Learning to Lead Responsively: Tracing the Development of Elementary Math Teacher Leaders

• In Event: Math Education Support Structures of RPP (Research-Practice Partnership), Teacher Leaders, Principals, Parents, and Future Math Professionals

Abstract

This paper traces the development of six math teacher leaders in a network of K-8 urban high-need public elementary schools. Our inquiry focuses on what developing teachers learned about facilitating communities for professional learning as they apprenticed into leadership roles. Three themes emerged from our cross-case analysis of teacher leader development: confidence and positioning, cultivating trust and community, and supporting teachers as learners. Our findings provide insight into both common patterns and variability in the growth of leadership practices that are responsive to teacher learning, adding important dimensions to existing conceptualizations of the knowledge and skills that are involved in developing elementary math instructional leadership.

Authors

• Brittany Hess, University of Pennsylvania

• Lizzy Pecora, University of Pennsylvania

• Caroline Brayer Ebby, University of Pennsylvania

• Jennifer L. Valerio, University of Pennsylvania

• Joy Anderson Davis, University of Pennsylvania

• Lindsay Goldsmith-Markey, University of Pennsylvania