Teacher Leadership and Professional Development

Alex Alexandrou, Sue Swaffield

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780415659642
• eBook ISBN: 9781134907298
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Interest in and knowledge of leadership and learning, separately and together, is an international and continuing phenomenon. This book adds to a somewhat under-researched aspect of the field. It focuses both on a particular form of leadership – teacher leadership, and on a particular form of learning – professional development. It considers the connection between teacher leadership and professional development and the first chapter relates this connection to a 'Leadership for Learning' conceptual framework, developed through an international, three-year project.

The book's chapters explore teacher leadership and professional development from a number of perspectives, giving rise to three points of particular significance. Firstly the chapters show that, either by accident or design, there is a growing cadre of teacher leaders emerging from a multitude of professional development activities and initiatives. Secondly, a number of new conceptual frameworks are put forward, alongside the adaption and development of extant ones that add to the ever-increasing theorisation of educational leadership and professional development literature. Thirdly, the chapters provide evidence of the connections between leadership and learning as conceptualised in the 'Leadership for Learning' framework.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Professional Development in Education.

Introduction – Teacher leadership and professional development: perspectives, connections and prospects

Sue Swaffield and Alex Alexandrou

Interest in and knowledge of leadership and learning, separately and together, is an international and continuing phenomenon. This book draws together chapters that add to the growing body of literature, but to a somewhat under-researched aspect of the field. Its two-pronged focus is a particular form of leadership – teacher leadership, and a particular form of learning – professional development; it is the connections between teacher leadership and professional development that are the specific contribution of this collection.

The majority of the chapters in this book discuss practice and policy in the USA or the UK, reflecting perhaps locations where particular interest in teacher leadership can currently be found. In this respect, this collection must be viewed as a partial picture and it should be borne in mind that both leadership and professional development are notions that need to be viewed and interpreted within the specifics of culture and context. Nevertheless, the issues raised and insights offered should act as catalysts for reflection in relation to teacher leadership and professional development in other contexts. Particularly pertinent here is Czarniawska’s (1997) notion of ‘outsidedness’, which refers to the process of coming to know ourselves better as a consequence of developing our understanding of others. Through adopting this stance of outsidedness we believe that readers from countries not represented in this collection will recognise differences from teacher leadership and professional development in their own contexts and thus, as Czarniawska suggests, will come to know their own situations more deeply. Indeed, it is not necessary to be of a different nationality to reap the benefits of being an outsider: each of us is separated to a greater or lesser extent from others’ experiences and situations, and therefore – if so minded – can learn by reflecting on difference.

Perspectives

Leadership as a term in education has been viewed from different perspectives over time, with a notable increase in usage in the last two decades. Each phase in the study of educational leadership provides a different viewpoint from which to consider ‘teacher leadership’. Initially much emphasis was placed on distinguishing leadership from management, a standpoint made tangible for example by ‘school management teams’ being relabeled ‘school leadership teams’, and journals changing their names to replace or append ‘management’ with ‘leadership’. With this lens ‘teacher leaders’ are seen as different from teachers with responsibility for ‘x’ or in charge of ‘y’, displaying instead more of a future orientation, leading the way and inspiring colleagues. Another early thrust in educational leadership studies was on identifying qualities or characteristics of leaders viewed as successful, resulting in lists of individual attributes, an approach that can be discerned in the studies that seek to describe ‘teacher leaders’. Focus on the individual, and on competences and competencies, links to the study of leadership development programmes, some of which may concentrate on the development of teacher leaders. Much research has also been directed towards distinguishing different styles of leadership, resulting in what became known colloquially as the ‘alphabet soup’ or ‘A to Z’ approach to leadership study, exemplified as it was by various adjectives ranging through the dictionary from ‘authoritarian’ to ‘transformational’ and beyond. ‘Teacher leadership’ could be viewed in that guise – just one of a number of styles to choose among, but this is a fairly limiting perspective. With the political and public press for raising standards (generally interpreted as improved student scores in a narrow group of public examinations), the purported effect of school leaders on student outcomes received great attention. Once again, this perspective casts teacher leadership in another light, this time prompting the question ‘what difference does it make to pupil learning?’. All these perspectives on teacher leadership, and others, can be discerned in the chapters in this book.

Connections

Since teacher leadership is a form of leadership, and professional development a form of learning, the connections between them can be explored using a model derived from research that sought to develop understanding of leadership, learning and their interrelationship. The international Leadership for Learning Carpe Vitam project (the title combining its focus and the name of its sponsoring body) (MacBeath and Dempster, 2009) involved 24 schools from seven countries, whose teachers, leaders and community members worked collaboratively with researchers and critical friends over a period of three years. Together they arrived at a framework of Leadership for Learning (LfL) that is framed by moral purpose and democratic values, and is based on conceptions of both leadership and learning as activity (rather than leadership as role or position, or learning as passive reception of a ‘delivered’ curriculum), conjoined through agency. Learning is understood to occur at different layers within a school – pupil, professional and organisational. At the centre of the model are five principles summarised by the headlines: a focus on learning; conditions for learning; dialogue; shared leadership; and shared accountability.

This model provides yet another perspective on teacher leadership and professional development, and indicates ways in which the two are connected. It suggests that teacher leadership is not determined by role, status or position (although they may be present) but is fundamentally about activity. Teacher leadership is something that teachers do, regardless of any formal designation. Similarly, professional development is most helpfully conceived of as activity, not bounded for example by strictures of course attendance or certification. And both teacher leadership and professional development should be guided by moral purpose and democratic values.

The first principle – a focus on learning – brings to the fore the primary purpose of schools as enhancing pupils’ learning, but the multiple layers of the LfL framework also make professional learning explicit. Both teacher leadership and professional development are in the service of pupil learning, and teacher leadership is itself a form of learning, affording many opportunities for professional development. The second principle concerns creating conditions favourable to learning, and draws attention to social and cultural aspects as well as physical ones. School principals and headteachers have a particular responsibility to foster conditions that support and encourage both teacher leadership – an activity that can entail risk-taking – and professional development in all its forms. Dialogue is obviously central to any collaborative activity, and its strength lies in making practice explicit, discussable and transferable – activities key to teacher leadership. Shared leadership can be seen as synonymous with teacher leadership, and the elaboration of the principle’s headline by statements including ‘everyone is encouraged to take the lead as appropriate to task and context’ and ‘collaborative patterns of work and activity across boundaries of subject, role and status are valued and promoted’ (MacBeath and Dempster, 2009, p. 125) demonstrate that this form of leadership is open to all. The final principle is a shared sense of accountability, encouraging what Elmore (2005) refers to as internal accountability, as opposed to the external accountability teachers in many countries now feel so heavily. Developing a shared sense of accountability implies a commitment to self-evaluation on the part of everyone, and to acting on evidence in order to improve while being mindful of sustainability, succession and leaving a legacy.

This edited book consists of an eclectic and wide-ranging collection of chapters that tackle teacher leadership and professional development from a number of perspectives. Three points of particular significance arise from this collection. First, the chapters show that, either by accident or design, there is a growing cadre of teacher leaders emerging from a multitude of professional development activities and initiatives. Second, a number of new conceptual frameworks are put forward, alongside the adaption and development of extant ones, that add to the ever-increasing theorisation of the educational leadership and professional development literature. Third, the chapters provide evidence of the connections between leadership and learning as conceptualised in the LfL framework and five principles outlined above.

The chapter by Philip E. Poekert not only leads off this collection but gives it a firm foundation as the author has undertaken the significant task of reviewing, linking and drawing conclusions from the literature on teacher leadership and professional development. His intention is to examine the following conceptual connection: ‘… professional development leads to teacher leadership, which leads to further professional development for the teachers enacting and their colleagues’ (p. 9). By Poekert’s own admission, as he is based in the USA his review of the literature leans heavily on works from his homeland, but he does provide the reader with a number of sound and relevant international perspectives. However, the real strength of this chapter is the use of York-Barr and Duke’s (2004) Teacher Leadership for Student Learning conceptual framework to analyse the publications key to this review. Poekert identifies key themes, makes connections between teacher leadership and professional development, and makes the point that the literature reviewed deals neither with how teacher leadership is developed nor its impact on student learning. Significantly, the author lays down two key challenges for future research in this field. First, rather than focusing solely on samples where teacher leadership is already evident, researchers should analyse efforts to develop teacher leadership where it does not currently exist; and second, there is a need to clarify understanding of a teacher’s (as opposed to the principal’s) role in developing teacher leadership. These two points also have major implications for professional development in the field.

Jack Leonard et al.’s study is an interesting and some might argue an unconventional one in that it examines the teacher leadership graduate programmes on offer in the USA. As editors of this book we were drawn to this work as the authors highlight that their study in part came about because of their own deliberations in terms of developing a teacher leadership programme. Particularly, they had to grapple with the question of ‘what was our vision of the teacher leader?’ A simple question at a superficial level but one that obviously taxed the minds of the authors to such a degree that they set about examining other programmes in the field – the process that led to this chapter. To assist their discussion, Leonard et al. developed a conceptual framework based on literature that has sought to define teacher leadership and link it to teacher effectiveness. Their work relates to the fourth and fifth principles of the LfL framework, namely ‘Leadership for learning practice involves the sharing of leadership’ and ‘Leadership for learning practice involves a shared sense of accountability’. Leonard et al. conclude by questioning whether graduate education is the best route for teacher leaders in the USA, and offer a challenge for others to examine why there are so few teacher leadership programmes on offer in the USA.

Based on the International Teacher Leadership project (the origins of which can be traced back to the Leadership for Learning Carpe Vitam project), David Frost proposes teacher leadership as an educational reform strategy. He draws on the experiences of teachers from the 15 countries involved in the project (countries as diverse as Kosovo and New Zealand), and offers a number of vignettes. Stories from Bulgaria, Croatia and Moldova illustrate how challenges to classroom practice and pedagogy are dealt with by the determination of the participants to improve their practice and professional learning. By ‘creating conditions favourable to learning’ (the second LfL principle) the green shoots of teacher leadership appeared. But it is dialogue and Frost’s contribution to the current discourse surrounding teacher leadership, professional development and school improvement that are probably of greatest import. He claims to ‘offer an alternative view of the relationship between the quality of what teachers do and the broader enterprise of educational innovation’ (p.46). Along with offering a theory of innovation, Frost puts forward the concept of teacher leadership as an alternative to more traditional forms of continuing professional development.

Janet C. Fairman and Sarah V. Mackenzie’s chapter is based on their professional development work in the state of Maine in the USA, and continues the theorisation of teacher leadership and professional development. They propose a conceptual model that builds upon York-Barr and Duke’s (2004) seminal work and is supported by teacher narratives describing the different contexts within which teacher leadership emerges and the positive impact it can have on classroom practice. It resonates with Frost’s chapter in that teachers’ professional learning is linked to the development of leadership capabilities by the participants, and goes on to identify a number of ‘spheres of teacher leadership activity’. Their model ‘… describes where and how teachers, individually or collectively, informally or formally, act and influence other teachers to improve student learning’ (pp. 70–71), and encompasses all five LfL principles. The development from activities focused on improving practice, into teacher leadership, was for many teachers unplanned or accidental. Fairman and Mackenzie note that it was mostly veteran teachers who were at the centre of this teacher leadership and professional development activity, raising questions about the involvement of novice as well as more experienced teachers. This is particularly pertinent as, according to Fairman and Mackenzie, ‘… teachers continue to be reluctant or ambivalent about being regarded as “leaders”, in that they did not want to take on formal titles of leadership and seemed to prefer working through informal channels to effect change’ (p. 83).

From a single state study we move to Vivienne Collinson’s major research of exemplary secondary school teachers across the USA. This study is very much situated in the context of teachers as learners ‘maintaining a focus on learning’ (the first LfL principle). According to Collinson, ‘Propelled by a deep personal desire to learn and a commitment to help students learn, the teachers are learners first, leaders second; their leadership occurs as a by-product of their learning’ (p. 86). This is another example of accidental leadership occurring as a result of involvement in professional development. The desire of the participants to be the very best teachers they can be, not for self-advancement but for the benefit of their students, is evident. There is a clear willingness through various pedagogical and professional development activities to experiment, innovate, reflect and share. Through collegiality, a cadre of teacher leaders has emerged with an unswerving commitment to continuous pedagogical improvement and their students’ learning. However, Collinson does point out that many of these exemplary teachers change schools in order to maintain their drive and enthusiasm, and one has to ask if this ‘butterfly syndrome’ is a positive element in relation to the advancement and development of students?

Jana Hunzicker picks up on the theme of informal teacher leadership in her small-scale study based in the mid-west of the USA. She points to teachers becoming leaders through a mixture of job-embedded professional development and collaborative activities and experiences. Her study concentrates on a small cohort of teachers participating in a master’s programme who have embarked on their own leadership journey. Hunzicker analyses their informal teacher leadership through the lens of Danielson’s (2007) conceptual framework for teaching, focusing particularly on the three components that concern informal teacher leadership – ‘participating in a professional community’, ‘growing and developing professionally’ and ‘showing professionalism’. Through the master’s programme the participants engaged in action research that not only improved their learning but also had the unintended consequences of: encouraging greater collaboration with colleagues; engaging in leadership activities; and developing their leadership capabilities though not in an official capacity or orchestrated manner. An issue to consider from this chapter, which resonates throughout with the LfL framework, is the use of action research as a leadership development tool for teachers.

Based on a longitudinal study in the state of Washington, USA, Jason Margolis looks at what he terms a ‘… quickly emerging model of teacher leadership – the hybrid teacher leader (HTL) – to promote classroom level-change-orientated professional development’ (p. 130). According to the author, HTLs have three aspects to their jobs: teaching, leading colleagues and being at the centre of helping implement policy reforms within their schools. It becomes apparent as the chapter progresses that their roles and responsibilities align with all five principles of LfL. Margolis uses Weaver-Hightower’s (2008) theory of ecological policy analysis to discuss the hybrid teacher leaders involved in the study, and then takes the discussion further by looking at how teacher social networks operated in the participants’ schools. This reveals that teacher leadership can be difficult at times, particularly when a lack of collaboration by colleagues results in HTLs’ disillusionment and frustration. The author goes on to question how such individuals can lead learning and professional development in the long term if there is insufficient clarity and understanding of their role by colleagues and policy makers alike.

Laura Baecher looks at what she terms ‘emerging teacher leaders’ in the particular context of novice English-as-a-second-language teachers in New York City public schools. She examined the professional development that these novice teachers led, what encouraged them to participate, and the professional development that supported the novice teachers in becoming teacher leaders. Although in the early stages of their career, these English-as-a-second-language teachers had expertise often not possessed by more experienced colleagues, and so they either volunteered for or were asked to engage in activities making use of their knowledge and supporting other teachers. Interestingly, many of them did not recognise what they were doing as teacher leadership, perhaps because they held the fairly common and restricted view of leadership as being synonymous with formally designated roles, rather than as something that every teacher can exercise. Baecher makes the case for professional development to support all forms of teacher leadership, informal and formal, and that this should start on preservice programmes. What is clearly needed is continuing ‘dialogue’ (the third LfL principle) in order to make explicit and to enhance the very close interrelationships between teacher leadership and professional learning.

Donna L. Pasternak and colleagues’ case study of two new teachers from Wisconsin, USA, continues the themes of professional development activity influencing novice teachers, and of informal teacher leadership. By becoming part of a professional community the teachers experienced positive impacts on their practice and leadership development. The study provides many examples of the LfL principles in practice. The teachers maintained a focus on learning by seeking to improve their teaching of writing and thus students’ learning. The Invitational Summer Institute (ISI) of the National Writing Project (NWP) prov...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1. Introduction – Teacher leadership and professional development: perspectives, connections and prospects
• 2. Teacher leadership and professional development: examining links between two concepts central to school improvement
• 3. A fresh look at graduate programs in teacher leadership in the United States
• 4. From professional development to system change: teacher leadership and innovation
• 5. Spheres of teacher leadership action for learning
• 6. Leading by learning, learning by leading
• 7. Professional development and job-embedded collaboration: how teachers learn to exercise leadership
• 8. Hybrid teacher leaders and the new professional development ecology
• 9. Pathways to teacher leadership among English-as-a-second-language teachers: professional development by and for emerging teacher leaders
• 10. The impact of a professional community on the leadership development of induction-year teachers in the United States
• 11. Collective leadership: the role of teacher unions in encouraging teachers t take the lead in their own learning and in teacher policy
• 12. Teacher leadership as intellectual leadership: creating spaces for alternativ voices in the English school system
• 13. Scottish teacher leaders: two accidental journeys enacting leadership for learning
• Index