Systemic Support for Teacher Leadership: A Closer Look at the Shanghai Teacher-Expertise Infusion System

• In Event: 56.080 - Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: 56.080-6 - Developing Teacher Leadership and Expertise Through Lesson Study and Action Research: A Cross-Cultural Dialogue

Abstract

In recent years, Shanghai has developed a system that raises teacher and student performance across the board, as evidenced by the number of disadvantaged students who achieve academic proficiency being twice as high as in the United States (OECD, 2010; Yang, 2008). At multiple levels, subject-based “teaching-research groups” are formed to conduct structured and teacher-led collaborative inquiries, and to provide a platform for formative assessment and development for instructional knowledge and skills. Intentional steps are built into teachers’ career ladders as well. Promotion from one level to the next often requires demonstration of not only instructional effectiveness, but also contributions to the induction of new teachers and leading peer-to-peer professional development (Wang, 2013).
This paper takes a cross-cultural viewpoint that addresses the challenge of developing system-wide and sustainable pedagogical and content knowledge for teachers. We focus on the role of the expert teachers and ask:

1. What is the expert teacher’s role as an instructional leader as seen by the expert teacher him/herself and by their peer teachers?
2. What kind of support does the expert teacher receive from the school and district?
3. How does an expert teacher define effective teaching? What measures does he/she plan to and actually use to lead their peers in achieving effective teaching during the collaborative process?
4. What ‘professional benefits’ do expert teachers gain during this process?

The sampling frame included all “master teachers” (a total of 264 in 2014) from a large Shanghai district with about 9,000 teachers. Four mathematics Subject Leader Teachers or Distinguished Teachers, two elementary and two middle, were chosen from a total of 36 such teachers as they conducted collaborative and comparative analyses of practices with their peers from different schools. A total of 45 participating regular teachers were included. A grounded theory approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Glaser, 2002) was used to understand ‘what actually happens in the teachers’ world’. An iterative approach was used to map out the collaborative and comparative decoding process. Participative observations (of lesson delivering and collaborative decoding), explosive interviews, (teachers’) reflective journal keeping, and video taking of group work and lessons were the main measures of data collection at the first phase of this study.

The study identifies three key features of the Shanghai teacher-expertise infusion system: (a) recognizing, differentiating, and labeling teacher expertise at multiple mastery levels; (b) providing expert teachers with support and leadership responsibility to lead practice-embedded and cross-school peer learning; and (c) creating a roadmap for teachers to chart continuous learning pathways individually, and build an enhanced content pedagogical knowledgebase collectively. The findings also confirm previous research that showed a strong connection between teacher efficacy and teacher professional learning opportunities (Bruce & Ross, 2008; Levine & Marcus, 2010; Puchner & Talyor, 2006). Essentially, a virtuous cycle is created: Teachers’ competence level increases when professional learning is embedded in direct classroom experiences; meanwhile, higher mastery propels keener senses in identifying deficiencies in instruction and hence stronger desires for instructional improvement.

Authors

• Xiu Cravens, Vanderbilt University

• Jianjun Wang, East China Normal University