Teachers, Leadership, Collaboration, and Power

• In Event: Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Professional Learning

Abstract

Teacher leadership depends on influencing others. Yet, when teachers who successfully influence others speak of leadership, the words they use are often more associated with collaboration, support, and being a "doer" rather than with direct influence. This paper seeks to understand how that works. Accepting their own definitions of leadership, it follows four teachers over the course of a year as they develop more powerful ability to influence others. It finds that teachers draw upon a variety of sources of legitimacy and, through legitimacy, the power to influence others. Further, it suggests that the development of such legitimacy, as an alternative to legitimacy through hierarchical authority, is a strategy that is well suited to the organizational structure of schools.

Authors

• Bill Zoellick, Schoodic Institute

• Somnath Sinha, University of Missouri