The social and emotional aspects of teacher leadership: How do teachers develop a paradigm shift?

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Monday II)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Shifting paradigms on sustainable development: complexities of teaching and youth education

Proposal

Introduction
Ten years ago, a team of five teachers from Al-Asriyya Schools in Amman, Jordan joined a school-based reform project called TAMAM in Lebanon with an aim to develop their leadership skills and improve their schools. The team moved through an action research journey to highlight a problem and create a plan to resolve this problem in their schools. This journey transformed these teachers into leaders but it also allowed them to mentor other teachers in their school to become inquirers, reflective practitioners, professional collaborators, and evidence-based decision-makers. These teachers felt that changing school culture is not sufficient and that to fulfill their school vision they need to move beyond the school boundaries and spread the TAMAM Pillars in their community. The Jordanian team is now mentoring teams of teachers from ten private schools in Jordan. This experience made me question what would cause teachers to take on extra tasks and go beyond their responsibilities. This paper examines the variables that influence teachers to develop a paradigm shift.
Methods
The inclusion and exclusion criteria for literature review paper were influenced by the two reviews of research, York-Barr and Duke and Wenner and Campbell, and the topic itself that looks at the social and emotional aspects of teacher leadership. This paper includes empirical studies but focused mainly on ethnographic or narrative studies about K-12 teacher leaders to capture emotional and social aspects of teacher leadership. Using critical discourse analysis, I analyze teacher leadership in both formal and informal settings. The studies included were published between 2004 and 2018.

Existing Literature
Teacher leadership has gained popularity in the past two decades because it was linked to school reform, however, there is no consensus on a clear definition of teacher leadership (York-Barr and Duke, 2004; Wenner and Campbell, 2017; Crowther, Kaagen, Ferguson, and Hann, 2002; Katzenmeyer and Moller, 2001). Studies done dimensions of teacher leadership, conditions that support or hinder teacher leadership, and impact of teacher leadership (Baecher, 2012; Podjasek, 2009). There is little research that examines the development journey of teachers towards leadership (Melville, 2016; Bradley-Levine, 2018).
Results
Preliminary results of this literature review study reveal that teacher leaders who become changemakers in community have a sense of agency, built a community of praxis, have team building and learning in the school, have a school leader who is supportive and have a positive school culture.
Significance
Hulpia et al. (2008) show that when teacher leaders grow their skills they become less satisfied with their jobs. The significance of this critical literature review is that school principal and administration realize how to retain teacher leaders and motivate them. It would also benefit policymakers into creating more effective policies that can assist teacher leaders in making a difference and provide quality education and help both students and community.

Author

• Emma Ghosn, University of Toronto