The Influence and Development of Capital for Teacher Leadership

• In Event: 523 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 04.The Role and Influence of Teachers: Session II

Abstract

In this paper we examine teacher leadership and participation in the design and implementation of a school reform initiative. The work was a collaborative partnership between researchers, teachers, school and district-level administrators, and program developers. We explore the role of existing leadership skills amongst three teams of teachers and the extent to which teachers’ participation in the process develops leadership abilities. We do this by assessing the levels of human, social, cultural, and economic capital possessed by each team at over a two and a half year period. We find that the teachers who engaged in these processes brought varying levels of capital to the effort from the very beginning, which influenced their ability to successfully engage in the endeavor. At the same time, ongoing participation in the processes led to the development of these forms of capital, which are important because they are closely related to the construction of teacher leaders. A substantial body of research has shown education reforms often lack success partly because of the failure to distribute leadership, particularly instructional leadership, among school faculty and staff. Additionally, teacher leadership and capacity are often not developed, or if they are, it is haphazard and undirected. As teachers are often the implementers of school-level reform, their leadership abilities are essential to how innovations are implemented. By tracing the efforts of the teams we demonstrate how varying levels of capital both influenced and were influenced by engagement in this process.

Authors

• Mollie Rubin, Vanderbilt University

• Tuan Nguyen, Vanderbilt University

• Marisa Cannata, Vanderbilt University