Teacher leadership
Why do we need to promote teacher leadership?
Teacher leadership is defined “within and beyond the classroom; identify with and contribute to a community of teacher learners and leaders; influence others toward improved educational practices; and accept responsibility for achieving the outcomes of their leadership” (Katzenmeyer & Moller, 2009, p. 6); in addition, teacher leadership is described as “the process by which teachers, individually or collectively, influence either colleagues, principals, and other members of school communities to improve teaching and learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and achievement” (York-Barr & Duke, 2004, p. 287-288).
Teacher leadership is defined “within and beyond the classroom; identify with and contribute to a community of teacher learners and leaders; influence others toward improved educational practices; and accept responsibility for achieving the outcomes of their leadership” (Katzenmeyer & Moller, 2009, p. 6); in addition, teacher leadership is described as “the process by which teachers, individually or collectively, influence either colleagues, principals, and other members of school communities to improve teaching and learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and achievement” (York-Barr & Duke, 2004, p. 287-288).
As I recall, one of the class discussion at ECI 508 included that the concepts and practices of teacher leadership evolve over time. York-Barr & Duke (2004) cited that teacher leadership originates by taking formal roles like department heads, office managers (Silva, Gimbert, & Nolan, 2000), then goes to attribute instructional expertise (Silva), and currently leads to currently serving as primary creator and re-creator of school culture. This way of thinking of teacher leadership refers to “teachers leading among colleagues with a focus on instructional practice, as well as working at the organizational level to align personnel, fiscal, and material resources to improve teaching and learning” (York-Barr, Duke, 2004, p. 261). Meanwhile, they describe teacher leadership using four general concepts: participative leadership, leadership as an organizational quality, distributed leadership and parallel leadership. Teacher leadership is realized when teachers take various roles and positions in both formal and informal ways. I also would like to reflect on the concepts of formal and informal teacher leadership; I like the concept of “formal” and “informal” forms of teacher leadership, which do praise and acknowledge the contributions of teacher leaders in different administration positions but also illustrate and compliment other teachers’ attributes when they also share teaching experiences with each other during daily small talks.
Who are the potential teacher leaders?
Katzenmeyer & Moller (2009) list three adjectives to identify and develop potential teacher leaders: competent, credible, and approachable. Teachers’ readiness to take the roles of leadership are influenced by “teachers, superintendents, and district administrators, and leaders in colleges and universities.” York-Barr & Duke (2004) state that teacher leaders are both teachers and leaders. Besides, Snell and Swanson (2000) claim that a number of studies show that when teachers demonstrate high levels of instructional expertise, collaboration, reflection, and a sense of empowerment, the teachers become leaders or, more accurately, are allowed by their peers to lead, as cited by York-Barr & Duke.
As cited by York-Barr & Duke (2004), Wilson (1993) and Yarger & Lee (1994) find out that teacher leadership is viewed as both achievement and learning oriented and as willing to take risks and assume responsibility. In light of my leadership log, responsibility and risk-taking bring criticism and conflicts for most cases. It is reasonable that people are not willing to take responsibility or take any risks in the workplace. But for some teachers, they expose themselves to these conflicts using excellent communication skills and strong professional expertise. In return, teacher leaders build trustable relationships with students, colleagues and administrators, and increase their sense of achievements. The class discussions about criticisms and conflicts reveal six dimensions of conflict response and conflict management which are quite worthy referring to.
Katzenmeyer & Moller (2009) list three adjectives to identify and develop potential teacher leaders: competent, credible, and approachable. Teachers’ readiness to take the roles of leadership are influenced by “teachers, superintendents, and district administrators, and leaders in colleges and universities.” York-Barr & Duke (2004) state that teacher leaders are both teachers and leaders. Besides, Snell and Swanson (2000) claim that a number of studies show that when teachers demonstrate high levels of instructional expertise, collaboration, reflection, and a sense of empowerment, the teachers become leaders or, more accurately, are allowed by their peers to lead, as cited by York-Barr & Duke.
As cited by York-Barr & Duke (2004), Wilson (1993) and Yarger & Lee (1994) find out that teacher leadership is viewed as both achievement and learning oriented and as willing to take risks and assume responsibility. In light of my leadership log, responsibility and risk-taking bring criticism and conflicts for most cases. It is reasonable that people are not willing to take responsibility or take any risks in the workplace. But for some teachers, they expose themselves to these conflicts using excellent communication skills and strong professional expertise. In return, teacher leaders build trustable relationships with students, colleagues and administrators, and increase their sense of achievements. The class discussions about criticisms and conflicts reveal six dimensions of conflict response and conflict management which are quite worthy referring to.
Katzenmeyer and Moller (2001) suggest factors that influence a teacher's readiness to assume the role and responsibilities of a teacher leader. These factors include excellent professional teaching skills, a clear and well-developed personal philosophy of education, being in a career stage that enables one to give to others, having an interest in adult development, and being in a personal life stage that allows one time and energy to assume a position of leadership. While not explicitly stated, I can reflect that the factors are indirectly suggesting that teacher leadership is best suited for teachers in midcareer and midlife, proposing that these teachers present high levels of teaching competence and skills.
In addition, teacher leaders are reported to have the following characteristics and traits: significant experience in their teaching field and curriculum; excellent teaching skills; clearly developed personal philosophy of education; creative, innovative, seeking for challenges and growth; risk-taking; lifelong learning; loving teaching; willing to take individual responsibilities for actions; respected and valued by colleagues as competent; sensitive and receptive to the thoughts and feelings of others; cognitive and affective flexibility; hard-working, able to manage workload, strong administrative and organizational skills. (York-Barr & Duke, 2004).
In addition, teacher leaders are reported to have the following characteristics and traits: significant experience in their teaching field and curriculum; excellent teaching skills; clearly developed personal philosophy of education; creative, innovative, seeking for challenges and growth; risk-taking; lifelong learning; loving teaching; willing to take individual responsibilities for actions; respected and valued by colleagues as competent; sensitive and receptive to the thoughts and feelings of others; cognitive and affective flexibility; hard-working, able to manage workload, strong administrative and organizational skills. (York-Barr & Duke, 2004).
How to develop teacher leadership- strategies and actions?
York-Barr & Duke (2004) explore that teacher leaders build trust and rapport with colleagues, establish solid relationships, work collaboratively, and influence school culture through relationships. Teacher leaders are effective in communicating, including good listening skills and supportive of colleagues, promoting growth among colleagues. Teacher Leaders can handle conflicts and negotiate and mediate; they have the abilities and skills as below: the ability to deal with process with effective group processing skills; the ability to assess, interpret, and prioritize district and teacher needs and concerns; and the solid understanding of organizational diagnosis and of the “big picture” issues in an organization through envisioning broader impact of decisions made by administrators and teachers. In addition, Katzenmeye & Moller (2009) articulate that it is these seven factors that contribute to the uniqueness of teachers: professional teaching skills, philosophy of education, generational needs, work perspective, interactions with others, adult development, and personal lives.
York-Barr & Duke (2004) explore that teacher leaders build trust and rapport with colleagues, establish solid relationships, work collaboratively, and influence school culture through relationships. Teacher leaders are effective in communicating, including good listening skills and supportive of colleagues, promoting growth among colleagues. Teacher Leaders can handle conflicts and negotiate and mediate; they have the abilities and skills as below: the ability to deal with process with effective group processing skills; the ability to assess, interpret, and prioritize district and teacher needs and concerns; and the solid understanding of organizational diagnosis and of the “big picture” issues in an organization through envisioning broader impact of decisions made by administrators and teachers. In addition, Katzenmeye & Moller (2009) articulate that it is these seven factors that contribute to the uniqueness of teachers: professional teaching skills, philosophy of education, generational needs, work perspective, interactions with others, adult development, and personal lives.
Katzenmeyer & Moller (2009) explain that “the leaders are not born; they grow and develop in knowledge, skills, and attitudes that make them great leaders.” A question arises to enact teacher leadership in the most effective way. There are three aspects that are regarded as the most-possible conditions of influencing teacher leadership: school culture, roles and relationships, and structures. (York-Barr & Duke, 2004). The strong practice of teacher leadership requires support from the whole system too. Continuous learning applies to preservice teachers and experienced teachers in different ways. York-Barr & Duke (2004) investigate that there are empirical experiences as regard to the teacher leadership programs, which focuses on the development of teacher leaders and teacher leadership in a career-long view of teaching in the school. During class, it is shared and discussed that there are different kinds of leadership programs.
Conyers & Wilson (2016) make a lot of investigations that “the most effective leaders in these positions are most successful when they focus on building the capacity of their teams of teachers to … for purposeful collaboration and cultivating shared leadership.” Metacognition, developing expertise and encouraging a supportive culture for learning and teaching are tools to empower effective teacher leadership collectively.
Since we all understand that positive emotion and attitude quite determinize the work outcomes. Practical optimism – “a belief in yourself and others that success is possible, which in turn fuels determination to accomplish what you have set out to do” (Conyers & Wilson, p. 83), is as an important value for developing teacher leadership. Practical optimism is essential to effective teaching and successful learning; it assists in personal emotional balance, especially when there are conflicts and disagreements.
As far as my work as HR is concerned, I noted practical optimism in my log as it applies to cross-functional department collaboration. With more information exchange and communications with other departments, teachers and adminstrators can see the school from a wider perspective which helps to contribute to a big family with mutual understanding and same expectations.
From all the readings, Dr. Pope’s article of Reflection and Refraction grants a new way to grow teacher leadership. Different from reflection, refraction is an approach to see things from different angles, as stated by Dr. Pope, “I can view the class in different forms and lights” (p. 180). A summary on this article is reflection involves review and examine while refraction brings up reframe. Reading the article introduce another inception mentioned in the log: reflection is a process of perfecting what you’ve already have and refraction is more like a methodology which people use to break the old/traditional things/mindset in order to create suitable/new ones.
As far as my work as HR is concerned, I noted practical optimism in my log as it applies to cross-functional department collaboration. With more information exchange and communications with other departments, teachers and adminstrators can see the school from a wider perspective which helps to contribute to a big family with mutual understanding and same expectations.
From all the readings, Dr. Pope’s article of Reflection and Refraction grants a new way to grow teacher leadership. Different from reflection, refraction is an approach to see things from different angles, as stated by Dr. Pope, “I can view the class in different forms and lights” (p. 180). A summary on this article is reflection involves review and examine while refraction brings up reframe. Reading the article introduce another inception mentioned in the log: reflection is a process of perfecting what you’ve already have and refraction is more like a methodology which people use to break the old/traditional things/mindset in order to create suitable/new ones.
Dr. Pope’s article of Reflection and Refraction grants a new way to grow teacher leadership. Different from reflection, refraction is an approach to see things from different angles, as stated by Dr. Pope, “I can view the class in different forms and lights” (p. 180). A summary on this article is reflection involves review and examine while refraction brings up reframe. Reading the article introduce another inception mentioned in the log: reflection is a process of perfecting what you’ve already have and refraction is more like a methodology which people use to break the old/traditional things/mindset in order to create suitable/new ones.
PLAN OF ACTION
Teacher leadership invokes many thoughts in my work at Beijing Royal School. Guided by the concepts and ideas of teacher leadership, the plan of action aims to solve the current logistic issues in HR office that are related to supporting teacher leadership, e.g. insufficient feedback to inquiries, ineffective communication, inadequate hiring information. The plan of action is as follows:
- Set up a routine period for walk-in talks and business per day so as to build a communication channel between HR and staff;
- Communicate with IT office to create an online forum for releasing school-level rules and publicizing HR polices including questions and answers for HR business;
- Work within HR office (including Foreign Teacher Affairs Office) to schedule a time period per week for sharing expertise and reflecting a weekly business; expect for learning and improving practices; one big aim is to have some HR leaders demonstrating to cultivate a leadership culture in the office and then spread to have each one taking turns in leading the workshop;
- Search and source on foreign staff visa polices to make processing templates, strengthen current practice and enforce the daily management of documents;
- Coordinate with each grade level to clarify logistic issues in current mentor programs for the beginning teachers;
- Navigate on more opportunities for professional developments to include foreign staff;
- Work with the principles on creating a more efficient recruiting system by making adjustments to the procedure, files and requirements in order to shorten the process and create specific job descriptions.