Teacher led school improvement: Teacher leadership in the UK (original) (raw)
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WHEN TEACHERS LEAD: An Analysis of Teacher Leadership in One Primary School
2015
While teacher leadership is a concept that lacks consensus in the literature and may be underexplored in schools, it is a practice that is worth pursuing for its many cited benefits to school improvement. However, the extent to which teacher leadership thrives in any school is dependent on school conditions such as prinicpal support and schoool culture. This is evident in an analysis of teacher leadership episodes from one primary school in Trinidad, which the author undertook in order to identify the supportive structures as well as barriers to teacher leadership. Evidence on teacher leadership from developed countries such as the USA and the UK, where the concept is more widely known, was used to form the analysis, which revealed an emergent form of teacher leadership existing at the school.
Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 2016
Teacher leadership is increasingly being touted as a practical response to guide teacher learning in school improvement and policy reform efforts. However, the field of research on teacher leadership in relation to post-compulsory educational development has been and remains largely atheoretical to date. This empirical study proposes a grounded theory of teacher leadership development based on the lived experiences of self-selected teacher leaders in the USA, that have been explored and validated through further data collection with teacher leaders from England, Scotland, Wales, and the Republic of Ireland. The theory posits leadership development as an iterative and recursive, rather than linear, experience that centres on the construct of personal growth, but also includes the overlapping constructs of growth as a teacher, researcher and leader. Such growth is underpinned and guided by significant teacher development through various post-compulsory developmental activities. Teacher leadership development is situated within the context of the classroom, school and community. The interactions between teacher and context create feedback loops that either facilitate the achievement of specific impacts or challenge the teacher's further development. This study contributes a visual model of teacher leadership development to the field.
Teacher leadership : the advancement of teachers into leadership positions in primary schools
2021
Abstract: Most South African public schools operate using a hierarchal structure, adopting an autocratic leadership style that often hinders the development of teacher leadership within schools. Teachers, therefore, are often unaware of their leadership capabilities, which can influence the atmosphere of the school and, in turn, affect the learner achievement rate. When there is collaboration amongst staff and opportunities are made available to level one teachers, the culture of the school is influenced, and teachers find more satisfaction with their jobs, rather than becoming ‘burnt out’. The rationale for this study was to investigate the existence of leadership development opportunities for post level one teachers in primary schools. The development of teacher leadership in schools has the potential to improve learner achievement rates in the country. However, this can only be done if school management teams are willing to distribute/delegate responsibilities to post level one t...
School leadership in England: Reflections on research activity between 1997 and 2017
This is a theoretical and reflective examination of research into school leadership in England which concludes that activity has been both constrained and limited throughout the last 20 years. A review of school leadership development from 1997 indicates that the main government agencies have identified skills, attributes and behaviours, yet these have not been the consequence of robust empirical research. This outcome is compromised further by the way in which two mainstream academic UK journals, which ostensibly focus on the field of leadership in education, have less than 20 per cent of published papers in the years 2014 and 2015 on school leadership in England. I conclude, based on the samples of outputs examined, that this represents an alarming lack of evidence underpinning our understanding of the demands of school leadership in the rapidly changing nature of education in England. From this discussion, I call for two outcomes: greater opportunity for publication of domestic research within UK journals and national conferences and a determination from major agencies and institutions to support more substantial, detailed and focused research into school leadership.
Globus Journal of Progressive Education, 2024
The research study investigates the impact of teacher leadership on school improvement by exploring the experiences and views of school leaders and teachers in two private schools in Sharjah. And it investigates the strategies adapted by school leaders to promote teacher leadership. The study adopted a mixed-method research approach utilizing two closed-ended surveys (quantitative data) shared with school leaders and teachers and a semi-structured interview with school leaders (qualitative data). The school leaders’ survey was sent to 21 school leaders, while the teachers’ survey was sent to 128 teachers. Six school leaders were interviewed in this study to explore their views of teacher leaders and investigate the strategies they applied to promote teacher leadership in their schools. The study shows that teacher leadership has a vital impact on school improvement through collaboration between teachers and sharing good practices through professional development sessions and initiatives. Lead teachers act as a bridge between teachers and school leaders; they help communicate teachers’ voices and have them take a better role in decision-making at school. Teacher leadership can enhance parents’ involvement in the school by utilizing the parent-teacher association. The study revealed some roadblocks to teacher leadership, such as a lack of resources, time, and some school policies. At the end of the study, the researcher highlighted some possible limitations and recommendations that future researchers can utilize in planning their study. Keywords: Teacher Leaders, School Improvement, Empowerment, Leadership.
Teacher Leadership: A Review of Research
In this paper, the authors explore the concept of distributed, or teacher leadership, in contrast to the traditional notion of leadership in schools which focused largely on the responsibilities of the headteacher. Harris and Muijs set out to review international research literature on teacher leadership, and examined the evidence in terms of implications for professional development and school effectiveness by:
2010
The traditional view in education leadership separates school leaders from teachers. However, traditional views has been challenged by recent research which calls for distributed forms of leadership where all teachers are viewed as having the capacity to lead and where power is distributed across the organization. Therefore, leadership must be understood as a shared process which involves working with all stakeholders in a collegial and creative way to seek out the untapped leadership potential of people and develop this potential in a supportive environment for the betterment of the school. In other words, it is within these professional learning communities that power in the school is redistributed and where teachers can operate as leaders as they strive towards a more equitable society. This study seeks to describe the enactment of teacher leadership among three teacher leaders in an urban primary school in KwaZulu-Natal and explores the factors that hinder or enhance this enactment. An urban primary school has been selected as a case study and three teacher leaders were selected as the unit of analysis and methods such as questionnaires, interviews, journal entries and observations were used to gather data. The study is located within a distributed leadership framework and reports on both quantitative and qualitative data. My findings revealed that the enactment of teacher leadership was found across all the zones in particular zones 1 and 2 but limited in zone 3 and 4. This suggests that conditions in the school were not always conducive to authentic collaboration, redistribution of power and teacher leadership. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGES
2011
Purpose – This study aims to explore the impact of school leadership, particularly that of the principal (head teacher), on school improvement in England. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopts a mixed-methods (MM), longitudinal design to investigate the leadership of a sample of academically effective and improving schools identified from analyses of national assessment and examination data sets. In addition, questionnaire surveys of principals and key staff and 20 qualitative school case studies were conducted. The paper reports results from the questionnaire analyses and changes in measures of school performance over three school years using data from 378 primary and 362 secondary schools. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation models (SEM) test direct and indirect effects of school leadership and school and classroom processes in predicting changes in schools’ academic results. Findings – The analyses identified robust underlying dimensions of leadership and school and classroom processes and highlighted strategies and actions that school principals and staff had adopted to raise pupil attainment. The SEM models reveal both direct and indirect effects of leadership on a range of school and classroom processes that in turn predicted changes (improvements) in schools’ academic performance. Originality/value – This original empirical study presents new results on the leadership of a large sample of effective and improving primary and secondary schools in England. A dynamic model is presented predicting changes in schools’ academic performance over three years and identifying direct effects of leadership on school and
The Enactment of Teacher Leadership in an Urban Primary School
LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2011
The traditional view in education leadership separates school leaders from teachers. However, traditional views has been challenged by recent research which calls for distributed forms of leadership where all teachers are viewed as having the capacity to lead and where power is distributed across the organization. Therefore, leadership must be understood as a shared process which involves working with all stakeholders in a collegial and creative way to seek out the untapped leadership potential of people and develop this potential in a supportive environment for the betterment of the school. In other words, it is within these professional learning communities that power in the school is redistributed and where teachers can operate as leaders as they strive towards a more equitable society. This study seeks to describe the enactment of teacher leadership among three teacher leaders in an urban primary school in KwaZulu-Natal and explores the factors that hinder or enhance this enactment. An urban primary school has been selected as a case study and three teacher leaders were selected as the unit of analysis and methods such as questionnaires, interviews, journal entries and observations were used to gather data. The study is located within a distributed leadership framework and reports on both quantitative and qualitative data. My findings revealed that the enactment of teacher leadership was found across all the zones in particular zones 1 and 2 but limited in zone 3 and 4. This suggests that conditions in the school were not always conducive to authentic collaboration, redistribution of power and teacher leadership. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGES