If you were designing a program or professional
development intended to prepare teacher leaders to take advantage of these
multiple pathways, what would it look like?
What learning experiences would you include?
My professional
development program would begin with viewing each individual school as a nucleus
with administration, faculty and staff making up the overlapping transparent
layers. Too often, professional
development (“the one size fits all”) is prescribed from the top down in a
school district without significant input from faculty and staff. Thus, a program to take advantage of the
multiple pathways in becoming a teacher leader would be firmly based on empowering
teachers to garner the time and support necessary to achieve the desired
outcome in relation to students, contexts and subject matter. The learning experiences would be embedded
within the school’s strategic plan to include improving teacher practice,
developing mentor teachers, participating in a virtual network with other
teacher leaders, routinely establishing opportunities for teacher-led staff
development and polling teachers to create a professional learning community
agenda. These experiences would be
choices for individual teachers to make based on their goals. I believe this type of program requires a
school-environment that truly functions as a unit.
Moller discusses the role of the principal in
teacher leadership. Did you observe
principals or other administrators supporting teachers in leadership roles,
sharing the responsibility for providing leadership initiatives in the school
with teachers, engaging in what we call “distributed leadership” with teachers
or other specialists? Moller also
includes a list of three things she thinks need to occur in the future to
promote teacher leadership
Moller’s
statement about principals having a powerful influence to promote or discourage
teacher leadership is simply stated, but powerful! I’ve worked in a variety of school settings
and have had to do much self-assessing/reflection and observing to try and
understand my role as a teacher and how to manage the complex teacher-principal
relationship. I’ve witnessed a broad
range of the leadership styles of administrators. Due to these experiences, I believe that I’ve learned how to establish myself as a
teacher leader, but all my leadership experiences have not always been met with
equal enthusiasm and support from various administrators. Moller’s examples of what should occur in the
future absolutely would make a difference from my perspective. I agree with the organizational expectation
of teacher leadership. Most teachers
want to fulfill expectations, but too often feel like there are boundaries or
limits. In addition, I would never say
no to commensurate pay for additional responsibilities and performance
assessments. Lastly, I’m not aware of any type of measurement or
support programs that are implemented diligently to assess schools and provide assistance to
sustain teacher leadership. Just imagine
if this would be mandated…oh, the places teachers would go…
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