defined as “teacher professional partnerships” or “TPP,” as described by Dirkswager (2002).
Teacher ownership breaks through our customary notions about how teaching is practiced. It recognizes that teachers are professionals and ought to have latitude to practice their trade as other professionals do. Lawyers, doctors, and accountants form and run their own businesses around their areas of expertise” (p. 2).
Unfortunately, this level of teacher leadership is rarely found in our schools. Dirkswager describes one such TPP school in southwestern Minnesota called the Minnesota New Country School. Although this type of school is uncommon, it seems to prove that this type of teacher-governance system can be successful.
The curriculum director in my district mixed a conceptual definition with a description of teacher leadership.
Teacher leaders are accomplished teachers who inspire students to learn and achieve and who serve as change agents for excellence in education within the classroom, the community and beyond. Teacher leaders are committed to students and their learning, know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students, manage and monitor student learning in a disciplined environment for maximizing positive instructional outcome, use assessment instruments to diagnose and plan for student learning needs, think systematically about their practice and learn from experience. Teachers are members of learning communities that extend beyond the local community, they assume active roles in leading educational reform for improving teaching and learning, they hold leadership positions in educational organizations, they embrace lifelong learning for continuous expansion of their vision, they have knowledge and skills to use technology, they initiate beneficial student activities and projects in the school and community, they promote parent and community interest in the school, they employ exemplary coaching and mentoring competencies, and they have the trust and respect of their peers” (personal communication by E-mail, December 9, 2005).
Why Is Teacher Leadership Important?
“Ultimately, teacher leadership, as we intend it, is about action that transforms teaching and learning in a school, that ties school and community together on behalf of learning, and that advances social sustainability and quality of life for a community” (Crowther, Kaagan, Ferguson, & Hann, 2002, p. xvii).
The answer to this question seems clear-cut to me, because I never worked where there wasn’t some form of teacher leadership in place. I began my career in 1992 at an elementary school that was poised to become a Blue Ribbon school the next year. The principal and a group of skilled, dedicated teachers were in the middle of a two-year application process when I began teaching. Student-achievement statistics, teaching methodologies, certifications, programs, interventions -- all had to be documented for the application process. I was fortunate to have firsthand knowledge of this data, and I knew then that I was very lucky to have been chosen to work at this school. The school was also heavily involved in a state program titled “Minnesota Educational Effectiveness Program” (MEEP). The MEEP program advocated school-based management decision-making through local-site councils composed of teachers and parents. I didn’t know it then, but I was in teacher-leadership heaven!
Teacher leadership has been a positive force for change ever since the National Commission on Excellence in Education in 1983 published “A Nation at Risk." This publication set off a succession of reform initiatives in education (Barth, 2001). School-based management (SBM) was one initiative that began during this era and remains a dynamic movement to this day. The central idea of this movement is to decentralize decision-making authority, giving those closest to the problems, primarily principals and teachers, the power to solve them. SBM works by empowering teachers, which in turns leads to greater teacher efficacy, which then leads to higher student achievement (Murphy & Beck, 1995).
All researchers agree that leadership roles for teachers have evolved dramatically over the past century. The role of classroom leader was seen as important right from the beginning of formal schooling in America (Smylie, Conley, & Marks, 2002). Weise & Murphy (1995) contend that it would be difficult for schools to teach democratic ideals if the school themselves were not run democratically. Efforts by teachers to move beyond the classroom were often stymied by a rigid, bureaucratic administrative structure (Pellicer, 1995). In the 1980s, initiatives to promote teacher leadership gained new popularity among school districts due to the worry that teacher ranks were dwindling. Leadership efforts took the forms of career ladders, mentor programs, designation of master or lead teachers, and inclusion in district policies (Smylie, et al., 2002). These initiatives were also tied to school improvement, student achievement, and the desire to make teaching a true profession. In the 1990s, the focus moved away from an individual tactic to more of a collective approach. Leadership roles were taken from the few and spread out among the many.
There is much good news in the literature I reviewed about the positive impact teacher leadership has on student