Validation of a Theory of Teacher Leadership Development

• In Event: 26.079 - Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: 26.079-1 - Developing Teacher Leaders

Abstract

Our objective is to conceptualize the phenomenon of leadership development as described by teacher participants within a teacher leadership-focused graduate degree program. The presentation will: (1) describe an evolving substantive theory of teacher leadership development, (2) expand the substantive theory through a secondary wave of interviews with teachers in the program, and (3) document efforts to validate this theory by member-checking with a purposive sample of teacher participants in the program. This study contributes to the field a model that visualizes teacher leadership as an instance of emergence, or organized complexity, rather than a linear casual process, and it demonstrates how complexity theory can be practically applied to the field of teacher education research.

Authors

• Philip E. Poekert, University of Florida

• Darbianne Shannon, University of Florida