Going to the Balcony: Two Professors Reflect and Examine Their Pedagogy (original) (raw)
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2000
The primary purpose of this paper is to illuminate how a school principal employed three identifiable leadership initiatives to support adult learning within the context of her school and to show how her own thinking about her leadership practices on behalf of teacher learning changed and developed over time. A discussion of current efforts to support teachers' professional development draws on the literatures from staff development, principal leadership, and adult development. Following this is a review of a four-year ethnography. Specifically, a description of the three main initiatives practiced by the principal (teaming, providing leadership roles, and collegial inquiry) to support adult development. Next is an examination of this principal's perspective on the value of engaging in reflective practice and how this context created a space for her to reflect on her leadership. Highlighted are how her thinking about her leadership practices on behalf of supporting teacher learning changed during the four years of this research. Lastly, are suggested some possible implications of developmental theory with regard to principals' practices in relation to supporting adult development in schools. Interviews and observations with the principal and her teachers, administrators, and staff were analyzed. Findings illustrate how adult developmental theory might be bridged to leadership practices aimed at supporting the development of the mind (transformational learning). (Contains 3 tables and 54 references.) (Author/MLF) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Teaching, Learning, and Leading
Journal of Teacher Education, 2015
Within the current federal, state, and local contexts of educational reform, teachers must be recognized as central actors in policy work, but rarely do we explicitly consider preparing teachers to become policy actors. Understanding these implications for teacher education, we investigate teacher candidates’ learning of the complexity and dynamism of educational policy through a field-based teacher preparation program. Situated across four unique school contexts in the diverse neighborhoods of Chicago, Illinois, we qualitatively study the cases of eight teacher candidates as they explore policy in practice. We found that candidates developed enduring understandings about policy as complex, situated, and multilayered, as well as the central role of the teacher. This learning was mediated by multiple facets of the field-based module, including readings, panels, and observations. Implications center on the use of field-based teacher education to support policy-related learning and dev...
Chapter 3: Teachers Mentoring Teachers: A View Over Time
Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 2005
Teaching is a complex and challenging profession and the demands can be overwhelming particularly for novice educators. Beginning teachers face many immediate challenges such as developing year-long curricula, organizing classrooms, implementing effective classroom management, learning the organizational structure of the school, meshing with colleagues, and working with diverse students and parents (Kent, 2000). In addition, new teachers often obtain employment in districts with explicit and comprehensive district curricula already in place. This means that in addition to becoming acculturated to their classroom and school, many new teachers must go through the process of understanding the districtʼs curriculum and merging it with the curricula they learned at the university and used when student teaching. This two-pronged dilemma of learning and developing in a new teaching context combined with learning the districtʼs formal curriculum proves quite challenging and even frustrating for many new teachers. So much so, that up to 30% of new teachers leave the field within the first 5 years of teaching (Montgomery-Halford, 1998; National Commission on Teaching and Americaʼs Future, 1997). New teachers are not, however, the only teachers who face challenges. Teaching is always a complex act and is never static. In addition to changes in the student population, Borko and Putnam (1996) describe formal change initiatives that experienced teachers face; they "are often presented with mandates for changing the way they teach, through national standards, new textbooks, or school, district,
The promise, rise and fall of the Florida Teacher Leader Fellowship Programme
Research in Post-Compulsory Education, 2020
This paper explores a teacher leadership development programme initiated by a university-based educational innovation centre that convened 40 teacher leaders from 22 different school districts across Florida for an 18-month voluntary professional learning experience. Underpinning this initiative was a theory of teacher leadership development aimed at developing a culture of professional learning at individual teacher, school and district level. It was designed to challenge, at both school and district level, a perceived ambivalence among senior leadership to teacher led-initiatives aimed at enhancing the professional knowledge and skill of their colleagues. Findings indicate that participation in a university-sponsored programme, as well as developing collaboration among teachers, served to promote a commitment to teacher-led leadership. Further, the researchers identified specific strategies which would encourage Fellows to explore new areas of learning. This also entailed confronting obstacles and disincentives employed by teaching colleagues and senior leaders at both school and district level. This article explores not only the conditions and practices that shaped the programme but also the larger contextual factors that determine when, how, and if teacher leaders are able to exercise leadership.
2008
When the “ivory tower” world of educator preparation faculty collides with the “real world” of in-service teachers, the result can be a partnership that is committed to preparing teachers equipped to meet the needs of diverse learners in 21 century classrooms. The lessons learned in the development of such a partnership include a focus on: a) authentic engagement of all stakeholders; b) honest, diplomatic, and timely communication; c) support and scaffolding for pre-service teachers; d) a variety of authentic assessment measures; and e) assistance for new teachers during the induction period. Strengthening the bonds between university faculty and classroom teachers has contributed to the success of pre-service and beginning teachers and to the enhancement of P-12 student learning. What happens when the “ivory tower” world of educator preparation faculty collides with the “real world” of in-service teachers? The answer is the development of a partnership that is committed to preparin...
Increasingly, teacher leaders are being asked to undertake adminis trative practices, particularly around instructional policy implementation. Yet little is known about this approach to teacher leadership in current educational con texts or how it may support teachers' work as boundary spanners between admin istration and faculty. This case study explores the duties and collegial interactions of two teacher-assistant principals (teacher-APs) and examines the challenges and resources activated through their professional endeavors. Findings suggest that the teacher-APs served as consiglieres, instructional leaders, and media tors between faculty and administration. This work positioned the participants as boundary spanners, who activated resources around policy alignment but also faced substantial challenges like ambiguity, overload, and instructional trade-offs. In the nascent stages of teacher leadership during the 1980s and early 1990s, as a way both to break the inefficiencies of strict bureaucratic divisions within schools and to " professionalize " the career of teaching, teachers were extended opportunities outside the classroom to make