Scaling Up Data-Informed Collaborative Inquiry in Schools: Exploring Teacher Conceptions of Leadership Practice

• In Event: Beyond the Classroom: Exploring Effects of Teacher Leadership

Abstract

The paper examines opportunities for leadership practice that teachers find when engaging in a data-informed collaborative inquiry process with peers. Data include semi-structured interviews with 147 teachers in 13 public schools in a progressive urban district. The study identified five forms of leadership practice that stretch from the classroom to teacher team to the school levels. Factors supporting these expanded opportunities include a principal leadership style of shared decision-making, clear connections between the work of teacher inquiry teams and school improvement goals, dedicated meeting time, and the joint tasks of the inquiry process. These opportunities differ from prevailing views that associate teacher leadership with formal coach positions or with informal duties coordinating faculty for administration.

Author

• Marian A. Robinson, The George Washington University