Conceptualizing Teacher Leadership: Issues and Evidence

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: The Challenges and Possibilities of Teacher Leadership: International Perspectives

Abstract

Whilst the research on teacher leadership is considerable, an issue is that much of this work overlaps with the also considerable research on middle leaders. Lack of clarity in defining teacher leadership and middle leadership, research histories located in different geographical areas (USA predominantly for teacher leadership, and the UK and Australia for middle leadership, with increasing research for both areas from Asia and the Middle East in recent years; (Author, 2023a; Nguyen, et al., 2020; Tang, et al., 2022), and the changing nature of schools, have all lead to separate fields of inquiry that in reality have more in common than not. Indeed, in a review on middle leaders, De Nobile (2021) suggested that the terms middle leadership and teacher leadership were becoming interchangeable.
Research about teacher and middle leaders described trustworthy statements of knowledge about teacher and middle leadership across six areas: definition, impact, interventions, leadership focus, identification, and support and hindrances (Author, 2023a; 2023b, 2024) as follows:
Claim 1 - Definition: Teacher and middle leadership are not the same concepts, although there is considerable overlap depending on how they are defined. Teacher leadership is mostly about the work of teachers who exert influence on teachers and the school beyond their teaching work, and these people do not necessarily have a formal leadership or organizational role outside of their teaching. Middle leadership is mostly about teachers who also have a formal leadership or organizational role, and exert influence on teachers and the school.
Claim 2 - Impact: Teacher and middle leaders can impact significantly on students, teachers and schools.
Claim 3 - Interventions: The way teacher and middle leadership is enacted varies across contexts, but there are consistent elements that include a focus on improving teaching and learning, working collegially with colleagues and fostering collective endeavor, focusing on improving school conditions and being critically reflective about what schools do.
Claim 4 – Leadership Focus: Middle and teacher leaders can have a leadership focus when there are high expectations and role clarity in regard to this work.
Claim 5 - Identification: Leadership preparation needs to begin in initial teacher training and then leadership skills, qualities and dispositions need to be developed and supported through teacher, middle and senior leadership phases.
Claim 6 – Support and Hindrances: Teacher and middle leadership work can be supported through developing leadership expectations in teachers, providing leadership preparation and development programs, ensuring work roles are well defined, having both leadership and management expectations, having a supportive school culture and structure, and having the support of the principal and other senior leaders. The absences of these diminishes the work of teacher and middle leaders.
The research on middle and teacher leadership is rich and complex, and both areas are expanding in terms of the volume of research and the variety of contexts reported on. The work of these people in schools is important and it seems likely that this importance will increase as schools across the world become more complex

Author

• David M. Gurr, University of Melbourne