Issues in Teacher Leadership

The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement (2005) conducted a
study about the research on teacher leadership and how it can be drawn upon to facilitate
school improvement. The authors reviewed literature from the past two decades, including
small-scale, qualitative studies that describe the practice, characteristics, and conditions
required to promote teacher leadership. The findings were that three key areas need to be
supported to promote teacher leadership development; these three key areas were school
culture and context, roles and relationships, and structures. School culture promotes
teacher leadership when teachers feel valued and time and resources are devoted to
shared decision making and growth. Roles and relationships promote teacher leadership
when there is trust between teachers and administration and support roles are clearly
promoted and assigned. Structures promote teacher leadership when appropriate access
to materials, and time for activities that encourage teacher leadership is provided, such as
professional development. The authors suggested that traditional forms of management
and organization should be changed in order to best promote teacher leadership. Rather
than top-down organization, management and administration should be designed
horizontally to allow more space for teachers to step up in leadership roles and be
supported through resources, culture, and structures. The authors suggest that school
reform and improvement can be more sustainably facilitated through the resourcefulness
and leadership of experienced teachers.

The Minnesota Department of Education wrote about strategies and methods to support
teacher leadership. The article asks questions and provides resources exploring the
importance of teacher leadership, ways for schools and districts to implement teacher
leadership structures, and resources to evaluate teacher leadership qualities. The findings
were that teacher leadership requires initial and continued training and evaluation. The
article provided resources for collecting and analyzing data related to teacher leadership.
The authors promote the clear definition and desired outcome of teacher leadership roles
through collaboration of the stakeholders, continued support that promoted professional
growth, and data collection and feedback.

The American Federation of Teachers (1999) conducted a study about the strengths and
weaknesses of reading intervention programs and their effectiveness in schools. The article
focuses on one of the five intervention programs they studied, Lindamood-Bell. The
findings were that studies indicated that Lindmood-Bell reading intervention strategies can
be used effectively with struggling readers, as well as modified for use with small group and
whole group instruction. The article noted that the strategies were developed for use in
individualized instruction and tutorial programs, so school based applications are still
preliminary. The authors also suggested ​that intervention works best when it is chosen and
supported by faculty in addition to administration. This relates to the other articles I read for
this assignment, as it supports the use of school structures and relationships between
teachers and administration to help support teacher leadership in promoting improvements
in student learning.

These three articles suggest that teacher leadership requires support from school and
administration to effectively create improvements. All promoted the use of school structures
to promote teacher leadership for school improvement. The Center for Comprehensive
School Reform and Improvement recommendations and findings were more abstract, while
the Minnesota Department of Education provided more concrete resources and examples
of how structures, such as assessment tools, frameworks, and rubrics can be used. The
American Federation of Teachers also included support for the role of teacher relationships
with administration to effectively promote teacher leadership and student learning, which
was discussed in the other two articles as well.

I found myself drawn to articles that promote systemic support for teacher leaders. While
it is easy to recognize that leadership is an important quality for teachers to have in their
classroom, school, and community to improve student learning, it can also feel like yet
another thing added to teachers’ plates. Having structures, roles, and school cultures that
support teacher leadership help shift this from being another job added on, to a supported,
integrated element of teaching. These articles inform my teaching by encouraging me to
seek out and advocate for integrated teacher leadership roles and growth opportunities.

Citations:
The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement (2005). "Research Brief:
What does the research tell us about Teacher Leadership?" Washington, DC

Supporting Teacher Leadership. Minnesota Department of Education. (n.d.). Retrieved

April 18, 2022, from https://education.mn.gov/MDE/dse/edev/prac/lead/

American Federation of Teachers. (1999). Building on the Best, Learning from What Works:
Five Promising Remedial Reading Intervention Programs. Washington, DC: