Typically, teachers must apply for
formal teacher leadership roles (for example, team leader, mentor or coach, department chair), and those appointed often must leave their classrooms.
Not exact matches
Schools across the United States are adjusting their professional cultures and workplace practices in response, creating
formal opportunities for
teachers to learn from one another and work together through shared planning periods,
teacher leadership roles, and professional learning communities.
At BISS, we are mobilising
teacher leaders through
formal and informal
leadership roles.
I am very conscious that understandings of
leadership work undertaken by
teachers typically reinforce those with
formal positional
roles at the expense of other forms of
leadership which I believe are equally important for the improvement of student learning and achievement in schools.
The target audience for this project is deliberately broad, including, for example: state - and federal - policymakers; education leaders (e.g., superintendents, assistant superintendents, etc.); early education center directors; practitioners serving in
formal or informal
leadership roles (e.g., head
teachers, pre-school
teachers, department heads); funders and non-profit leaders working in the early education sector; faculty and graduate students.
In this Q&A, Lovett joins
Teacher to discuss what teacher leadership is, and why she believes it is a mistake to attribute school leadership activities only to those residing in formal
Teacher to discuss what
teacher leadership is, and why she believes it is a mistake to attribute school leadership activities only to those residing in formal
teacher leadership is, and why she believes it is a mistake to attribute school
leadership activities only to those residing in
formal roles.
The individuals or groups identified as providing
leadership included a mix of principals, assistant principals,
teachers in
formal leadership roles (e.g., grade or subject team leaders) and
teachers with specialist positions (e.g., literacy specialists, technology specialists, counselors).
The principal three years earlier had explicitly encouraged
teachers to assume
leadership roles in the school, in accordance with district policies that supported the designation and implementation of
formal teacher - leader positions.
For more information about
teacher leadership, see ASCD's latest Policy Points (PDF), which features recent data on the primary characteristics of
teacher leaders, identifies states that offer
formal teacher leader certifications, and offers recommendations on how to best support
teachers in
leadership roles.
While the
formal or informal
leadership roles of
teachers may vary in different schools and districts,
teacher leadership is broadly defined in the 2011 Teacher Leader Model Standards as «the process by which teachers, individually or collectively, influence their colleagues, principals, and other members of the school community to improve teaching and learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and achievement.
teacher leadership is broadly defined in the 2011
Teacher Leader Model Standards as «the process by which teachers, individually or collectively, influence their colleagues, principals, and other members of the school community to improve teaching and learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and achievement.
Teacher Leader Model Standards as «the process by which
teachers, individually or collectively, influence their colleagues, principals, and other members of the school community to improve teaching and learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and achievement.»
51 The percentage of
teachers who have a
formal leadership role in their school (such as department chair or
teacher mentor).
The program focuses on developing «emerging
teacher leaders» - effective
teachers who might not enjoy
formal leadership roles but want to contribute to and learn from a broader conversation about high - level teaching.
Supported by the federal
Teacher Incentive Fund, New York City piloted and scaled new formal roles, with corresponding pay increases, in the 2014 UFT - DOE contract.31 There are now three New York City teacher leadership roles: Model Teacher, Master Teacher, and Peer Collaborative T
Teacher Incentive Fund, New York City piloted and scaled new
formal roles, with corresponding pay increases, in the 2014 UFT - DOE contract.31 There are now three New York City
teacher leadership roles: Model Teacher, Master Teacher, and Peer Collaborative T
teacher leadership roles: Model
Teacher, Master Teacher, and Peer Collaborative T
Teacher, Master
Teacher, and Peer Collaborative T
Teacher, and Peer Collaborative
TeacherTeacher.
Networks also reduce
teacher isolation while elevating
teachers» capacity to serve in any number of
formal and informal
leadership roles, which can greatly reduce attrition from the classroom.
Among
teacher sources of influence,
teachers with designated
leadership roles were perceived to have the strongest influence (M =.4.43), followed by staff teams (M = 4.36) and then some individual
teachers (M = 4.28); the ratings of
teachers with
formal leadership roles were significantly higher than the ratings of staff teams (t = 3.51, p <.01) or some individual
teachers (t = 5.54, p <.001), and the rating of staff teams was significantly higher than the rating of individual
teachers (t = 2.19, p <.05).