Learners as Leaders: Teacher Leadership as an Essential Component of Team-Based Professional Development

• In Event: Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: Supporting Teacher Leading and Learning

Abstract

This study examines the first-year experiences of three formal teacher leaders who took on the roles of learners and leaders in a professional development initiative focused on disciplinary literacy. As learners, these teachers are part of subject-area teacher teams whose focus is on learning, developing, and practicing disciplinary literacy strategies to support students in reading, writing, and communicating as historians, literary critics, and world language learners. As leaders, these teachers convene weekly inquiry sessions with their teams and facilitate the learning of team members. Findings from this study explore the complex dual identities these teacher leaders adopted to gain credibility among team members and challenge them to learn and try new practices, all while wrestling with new classroom practices themselves.

Authors

• Megin Charner-Laird, Salem State University

• Jacy C. Ippolito, Salem State University

• Christina L. Dobbs, Boston University