Preservice Teachers' Perceptions of Teacher Leadership: Is It about Compliance or Understanding? (original) (raw)
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This qualitative action research project examined preservice teachers’ conceptions of teacher leadership. Through an analysis of preservice teachers’ writings in a graduate-level teacher leadership course, students’ beliefs about the power of teacher leaders emerged. Findings revealed that novice teachers most often identified the scope of leadership as focused in classrooms and schools, while identifying curriculum and instructional decision-making and peer collaboration as the key actions taken by teacher leaders. Barriers to teacher leadership were most often described as administrators and policymakers. Regardless of the scope of influence or actions taken by teacher leaders, the primary purpose of teacher leadership overwhelming reflected a desire to address socioeconomic inequalities through educational change.
Preservice Elementary Education Graduate Students' Perception of Teacher Leadership
2010
This qualitative study was designed to discern how preservice Elementary Education graduate students perceived the concept of teacher leadership and how this idea was fostered in their coursework. Through course document analysis and in-depth interviews with nine graduate students undergoing initial licensure, data was collected and triangulated to provide a rich and descriptive analysis of the participants' experiences and perceptions as they related to teacher leadership in their preservice program. Using case study and cross cases analysis, major themes related to teacher leadership emerged. The participants largely focused on student/classroom-centered views of teacher leadership and lacked the whole-school perspective cited in college documents and in the literature. Participants also had a difficult time explaining how teacher leadership was being fostered in their coursework, highlighting a disparity between the working definition of teacher leadership employed by the college and noted in the literature, and the students' understanding of the concept. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 required schools to focus greater attention on the academic achievement of all students. As a result, the work of school leaders has become more complex. Traditional school leaders are increasingly expected to perform a variety of roles which are often accompanied by unique and cumbersome responsibilities. Accordingly, traditional educational leadership, marked by formal postings as principals and assistant principals, is evolving. Many educators are embracing a newer understanding of what is needed from leadership for schools to be effective in the 21 st century. The notion of distributed leadership through teacher leaders is gaining acceptance as educators understand what is meant by the term teacher leader, how it is operationalized, and the role that teacher leaders play in the effectiveness of schools (Harris & Muijs, 2003). Because teacher leaders can be an important component of overall school effectiveness, universities are incorporating the concept into their curricula for preservice teachers. This study sought to determine how the concept of teacher leadership was portrayed to preservice teachers as they worked to become certified. Two research questions guided the study: (1) How do current preservice Elementary Education graduate students perceive the term "teacher leadership?" and (2) In what ways is it fostered in their coursework? Review of the Literature While much has been written about teacher leadership, the definition of the term is rather elusive. York-Barr and Duke (2004) conducted a literature review of over 140 sources pertaining to teacher leadership and found that "the concept of teacher leadership has not been clearly or consistently defined" (p. 263). Over the years, teacher leadership has been talked about in various contexts including teachers that serve in formal roles, teachers as instructional experts, and teachers as central players in creating school culture, but there is no agreement on an actual definition of the term.
From Pre-Service to Teacher Leader: The Early Development of Teacher Leaders
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Although the concept of teacher leadership is one that has existed for some time (Sergiovanni & Starratt, 2007), there has been a recent refocusing on the potential of teachers in either formal or informal leadership roles to contribute to improving schools (Mangin & Stoelinga, 2010; Muijs, Chapman, & Armstrong, 201 ; Nolan & Palazzolo, 2011) and increasing student outcomes (TPR, 2006). Public schools in the U.S. face ever increasing accountability measures as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB 2001) and the adoption of the Common Core State Standards in the majority of states (Guskey, 2011). Linking teacher evaluation to student outcomes is yet another example of the pressure educators feel in the current U.S. educational climate. It is nearly impossible for school administrators to single-handedly support every teacher in ensuring that students meet or exceed expected outcomes (Xie & Shen, 201 ). In collaboration with teacher leaders, though, school improvement efforts...
SHODH SARITA - AN INTERNATIONAL BILINGUAL PEER REVIEWED REFEREED RESEARCH JOURNAL, 2019
Teacher leaders assume a wide range of roles to support school and student success. Whether these roles are assigned formally or shared informally, they build the entire school's capacity to improve. Because teachers can lead in a variety of ways, many teachers can serve as leaders among their peers. Leadership training will help the teachers to perform their roles and responsibilities as a teacher leader. In order to achieve these roles the leadership training should be given effectively during their pre-service programme. In the present study the investigator tried to study the leadership effectiveness of pre-service teachers in relation to their attitude towards teacher leadership. The study was conducted on 160 pre-service teachers pursuing B.Ed. under the University of Calicut. The result found that the attitude of pre-service teachers towards teacher leadership is a good predictor of their leadership effectiveness. The study highlights the need of strengthening leadership training programme during pre-service training.
An Exploration of Teacher Leadership: Are Future Teachers Ready to Lead?
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The teaching profession has become increasingly complex in the last decades. The changing role of teachers has called for a new paradigm of the teaching profession that recognises the potential of teachers to lead for supporting school development and change. The influence teachers have on the school community and their commitment to school change are at the core of teacher leadership definitions. Preparing future teachers to act as leaders in their schools can support the overall efforts for school improvement. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore pre-service teacher leadership development. The study utilised a qualitative methodology to address: (i) pre-service teachers’ understanding of teacher leadership, (ii) the role of initial teacher education in shaping the understanding of teacher leadership, and (iii) the contribution of initial teacher education to pre-service teachers’ readiness for exercising leadership roles for school improvement. The study was conducted with pre-service teachers in the leading initial teacher education institution in Kosovo. A total of 42 pre-service teachers from all years of the Primary Teacher Education programme participated in four group interviews with the aim of discussing in depth the core elements of teacher leadership in order to better grasp the pre-service teachers’ understanding of this concept as well as their readiness to exercise leadership roles. A model devised by Snoek et al. (2019) was used as an analytical framework to determine the development of teacher leadership in initial teacher education. The study reveals that there is no consensus on the definition of teacher leadership. The findings show that the understanding of teacher leadership is based on a contextually drawn vision of what it means to be a teacher, resulting in a narrow view of leadership with regard to individual and classroom levels. The study concludes that initial teacher education has a critical role in contributing to shifting the conceptualisation of teacher leadership beyond the isolated views of individual and formal leadership. The findings have imperative implications for providing good models of initial teacher education that support the preparation and readiness of future teacher leaders to tackle the ever-increasing complexities of the teaching profession.
Teacher Leadership Knowledge to Pre-Service Teachers
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Qualified teachers will produced students who are brilliant and have a respectable personality. However, now the issue of problematic teachers often become a topic and viral on social media. Incompetent teachers and undergone discipline problems will relate to student discipline problems, so as a pre-service teacher they have to face the challenges to be a good teacher. Teachers should be prepared with the knowledge of teacher leadership because teacher also a leader to the students, other teachers and communities. This concept paper is a plan to study the effectiveness of teacher leadership to provides knowledge and understanding to pre-service teachers in UPSI before they step into a real job.
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Developing Knowledge and Leadership in Pre-Service Teacher Education Systems
Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 2015
Pre-service teacher education institutions are large and complex organizations, which are notoriously difficult to change. One factor is that many change efforts focus largely on individual pre-service teacher educators altering their practice. We report here on our experience using a model for effecting change, which views pre-service teacher education institutions and educators as a part of a much broader system. We identified numerous possibilities for, and constraints on, embedding change, but focus only on two in this paper: participants’ knowledge of change strategies and their leadership capacities. As a result of our study findings and researcher reflections, we argue that being a leader in an academic area within pre-service teacher education does not equate to leadership knowledge or skills to initiate and enact systems-wide change. Furthermore, such leadership capacities must be explicitly developed if education for sustainability is to become embedded in pre-service teacher education.
Examining the Views of Prospective Teachers on Teacher Leadership
European Journal of Education Studies, 2018
The aim of this research is to reveal out the views regarding the meaning of teacher leadership, the qualities that teacher leaders should have, the roles of teacher leaders, the effects to be teacher leaders, the obstacles of being teacher leaders and suggestions for being teacher leaders. Study is conducted via qualitative research method. Maximum variation and criterion sampling was used and therefore 26 volunteer prospective teachers were participated in the study. Participants mentioned that teacher leaders are very important in the changing world for not only leading the school staff but also help schools improve. As teacher leaders are significant, school principals should indicate shared leadership behaviors, provide an environment for teachers to use their leadership potentials. Article visualizations:
Defining Teacher Leadership: Affirming the Teacher Leader Model Standards
Issues in Teacher Education, 2015
Although there is no common definition for teacher leadership, the concept is continually advanced as a key component for both the success of schools and the professionalization of teachers (Boles & Troen, 1994; Dozier, 2007; Greenlee, 2007; Lieberman, 1987; Smith, 1999). Teachers need to be given opportunities to leave the isolation of their classrooms to collaborate with others in order to build leadership capacity (Dozier, 2007). While there are some teachers who view teacher leadership as formal administrative roles, others view it as any opportunity in which teachers contribute to the decision making process (Donaldson & Johnson, 2007). Whichever way it is defined, it is commonly accepted that teacher leadership capacity is underdeveloped in most schools (Greenlee, 2007). The Institute for Educational Leadership (2001) provided a broad and progressive definition. It suggested that teacher leadership is not necessarily about power, but about teachers extending their presence bey...