ECI 508 Dr.

Linda Robinson

Final Teacher Leadership Essay

&

Plan of Action

Xiaojing Hou

April 20, 2017

 Introduction

This essay focuses on teachers as leaders and the importance of teacher leadership to

improve outcomes in schools. Starting with definitions of teacher leadership, I elaborate not only

on rationale and belief why teachers should and can lead, but also on characteristics and a series

of strategies of effective teacher leadership, including leading with metacognition, practical

optimism, communication skills, advocacy, reaching out strategy, as well as reflection and

refraction that can be applied in and out of classrooms. Finally, I reflect on my personal strength

and weakness and envision a thorough action plan to guide myself on the future leadership

journey to not only expand my own teaching career spectrum but also bring more positive

influence and changes to students, colleagues, school at large, family and community. This essay

is a reflection and indication of my personal growth in the course of teacher leadership.

Definition of Teacher Leadership

Recognition of teacher leadership has gained incremental momentum in the past two

decades. But most people think of leadership as a position and therefore dont see themselves as

leaders. Thats one of the main reasons why teacher leadership is experiencing a long time to

actually thrive. Both schools and teachers themselves need to recognize measurable benefits of

teacher leaders. What is teacher leadership after all? There are abundant definitions. York-Barr

and Duke in the article What do we know about teacher leadership? Findings from two decades

of scholarship concludes teacher leadership is the process by which teachers, individually or

collectively, influence their colleagues, principals, and other members of school communities to

improve teaching and learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and

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achievement (2004, p. 287-288). But formally or informally should be added into this

definition as positional teacher leadership influence usually starts from informal and behind-

scene influence and interaction with students and colleagues. It is believed in the book 13 steps

to teacher empowerment formal leadership requires the same kinds of skills and strategies as the

informal kind (Zemelman & Ross, 2009, p. 6). Mature teacher leadership school culture should

reward those non-positional teacher leaders to be positional leaders or offer salary compensations

to retain and stimulate those teacher leaders. Both positional and non-positional teacher

leadership should be recognized and celebrated. While Katzenmeyer and Moller in the book

Awakening the sleeping giant: Helping teachers develop as leaders defines teacher leadership as

teacher leaders lead within and beyond the classroom; identify with and contribute to a

community of teacher learners and leaders; influence others toward improved educational

practice; and accept responsibility for achieving the outcomes of their leadership (2009, p. 5). In

this definition, it distinctively highlights leadership assumes accountability for results, which we

tend to overlook because some teacher leaders might raise a lot of new ideas at the beginning but

turn them to whims finally, which is harmful for sustainability and trust building. My definition

of teacher leadership is teacher leaders formally or informally lead within and beyond the

classroom, willing to share and collaborate with others, influencing others to improve

professional growth, students learning and schools development. In whatever definition, there is

no disagreement that teacher leadership work involves three dimensions: individual

development, collaboration or team development, and organizational development. The three

dimensions are closely interlocked.

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Rationale for Teacher Leadership

Why should we value teacher leadership? First of all, the benefits of active teacher

participation at every level are quite evident, such as teacher efficacy, personal growth, positive

peer influence, career enhancement, sustainability of change, accountability for results, and

retention of excellent teachers (Katzenmeyer & Moller, 2009). Second, they can facilitate

expertise about teaching and learning. For example, at least five goals can be achieved by teacher

leaders according to the article Five goals for teacher leadership: 1) Fuel student achievements;

2) improve the access of high-need students; 3) extend the careers of teachers looking for growth

opportunities; 4) expand the influence of effective teachers on their peers; 5) ensure a role for

teachers as leaders in policy decisions affecting their practice (Coggins & Kappan, 2014). Third,

they bring benefits to students in terms of their vision and leadership cultivation. As teacher

leaders model good leading skills in the class where students observe and experience teachers

modeling and better management unconsciously every day and they are direct beneficiaries of

higher teacher morale and better leadership skills. They will be influenced to be more

responsible, sharing and active learners and whole person. When teachers and students both

improve their performance and morale, the school will be the beneficiary as well. But its worth

emphasizing that the rationale for teacher leadership rests on the foundations of building

organizational capacity, modeling democratic communities, empowering teachers, and enhancing

teacher professionalism (Coggins & Kappan, 2014, p. 39). The ideal power of teacher

leadership is far-reaching and multi-dimensional. They are like momentum of an express train

with unlimited power to overcome any obstacles on the way. Top-performing nations invest in

teacher leaders to improve education. School and school system leaders and especially teacher

leaders should form a new level of commitment to promote teacher leadership.

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 Why do we have firm belief that teachers can lead? A teacher in the classroom is already a

leader leading a group of students influencing them on a daily basis. Theoretically, every teacher

has potential to be a leader. Also, according to neuroscience and adult learning theories and

research, each person has mental possibility of learning something new no matter at what age

(Conyers & Wilson, 2015). Leadership skills can be learned and practiced rather than inborn

abilities. Therefore, teachers should be able to take on new learning challenges to be effective

leaders.

Characteristics of Effective Teacher Leaders

To start with, effective teacher leaders must present confidence in instructional proficiency,

leading effectively with students in the classroom. Teachers confident in their own abilities

want to collaborate with colleagues (Katzenmeyer & Moller, 2009, p. 69). It is imaginable that a

frustrated and stressed out teacher in the classroom is never ready to reach out beyond the

classroom to share with others. Effective teacher leaders possess and use professional

knowledge and skills in providing the most effective learning opportunities for both students and

adults (Katzenmeyer & Moller, 2009, p. 69).

Further, effective teacher leaders recognizes differing philosophies and generational gaps

of colleagues and see that the differences can cause conflict in decisions about curriculum,

instructional practices, and assessment (Katzenmeyer & Moller, 2009, p. 70), which is the

premise of team communication and collaboration. Also, effective teacher leaders build positive

relationship with others, which directly affect collaboration climate. Meanwhile, effective

teacher leaders are aware of building a team of leaders, not only pushing up personal leadership

growth but also help team members to grow leadership skills. They actively shoulder

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accountability for results instead of shunning away from responsibilities. They are reliable and

highly accessible leaders. Also, effective teacher leaders use more resources and reach out to

professionals beyond school settings to bring more influence to students and colleagues. They

are charismatic connectors who are being a good listener, demonstrating an interest and

openness to others ideas and points of view, exhibiting empathy, and modeling practical

optimism (Conyers & Wilson, 2016). Last but not least, effective teacher leaders possess

necessary leadership skill set including time management, communication, task division, conflict

resolution and stress management skills.

Strategies for Effective Teacher Leadership

Metacognitionan approach to work smarter

Metacognition can be defined as thinking about thinking and knowing about knowing

(Conyers & Wilson, 2016, p. 64). It is awareness and control of ones own cognitive process. It

can be used in any field. By using a metacognitive process, teacher leaders can optimistically

and intentionally plan, monitor, and evaluate their teaching practice and enhance their

collaborative interactions in professional communities (Conyers & Wilson, 2016, p. 64). There

are some strategies to increase metacognition. First, increase awareness by thinking aloud or

keeping working journals. Albert Einstein says if you cant explain it simply, you dont

understand it well enough. Second, challenging current approach by self-questioning. Third,

measuring current teaching and learning through mind-mapping (Roy, 2016). There are five

cognitive assets for teacher leaders -- clear intent, systematic planning, monitoring, evaluation,

and learning from experience, and practical optimism (Conyers & Wilson, 2016, p. 68-78).

Establishing clear intent helps a teacher leader stay focused on what really matters. Take

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classroom teaching for example, the ultimate goal of activities and planning is students outcome.

What key knowledge do we want our students to have? Do they understand? How can we best

ensure that happen? (Conyers & Wilson, 2016, p. 70). They are questions to help us figure out

our learning goals and objectives. Group planning and collaboration help stay focused on

teaching goals and objectives with diverse perspectives and strengths. What challenges students

might encounter? What is our process? What can we learn from each other? (Conyers & Wilson,

2016, p. 72). These questions can be used to guide us while planning together. Next, during the

process, we need to monitor the process. We can monitor the process by asking how is teaching

proceeding? Are students learning as planned? How might I need to change plan to ensure

students learn at high levels? (Conyers & Wilson, 2016, p. 73). Thus, we can decide on whether

we should give mini-lessons to reteach, offer personal conferences, and try different strategies,

etc.

Practical optimismlubricating oil for leadership

Practical optimism as an asset of metacognition is listed out separately as it is essential to

positive influence and effective teaching and successful learning, as a key leadership trait.

Developing practical optimism and modeling this approach for colleagues, administrators,

parents, and others can have a positive impact on both school climate and student learning

(Conyers & Wilson, 2016 p. 85). As in the school setting, having classes, grading, attending

various meetings, and dealing with students issues usually stress teachers out during the day.

Any teacher who is pessimistic and complaining will contaminate the working environment,

harm the morale and exert negative influence on students. Fostering academic optimism supports

student achievement. Teacher leaders practical optimism plays pivotal role in definitely

changing the atmosphere and increase efficiency and morale. Also, practical optimism helps to

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focus on problem solving instead of wasting time on fear, doubt, and anxieties. There are some

ways to present practical optimism: belief that we can overcome difficulties and we can help

students through our constant efforts; calm down, be confident and celebrate our colleagues

success; recognize our uniqueness and talents; try different ways to boost mood (Conyers &

Wilson, 2016). It serves as lubricating oil that pushes up development and positive relations at

school. Practical optimism yields resilience which is critical for a successful person.

Communicationcore skills for leadership

Communication skills always tops the qualities of successful teacher leaders. In China, there

is an idiom called conflicts come from mouth. How we phrase our words and what manners

we display while communicating all contribute to the outcomes. Effective leaders are eloquent

but not dominant; they are polite and respectful but not bossy and arrogant. They are honest but

not hypocritical. All of these favorable and unfavorable traits can be realized by communication.

To improve communication with students and colleagues, PQS strategy in writing feedback can

be applied. P is praise others strength first. Then ask questions to clarify what we wonder and

puzzle about. S is giving suggestions when we disagree with. This strategy can help us to be

assertive and polite, encouraging and inspiring. Good teacher leaders point out problems and

inspire to solve problems constructively but not directly criticize and blame.

Another strategy to improve communication skills is active listening. Active listening is

critical for any kind of communication, especially for conflict resolution. Dominant and

authoritarian leaders dont have patience and habit to listen to others. They tend to lead a group

of timid and quiet followers, passive and unproductive. Diverse perspectives get no chance to be

heard. Actually, active listening can help sustain and strengthen relationship to lead to trust

building and problem solving. Active listening is showing interest and expressing empathy while

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listening. Sometimes, offering an ear is enough to solve problems. During conflicts, active

listening is the preliminary step.

One occasion that test our communication skills for teacher leaders is leading a meeting and

collaboration. To achieve expected result of a meeting and purposeful collaboration needs some

effective steps, including clarifying the purpose, building commitment, finding the right time,

preparing well beforehand (draft materials), designating roles, structuring the process, using

technology, agreeing on norms and following up with action (Zemelman & Ross, 2009, p. 87-

89). Throughout the process, communication is existent in each step. Significance of improving

communication skills cant be exaggerated for effective teacher leaders.

Advocacy - a constructive way to make voice heard

Teacher leaders have to speak up for different purposes on different occasions, including

talking to higher authorities to participate decision making. Usually, it is enough to just be honest

and state our opinions in the faculty meeting and elaborate on it. But sometimes we have to

decide whether speaking-out at a meeting is the best strategy. Especially if the issue is sensitive,

plan thoroughly. Stay focused on the goal and dont get drawn into unproductive fights

(Zemelman & Ross, 2009, P. 76-81). One strategy can be used to address sensitive and complex

issues is to make personal conferences or writing advocacy letters, a constructive way to make

our voice heard. Be honest and sincere is always the key to advocacy. We also need to take

different writing and speaking styles into account based on different target recipients while doing

advocacy.

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Reaching outan approach to maximize influence

Effective teacher leaders use more resources outside of school, including reaching out to

parents, experienced teachers in social networks, experts in the field, and city-based

organizations. Expanding our attention outside of school to seek for support, help, partnerships

and grant can maximize teacher leaders influence and resources integration.

Reflection and refractionan effective strategy to solve problems

Reflection and refraction is a strategy to effectively solve problems in and out of class. It

leads to constructive problem solving and objective reflection. Reflection is like holding a mirror

just reflecting the mirror holder from one angle and one perspective. While refraction is turning

the mirror and adding more angles into the mirror as an extension of reflection (Pope, 1999). In

the reflection process, we tend to be blinded by our anger, frustration, assumptions, previous

impressions, defensiveness and sense of insecurity and end up in a disappointed, daunted,

stressful or unproductive state of mind. But refraction brings more objectivity and willingness to

put on others shoes to reframe information and come up with effective solutions. Refraction is a

critical strategy to produce correct and positive prescription. Teacher leaders should apply this

strategy and model this thinking process to students and more colleagues.

Reflection on Personal Strength and Weakness

So far I have been more confident to take leadership roles in future work environment. The

most obvious achievement through this leadership course is awareness of my problems: lack of

certain communication skills, lack of refraction, and lack of confidence to lead, etc. I was kind of

moody and conservative in the past. Sometimes, I was too sensitive to criticism and too

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protective. Being more open-minded, courageous and flexible in dealing with conflicts and

disagreements is key to my improvement in being an effective leader. More specifically, I need to

improve communication with colleagues in terms of accuracy in understanding their needs and

feelings and getting across my ideas to persuade and engage all of them while leading a meeting.

I also need to grow in interacting with students out of class time. Because I tended to leave an

impression of a rigid and authoritarian teacher on my students, which was not good for

building trust and classroom discussion. I also need to improve in actively initiating plans and

ideas instead of passively being led by others. Reflecting on my role in contributing to the

climate of collaboration and mutual help, I should be more patient and more strategic in

connecting to others and collaborating with others. I shouldnt only expect ourselves to be

receivers, as we have to be givers first. Being analytical, independent, reliable, and cooperative

are my strengths. In the future, I will practice effective leadership skills and strategies learned in

this course and continue to seek for professional development to minimize weakness and

enhance my strength in the profession.

Leadership Plan of Action & Commitment

According to an old proverb, A vision without a plan is just a dream. A plan without a

vision is just drudgery. But a vision with a plan can change the world. In order to better

practice what I have learned in this course and better realize my teacher leadership value, I plan

to promote collaborative planning and set up a New literacy & Teaching public platform through

Chinese social networks WeChat.

My leadership plan of action: 1) promote collaborative planning

2) set up a New literacy & Teaching public platform

Rationale for the leadership plan

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 Japan is famous for its collective Lesson Study program. Many countries are also imitating.

In our school, there is still no collaborative planning climate. Even though we all know the

benefits of collaborative planning, it has never caught on. The reason that it hasnt been

implemented well is lack of framework to collaborate even in supportive environment. In order

to make it easier to implement, I will constructively promote this idea. Based on metacognition, I

will create a collaborative planning sheet to guide colleagues to implement purposeful and

productive collaboration to not only make our collaboration efficient and effective instead of

adding additional burden but also render our classroom instruction more data-based and

creatively fashioned with collective wisdom. As for my second plan, it is a plan that I have

envisioned for a long time. WeChat public platform is a new but prevalent media platform in

China. I will set up a New Literacy & Teaching public platform to publish different Ed-tech

tools, teaching reflections, teaching tips, activities, collective planning experiences, creative

assignments and selective education research articles bilingually, aiming to facilitate Chinas

teaching quality and education reform. To make it public and popular, I will write a plan for this

platform running first and seek for advice from experts in this field. With the plan, I will

persuade several colleagues to join me and form a team with common interest of improving

teaching quality in China, and apply a grant from our school. This platform is envisioned to

function as a platform to promote BRSs academic research and reputation, share education

research, partner with publishing houses and education forums, and initiate professional teacher

training to be held in our school.

My role: Initiator and editor

Special skills and strategies needed: metacognition (plan, monitor, evaluate, practical

optimism), communication (active listening), advocacy, personal conference, and purposeful

collaboration, etc.

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Step by step action plan 1:

Step 1: Design the collective planning guide sheet

Step 2: Initiate and model collective planning with small sized colleagues who teach the

same course in the same building using the guide sheet.

Step 3: Monitor and revise the guide sheet based on the planning process

Step 4: Collect some feedback and evaluate the result after having classes

Step 4: Write an advocacy letter to promote collective planning in the school and report

the outcome of our collective planning

Step 5: Model and promote experience of collective planning to whole school by talking

to Year leader and director of the department first

Step by step action plan 2:

Step 1: Write new media initiation plan and seek for advice from new media running

professionals in person

Step 2: Set up a meeting with selective colleagues to promote the idea

Step 3: Set up a team. Designate roles and reach an agreement of the article writing plan

and weekly/biweekly publishing date

Step 4: Set up a date to review finished articles

Step 5: Publish the first article and market it

Step 6: Monitor and evaluate the response of readers

Step 7: Apply a grant from school by setting up a personal conference with principal

Step 8: Encourage more teachers to submit articles

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Conclusion

To look into the future, I believe that if teacher leadership can become school-wide and

organizational expectations and teacher leaders are challenged and motivated to act as change

agents, they will accept empowerment to push up school reform and benefit themselves, students

and school at large. If schools can provide teachers with a wide range of choices to expand career

and increase salary by taking additional roles, teachers will be better motivated to improve

professional work and leadership work (Katzenmeyer & Moller, 2009). But the future of teacher

leadership is also influenced by us who are taking and will take leadership roles and commit to it

in our immediate work environment to influence more teachers to be teacher leaders. With the

clear leadership plan of action, I will play my role as a teacher leader with confidence and

enjoyment. Change starts from changing ourselves first.

References

Coggins, C., & Mcgovern, K. (2014, 04). Five goals for teacher leadership. Phi Delta

Kappan, 95(7), 15-21.

Conyers, M., & Wilson, D. (2016). Smarter teacher leadership: Neuroscience and the power of

purposeful collaboration. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Katzenmeyer, M., & Moller, G. (2009). Awakening the sleeping giant: Helping teachers develop

as leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Pope, C. A. (1999, April 01). Reflection and Refraction: A Reflexive Look at an Evolving Model

for Methods Instruction. English Education, 31(3), 177-200.

What is metacognition? 3 key points to remember. YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved April 19, 2017,

from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7hadX9UZ5E&p=DevEx,5078.1

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York-Barr, J., & Duke, K. (2004, 01). What do we know about teacher leadership? Findings from

two decades of scholarship. Review of Educational Research, 74(3), 255-316.

Zemelman, S., & Ross, H. (2009). Thirteen steps to teacher empowerment: Taking a more active

role in your school community. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

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