Educational Leadership

In history, when teachers ran their own one-room schools, structured all their own curricula, and recognized their ability to impact the learning of every student, teacher leadership was mandatory, not an option. As one-room schoolhouses became multi-room buildings and then multi-building school systems, however, the status of the teacher moved from expert to employee. The increasing size of schools and their complexities also led to administrative hierarchies and power structures that placed teachers at the lower end of the order and physically removed them from the administration of the organization, which was moved to a "central office." As growing educational systems became more centralized and the administrative “step removed” became a “step up,” even the professional development of teachers was removed from their control. With such a background, it should not be surprising that some teachers do not think of themselves as leaders or may be hesitant to embrace a role they believe may remove them from their classrooms or separate them from their peers.

This “culture formation” of teacher leadership may appear as daunting to teachers as it does to principals. After all, both administrators and teachers are victims of the same archaic structure. Both teachers and principals must pull away from the inertia which insists that public education needs only hierarchical and positional leadership. Both teachers and administrators must assume and embrace the responsibility for student achievement as well as for building the capacity which would foster genuine ownership of that responsibility.

Teacher-leaders need to place their students’ learning as their primary goal and work within their own classrooms to improve student achievement. This is and should be one of the most important practices of teacher leadership. Additionally, teacher-leaders collaborate with other educators to extend their own learning, advance successful school improvement efforts through professional development, and support shared vision and values.These four roles of teacher-leaders—improving student achievement, extending their own learning, collaborating for school improvement, and supporting shared vision and values—evolve from knowledge, dedication, and experience. But teacher leadership need not be restricted to “years in service”; it can be developed and nurtured in all teachers.

Examples of teacher leadership are already evident, albeit not yet widespread. A revolution of rising expectations has inspired teachers to aspire to more – for themselves and for their students.There is no single path to enlightened teacher leadership, but there probably has never been a better time to examine ways to make it a positive fact of life. We find ourselves in a day and age where millions teachers are slated to leave the field in the next ten years. It is a time and place where school can become a different, and better place in the second decade of the 21st century. There is no shortage of models of teacher leadership; the job now is to choose what might suit a particular teacher, principal, school and/or district and set about making it happen.