This article contributes to the growing international education base regarding different types of professional learning--teacher leadership, study groups, coaching, lessons study, and planning--by examining policies that support teachers across three countries.

This qualitative research investigated the applicability of teacher leadership, a notion mostly grounded in the Western literatures, to the educational settings in China. The current research focused on the Chinese lead teachers, backbone teachers (BTs), their experiences, and perspectives of teacher leadership. As a program designed to increase…