Nonpositional Teacher Leadership: Updating the Evidence

• In Event: Teacher Leadership for Inclusive and Diverse Societies

Abstract

This paper offers a revision and updating of a theory of teacher leadership that is particularly reflected in the International Teacher Leadership (ITL) initiative (Frost, 2011). This approach offers a vision of professionality that transcends the limitations of dominant assumptions in both the developed and developing worlds. Evidence is drawn predominantly from teachers’ narratives collected as part of the (ITL) initiative, in which researchers, social activists and teachers in 17 countries including Turkey, Portugal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the UK and Palestine have collaborated to develop an innovatory approach to supporting teacher leadership. In the non-positional approach teachers, regardless of their positions in the organisational hierarchy or roles of responsibility, are enabled to develop the capacity for leadership.

The teachers’ narratives collectively explicate a theory about teacher professionality and educational transformation and they constitute a growing evidence base. Many of these have been published (Frost, 2014) and many more have been collected in order to be able to identify common obstacles and challenges both for teachers as agents of change and for those who facilitate programmes of support and development. However, the function of the publication of teachers’ narratives is not limited to research. More importantly, they are carefully edited and presented in order to inspire other teachers to extend their imaginations with regard to leadership and to inspire those who may be in a position to provide support and facilitation.

This theory has been articulated in a number of publications (eg Frost, 2012b), but more importantly, it is enacted and operationalised by teachers and those who facilitate teacher leadership. In this paper, the theory is presented and discussed with illustrations and exemplifications drawn from the evidence collected by partners in European countries as diverse as Turkey, Portugal, the UK and Serbia and by those working in the middle east. The evidence base that supports the non-positional teacher leadership approach is already substantial and growing as new networks are formed within the International Teacher Leadership network (Ramahi & Eltemamy, 2014).

This evidence is highly relevant as we move into the post-2015 millennium development goals era (UNESCO, 2014). So far teacher policies and educational reform strategies have failed to address the question posed by Susan Rosenholtz, ‘Education reform strategies; Will they increase teacher commitment?’ (1987). The non-positional teacher leadership approach offers a new conception of the role of the teacher in relation to social transformation.

Author

• David C. Frost, University of Cambridge