Madeline Will, writing for the Teaching Now blog, provides a summary of a new literature review on teacher leadership. Excerpts from the article appear below:
“All teachers have the capacity to be leaders,” researchers wrote in a recent comprehensive review of literature on teacher leadership, “but not all teachers want to be.”
Julianne A. Wenner, of Boise State University, and Todd Campbell, of the University of Connecticut, reviewed 54 reports and studies from the last 12 years to compile a literature review about what exactly it means to be a teacher leader. They define teacher leaders as “teachers who maintain K-12 classroom-based teaching responsibilities, while also taking on leadership responsibilities outside of the classroom.”
The teacher-leadership movement has gotten a boost from the U.S. Department of Education’s recent support, and advocates say the constant shifts in education policy have motivated more teachers to take on leadership roles.
So what does the literature say about teacher leadership? It provides insight into the following questions:
- What exactly does a teacher leader do?
- How do you become a teacher leader?
- What are the benefits of becoming a teacher leader?
- What are the drawbacks of becoming a teacher leader?
- Why factors would make a teacher not want to become a leader?
- How diverse are teacher leaders?
For more commentary, see http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2016/06/what_does_it_mean_to_be_a_teacher_leader.html
To access the paper, see http://rer.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/06/08/0034654316653478?papetoc
