Turnaround schools represent a strategy for swiftly revitalizing underperforming educational institutions. This study examined how teachers perceived the role of teacher leadership within one urban turnaround high school. The study addressed the following research questions: 1. How do teachers within an urban turnaround high school conceptualize…

Educational leadership and informal teacher leaders are the heartbeat of school initiatives, successes, and growth, and they serve as the foundation of positive school reform. However, it is not known to what extent teacher leaders engage in informal leadership roles or how they use these informal leadership roles to enact change and make positive…

This non-experimental quantitative research study examined K-12 rural Alabama teachers' perceptions of teacher leadership, focusing on the four factors of the Teacher Leadership Inventory and the potential differences in perceptions based on teachers' gender, educational degree, years of experience, and job position. I used a survey research…

This qualitative study explores the ways teacher leaders define educational social justice for themselves and what that means in their teaching. The purpose is to contribute to the body of literature on teachers' own perspectives and experiences of how they attempt to teach and lead for social justice within their context and roles. By using…

In Massachusetts public elementary schools, teaching and leadership roles are perceived as mutually exclusive rather than interwoven. Despite credentials that would recognize Massachusetts public elementary school teachers as leaders beyond their classrooms, the leadership frame of reference attests that those who have the position, power and…

Teacher leadership has been widely studied by researchers aiming to understand teachers' roles in school improvement and professional learning. Researchers have determined that teacher leaders can work to increase professional learning and support school improvement. The first purpose of this study was to investigate the types of roles teacher…

The educational landscape continues to change in the United States and globally as the world becomes more technologically intimate yet more isolated in human interaction. Demographic changes in communities have created an urgency for school leaders to alter curriculum to meet the complexities of a multicultural population. However, limited…

In an era of educational transformation, teacher leaders play a pivotal role in facilitating systemic change within schools. This dissertation presents a single-case action research study investigating the support structures provided by a Team Lead Communities of Practice (TL CoP) to nurture teacher leaders. The primary aim of this research is to…

It is acknowledged that principal leadership, particularly principals as instructional leaders, is critical to student achievement and the success of a school, yet the roles principals are expected to take on in schools are varied. Principal time use is divided among an array of tasks and responsibilities that often do not leave adequate time or…

Teachers are leaders, so it seems natural to think that the act of teaching is similar to the act of leading. Research regarding leader identity in teachers, however, presents the concept of teacher leadership as opportunities for leadership beyond the classroom. Teachers who aspire to leadership roles within a school or educational organization…

Teacher leadership is an important pillar in building school capacity. Using an interpretive qualitative research design, the theoretical lens of Mezirow's (1978) transformative learning theory and Spillane's (2005) distributed leadership theory were used to inform the research questions in this study. With shifts in education reform, student…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences and practices of STEM teacher leaders in elementary schools. The characteristics of the STEM teacher leaders were studied under the Teacher Leader Model Standards (2011) framework. The Teacher Leader Model Standards included: fostering collaborative culture, assessments,…

Technology has created a disruptive shift in education from teacher-centered classrooms to individualized student-centered learning in which teachers need to utilize leadership skills as students assume the agency to direct their own learning in acquiring 21st century skills. Teacher leadership studies have overlooked classroom teacher leadership.…

This study examined the relationship between Situational Leadership Theory and empathy as practiced by elementary school teachers in western Kentucky. Teachers from five public school districts in west Kentucky were surveyed to determine their affinity to Situational Leadership Theory and empathy with the added component of helping father-absent…

Teacher leadership remains prominent in policy, career ladder programs, research, and professional discourse, yet few studies center what teacher leadership is like for teachers or what teachers are seeking when they construct their own career pathways. This gap is important to address. Teacher dissatisfaction certainly leads to recruitment and…