The concept and practice of teacher leadership have gained momentum in the past two decades. Teachers are assuming more leadership functions at both instructional and organizational levels of practice. Empirical literature reveals numerous small-scale, qualitative studies that describe dimensions of teacher leadership practice, teacher leader characteristics, and conditions that promote and challenge teacher leadership. Less is known about how teacher leadership develops and about its effects. In addition, the construct of teacher leadership is not well defined, conceptually or operationally. Future research focused on the differentiated paths by which teachers influence organizational capacity, professionalism, instructional improvement, and student learning has the potential to advance the practice of teacher leadership. A conceptual framework is offered to guide such inquiry.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3516026.pdf

What Do We Know About Teacher Leadership? Findings From Two Decades of Scholarship

Professional community among teachers, the subject of a number of recent major studies, is regarded as an ingredient that may contribute to the improvement of schools. The research reported in this article is grounded in the assumption that how teachers interact with each other outside of their classrooms may be critical to the effects of restructuring on students. The analysis focuses on the type of professional community that occurs within a school and investigates both the organizational factors that facilitate its development and its consequences for teachers’ sense of responsibility for student learning. The findings suggest that wide variation in professional community exists between schools, much of which is attributable to both structural features and human resources characteristics, as well as school level. Implications for current school reform efforts are discussed.

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Teachers’ Professional Community in Restructuring Schools

School reform efforts have focused on the development of professionally enriching work groups for teachers as a vehicle for improving student achievement. This study examines the impact of school professional community on the intellectual quality of student performance (assessed using authentic measures) and on two dimensions of classroom organization, the technical (measured as authentic pedagogy) and the social (measured as social support for achievement). Employing quantitative (multilevel) and qualitative analytic methods, we show that in 24 nationally selected, restructuring elementary, middle, and high schools professional community is strongly associated with these dimensions of classroom organization. Both professional community and social support for achievement have a positive relationship to student performance, but the strength of their association with authentic pedagogy accounts for that effect.

/pdf/does-professional-community-affect-the-classroom-teachers-42khkx18lz.pdf

Does Professional Community Affect the Classroom? Teachers' Work and Student Experiences in Restructuring Schools

This article considers the relationship between distributed leadership and school improvement. Drawing upon empirical evidence from two contemporary studies of successful school leadership and recent studies of school improvement, it explores the extent to which distributed forms of leadership can contribute to school improvement. The article argues that the distributed perspective offers a new and important theoretical lens through which leadership practice in school can be reconfigured and reconceptualized. It concludes by suggesting that, while evidence would suggest that distributed forms of leadership can assist capacity building within schools which contributes to school improvement, further research is needed to confirm a relationship between distributed forms of leadership and improved student learning outcomes.

Distributed Leadership and School Improvement: Leading or Misleading?.

Professional community is receiving markedly increased attention as part of both practitioner and scholarly efforts to promote improvements in instruction and student learning. Interest in this area joins two previously distinct literatures, one dealing with the benefits of communal school organization and another with enhanced teacher professionalism, to formulate a theoretical framework for a school-based professional community. Using data from a large urban school district, this article tests the impact of structural, human, and social factors on the emergence of school-based professional community and examines the extent to which such developments in turn promote learning and experimentation among faculty.

M. Miles

Papers

Teacher leadership, ideology and practice