Relational Agency: Developing the Social Side of Teacher Leadership in a Teacher Education Program (original) (raw)

Bridging Structure and Agency: Exploring the Role of Teacher Leadership in Teacher Collaboration

Journal of School Leadership, 2015

Building on York-Barr and Duke's (2004) conceptual framework for teacher leadership, this article explores teacher leadership as an informal influence that arises out of interactions and is exerted through group processes and norms. Through a 4-month qualitative study of two teacher teams’ work during structured teacher collaboration, we sought to understand how teachers’ informal action and interaction influence their colleagues’ sense of self-efficacy and motivation to engage in collaborative work. Given our findings, we theorize an emergent framework for teacher leadership to promote understanding and future investigation of teacher leadership as an informal, socially distributed phenomenon.

Development and validation of reflective log for researching and supporting teachers' relational agency for change

2018

This paper presents the development and validation of a reflective log designed for researching and supporting teachers’ relational agency for change. Drawing on theories of teacher agency and inclusive pedagogy, relational agency is defined as teachers working inclusively and collaboratively with families, colleagues and other professionals to address barriers to learning experienced by some students, while avoiding their marginalisation. The log is designed collaboratively with practitioners to analyse these ways of working in relation to particular purposes of change that matter to them, including but not limited to enhancing student achievement. Following responses from 24 teachers and 22 student teachers about the purposes and nature of their collaborative practices within and beyond school, a draft log has been adjusted for uses in future research and professional reflection. Background and objective Traditional preparation for teaching as an isolated teacher-classroom activit...

Teacher collaboration and school reform : distributing leadership through the use of professional learning teams

This dissertation reports a study of two professional learning teams of teachers at one Midwestern secondary school implementing a hybrid school improvement process incorporating elements of several reform models. A qualitative extended case-study approach was used to study the role of organizational conditions on teacher team performance, the emergence and enactment of leadership within the teams, and the quality of team outcomes. Organizational factors such as performance alignment and school governance structures were found to interact with time to constrain and intensify teachers' work in teams. Patterns of discourse interacted with teachers' perceptions of team purpose and autonomy to shape collaboration. Interactional routines were established that are improvisational and negotiated in character, yet exert a powerful shaping force on team performance. Leadership in teams is manifest as a relational phenomenon identified as emergent reciprocal influence. The study concludes that collaboration potentially serves both a disciplinary and an emancipatory role regarding the professional discretion and autonomy of individual teachers. These roles are related to broader trends in business management, educational reform, and domestic politics.

We're in this together! Exploring the Role of the Secondary School Leader in Promoting and Implementing School-Based Teacher Collaboration.

We’re in this together! Exploring the Role of the Secondary School Leader in Promoting and Implementing School-Based Teacher Collaboration. Amanda Jane Smith 123780 (M) A dissertation submitted to the Institute for Education in accordance with the requirements for the award of the degree of Maste..., 2024

School-based teacher collaboration is crucial in 21st-century education, as it has many positive effects on teaching and learning. Specifically, research has shown that meaningful and deep-level professional collaboration positively impacts teacher self-efficacy, job satisfaction, wellbeing, professional development, and student achievement. The theoretical framework steering this research inquiry is rooted in collective agency, guided by positive psychology, social cognitive theory, and social capital theory. This study was carried out in five secondary schools in Malta, and it explores the school leaders' role in facilitating school-based teacher collaboration while investigating the challenges that may hinder collaboration and how these are overcome. Using a mixed methods approach, including questionnaires among teachers and semi-structured interviews with school leaders, data gathered offer insights into teachers' and school leaders’ perceptions, opportunities, support, and challenges. The findings demonstrate that trust and the distribution of leadership roles fostered by school leaders are essential for nurturing a positive and collaborative school environment. Moreover, this research study provides implications and recommendations to strengthen and further promote collaboration, leading to more empowered and motivated teachers.

Teachers as Transformative Actors to Create Meaningful Learning: Agency in Practice

Teachers as Transformative Actors to Create Meaningful Learning: Agency in Practice, 2023

This international collection of papers examines the many ways teachers exercise agency in light of the challenging realities they and their students face to create caring, engaging and transformative learning environments. The teachers in these studies exercise agency in various waysas individuals, collectives, and fluid inter-professional and personal collaborationsto construct their professional identities and contribute to social change in their schools and society. Across these papers, we also find empirical evidence about the reflexive relationship between individual agency and social structures in shaping each other.