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

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Cassata ◽  
Elaine Allensworth
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Teacher Leaders ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
School Context ◽  
School Level ◽  
Instructional Change ◽  
Teacher Leader

Abstract Background The 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. Findings There 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 implications The 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.

scholarly journals Teacher Leadership in Special Education: Exploring Skills, Roles, and Perceptions

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-63
Author(s):  
Sylvia Bagley ◽  
Kimmie Tang
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Special Education Teachers ◽  
Teacher Leaders ◽  
Phenomenological Study ◽  
Special Education Teacher ◽  
Teacher Leader ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Roles And Responsibilities ◽  
Diverse Field

Special Education teachers frequently assume formal or informal leadership roles and responsibilities across disciplines (Council for Exceptional Children, 2015a, 2015b). However, despite the increasing attention paid to teacher leadership on an international scale (Wenner & Campbell, 2016), little research exists on the experiences and needs of teacher leaders within the diverse field of Special Education. In this descriptive phenomenological study, we addressed the following questions: 1) What does teacher leadership within the landscape of Special Education look like? 2) How does this work relate to the roles and dispositions laid out in both the Teacher Leader Model Standards (2011) and the Council for Exceptional Children’s Special Education Specialist Preparation Standards (2015a, 2015b)? We found that Special Education teacher leaders primarily demonstrate leadership via support, specifically through the skills of advocacy, facilitating, innovating, and ‘administrating’.

scholarly journals Adolescent Offending and the Segregation of Poverty in Urban Neighbourhoods and Schools: An Assessment of Contextual Effects from the Standpoint of Situational Action Theory

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lieven Pauwels
Keyword(s):  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Action Theory ◽  
School Context ◽  
School Setting ◽  
Multilevel Modelling ◽  
Contextual Effects ◽  
School Level ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Situational Action Theory ◽  
Adolescent Offending

Contextual research on adolescent offending is primarily based on the idea that residential areas provide a major ecological setting that (indirectly) shapes observed differences in adolescent offending. The social disorganisation/collective efficacy perspective has tried to explain why structural disadvantage of residential areas affects residents' involvement in offending. On the other hand, contextual research has also been conducted within the school setting. This separate contextual approach is problematic as it does not reflect the reality of adolescents' lives. Adolescents are exposed to different ecological settings. They are also exposed to many other settings that may provide opportunities to offend, as outlined in the situational action theory (SAT) of crime causation. This study contributes to the literature on the urban context of offending in three ways. First, the effects of adolescents' residential neighbourhood and school context on adolescent offending are assessed simultaneously. Second, this study elaborates on SAT from a cross-level point of view. Third, this contribution makes use of non-hierarchical multilevel modelling, which is a statistically correct method of testing hypotheses that involve multiple contexts. Our study revealed the existence of small contextual effects of school-level disadvantage, whereas the effect of neighbourhood-level disadvantage is entirely due to neighbourhood composition.

scholarly journals School-level (dis)advantage and adolescents’ substance-use behaviours: The role of collective efficacy and norms

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-172
Author(s):  
Gabriella Olsson ◽  
Bitte Modin
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
School Context ◽  
Joint Effect ◽  
School Level ◽  
School Settings ◽  
Ninth Grade Students ◽  
Data Collections ◽  
Disadvantaged School

Drawing upon ideas stemming from social disorganisation theory, this study explores how structural and social aspects of the school context affect youth substance-use behaviours in terms of smoking, alcohol and/or drug use. A key focus is to investigate the joint effect of school collective efficacy and schools’ substance-use norms on students’ substance use. Analyses are based on combined information from two independent data collections conducted in 2014 among ninth grade students ( n = 5122) and teachers ( n = 1105) in 81 senior-level schools in Stockholm. Results from multilevel analyses confirm previous research by suggesting that the proneness to engage in substance use varies depending on the socioeconomic profile of the school. Youth in socioeconomically advantaged schools were more prone to engage in substance use than youth in disadvantaged school settings. Furthermore, collective incentives for exerting social control against substance use seem to be weaker in schools where conventional values towards substance use (anti-substance-use norms) are suppressed.

Penilaian Psikometrik Instrumen Kesediaan Guru sebagai Pemimpin Guru

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lokman Mohd. Tahir ◽  
Rohaya Talib ◽  
Hamimah Mohd Naim ◽  
Mohamad Berhanddin Musah
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Convergent Validity ◽  
Teacher Leaders ◽  
Discriminant Validity ◽  
Secondary School Teachers ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Teacher Leader ◽  
Main Role ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
Valid Instrument

The leadership of teacher remains as an essentially topic of educational leadership currently and it becomes teacher’s main role in implementing the school development process. However, there are less studies done in Malaysian schools; even hardly see Malaysian teachers are prepared to be teacher leaders  due to also lack of reliable and valid instrument that measure teacher leadership within Malaysian context. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the readiness of Malaysian teachers to be selected as teacher leaders among other teachers. Secondly, it also aims to measure the reliability and validity of instrument on teacher leadership in the context of Malaysian teachers. A total of 189 secondary school teachers who have more than five years’ experience were selected to be the respondents to answer the 12 items on teachers’ readiness as teacher leaders based on two main constructs such as personal and professional readiness. Finding from the factor analyses (exploratory and confirmatory) indicated that items from the professional and personal readiness constructs have high convergent validity in measuring the relevant teacher leadership. In addition, values from the correlational matrix also indicated high values of discriminant validity. Hence, it was proved that the teacher leadership readiness instrument has high validity and reliability in examining teachers’ readiness as a teacher leader. 

“Tearing Down the Wall”: Making Sense of Teacher Leaders as Instructional Coaches and Evaluators

2020 ◽  
pp. 105268462096993
Author(s):  
Meghan Comstock ◽  
Jason Margolis
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Teacher Leaders ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
School Level ◽  
Relational Dynamics ◽  
Instructional Coaches ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
School Norms ◽  
Leadership Policy

Some recent district-level teacher leadership programs have incorporated both instructional coaching and formal evaluations into teacher leaders’ (TLs) responsibilities, which research suggests could challenge the relational dynamics necessary for effective coaching. Using a sensemaking lens, we conducted a qualitative case study of one district’s effort to integrate coaching and formal evaluation in their teacher leadership policy. We conducted a total of 26 semistructured interviews with district administrators and school leaders, TLs, and teachers in two schools, and seven observations of teacher leadership activities. We coded interview transcripts and field notes deductively and inductively. We found that when granted autonomy, principals drew on varied sources for making sense of and enacting this policy, and the messages they conveyed through school leadership norms deeply influenced how teachers and TLs enacted and experienced the integration. The integrated district policy in and of itself did not hinder relationships between teachers and TLs; rather, what mattered most for teachers was the extent to which they perceived their TLs as part of a larger system of support or accountability. This study suggests that the school norms that school leaders put into place when enacting teacher leadership policies deeply influence teachers’ perceived relational dynamics with TLs. Teacher leaders have a unique role in implementation that is shaped by school-level norms and conceptions of effective leadership and coaching.

Teacher leadership: Prospects and promises

2019 ◽  
Vol 100 (7) ◽  
pp. 49-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barnett Berry
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Educational Technology ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Teacher Leaders ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
New Models

For many decades, most of the decision-making authority in public schools has been vested in individual principals and other administrators. However, new models of collaborative teacher leadership are beginning to emerge, thanks to four trends: 1) evidence on the positive effects of teacher leadership continues to mount, 2) districts and state policies are codifying teacher leadership roles, 3) teacher leaders are becoming more proficient at using educational technology and sharing their expertise through digital media, and 4) researchers are deepening their knowledge about how teachers learn to lead effectively.

scholarly journals Transformational Teacher Leadership in Rural Schools

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirk David Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Transformational Leadership ◽  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Rural Schools ◽  
Teacher Leaders ◽  
School Context ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Interactive Decision Making ◽  
Decision Making Styles ◽  
Promising Area

In this paper, the author explores the rural school context and its teacher leaders as a third transformational leadership prototype adding to Leithwood and Jantzi’s (1999) two transformational leadership prototypes of females and new teachers in the elementary school. The author helps illuminate new understanding of rural schools and their highly interactive decision making styles where teacher leaders are a source of creativity development of unique forms of leadership. If researchers focus on teachers as leaders in rural schools, specifically those who operate outside of traditional leadership roles, there exists a promising area of new understanding for educational leadership as transformational teacher leadership.  

Using Self-Mentoring to Increase Teacher Efficacy and Confidence as Leaders

2016 ◽  
pp. 307-320
Author(s):  
Marsha L. Carr
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Efficacy ◽  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Organizational Citizenship ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Teacher Leaders ◽  
Classroom Teacher ◽  
The Self ◽  
Teacher Leader ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Public School Teachers

Self-mentoring, the act of leading oneself in an unknown environment, is a sustainable practice of leadership with developing teacher leaders. One manner in which self-mentoring contributes to the development of a teacher leader is through increased confidence and self-efficacy (Bond & Hargreaves, 2014). When the self-efficacy of a classroom teacher increases, the efficacy of the students also increases (Bandura 1997), promoting higher levels of achievement. Public school teachers involved in self-mentoring studies harvested benefits of self-mentoring in their role as a classroom leader through augmented student engagement and motivation, but analogously in school-wide leadership roles. This chapter will elucidate how to use self-mentoring to increase confidence and teacher efficacy as leaders. It begins with an overview of self-mentoring inclusive of theory and the results yielded from several research studies; self-efficacy and confidence as it relates to teacher leadership; and how self-mentoring supports the development of teacher leaders and organizational citizenship.

Not Just a Teacher

2017 ◽  
pp. 160-190
Author(s):  
Kate Zimmerbaum
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Teacher Leaders ◽  
Teacher Leader ◽  
Current Interest ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Literacy Leaders

In this chapter, the author reflects on her development as a teacher leader. Using self-study based in narrative inquiry, she describes the current interest in teacher leadership and why it has become such a prominent topic in education. By exploring her own experiences in light of current research on the topic, she analyzes how teachers become leaders, the benefits to the profession of teacher leadership, some of the challenges teacher leaders face, and possible paths forward for teacher leaders. In addition, she delineates new expectations and challenges facing today's literacy leaders.

Teacher leadership and collective efficacy: teacher perceptions in three US school districts

2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 738-753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Angelle ◽  
Ginger M. Teague
Keyword(s):  
School Districts ◽  
Teacher Perceptions ◽  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Collective Efficacy ◽  
Shared Leadership ◽  
Teacher Leaders ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Leadership Role ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Southeastern Us

Purpose – Collective efficacy and teacher leadership, two constructs central to school reform, were examined in this quantitative study of three school districts. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between teacher perceptions of the extent of teacher leadership and the extent of collective efficacy. Research was guided by the following questions: Do teachers who perceive a strong sense of collective efficacy also perceive a greater extent of teacher leadership in their schools? Are there differences in perceptions of collective efficacy and the factors of teacher leadership, specifically, sharing expertise, shared leadership, supra-practitioner, and principal selection? Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected utilizing two instruments, the Teacher Leadership Inventory (TLI) (Angelle and DeHart, 2010) and the Teacher Efficacy Belief Scale – Collective Form (Olivier, 2001). Descriptive statistics and ANOVA were run to examine mean differences by district in teacher collective efficacy and the extent of teacher leadership in the school (n=363). In addition, ANOVA were run to examine district differences in the four factors on the TLI. A one-way ANOVA contrasted the overall collective efficacy mean scores of Districts A, B, and C. Demographic data were also collected from participants. Findings – Findings indicate a clear and strong relationship between collective efficacy and teacher leadership. District B was markedly stronger in teacher leadership and collective efficacy than the other two districts. The highest percentage of participants indicating they have a leadership role were from District B. Findings from this study also indicate that teachers perceive the informal aspects of teacher leadership as a greater indicator of collective efficacy. District B, which reported significantly higher collective efficacy than did District A or C, also reported a significantly lower extent of principal selected teacher leadership. Formal roles such as department heads and grade level chairs were not perceived as extensive indicators of teacher leadership as were teacher roles in collaboration or extra role behaviours. Research limitations/implications – This study took place in three small districts in a southeastern US state. Generalizability to larger school districts should be approached with caution. This study may be limited in that teacher leaders may have a greater tendency to complete a survey on teacher leadership than teachers who do not take on leadership roles. Practical implications – This study provides support for developing shared leadership which can impact the collective beliefs of the faculty in a positive manner. Results from this study affirms those leaders who believe in the power of professional learning communities, shared decision making, and other indicators of teacher leadership. Success of teacher leaders depends, in large part, on the principal's philosophy of power sharing in the context in which they work. Teachers can be given the power to lead but they must also be willing to accept the roles this power brings. Originality/value – While several studies have been conducted on collective efficacy in schools, most of these studies have been quantitative. Studies of teacher leadership have tended to focus on the formal roles of teacher leaders with a qualitative. Using quantitative methodology for collective efficacy and teacher leadership, this study approaches teacher leadership from an organizational perspective, examining the extent to which both informal and formal, or principal selected, teacher leadership exists across the school. The authors also argue that teacher leadership is a construct greater than administrative roles assigned to teachers but also includes informal leadership, primarily through their influence on organizational effectiveness.

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