Principals Developing Teacher Leaders to Learn and Enact Joint Inquiry in Teacher Teams

• In Event: 31.022 - Leadership for Improvement: Exploring Multiple Approaches to Change

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative, interview-based study is to investigate the roles principals play in building the capacity of teacher leaders to organize teacher teams for “joint inquiry,” the enactment of tightly coupled and interdependent modes of teacher collaboration. We investigate two research questions: What distinct leadership strategies did principals employ to cultivate advanced instructional leadership capacity for joint inquiry among teacher leaders? And how did principals structure Instructional Leadership Teams (or ILTs) to migrate joint inquiry from ILTs into teacher instructional teams? We draw from two theoretical frameworks, those of Drago-Severson (2009) and Stosich (2017). Our analysis identified six distinct leadership strategies blended by the study’s principals to train teacher leaders in the work of joint instructional inquiry.

Authors

• Samuel Paul Whalen, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Jason Swanson, University of Illinois at Chicago