This study focus on the question: "How do high school principals, regarded as having skills in developing the instructional capacity of teachers, exercise their leadership to promote the development of teacher's instructional capacity in three primary contexts; whole school, content department or grade level teams and individually?"…

This book examines the work of elementary-level, non-supervisory, school-embedded, instructional teacher leader roles using research-based case studies. Instructional teacher leaders aim to help teachers develop the skills and knowledge necessary for continued instructional improvement and, ultimately, enhanced student learning. The authors use…

Business leaders, United States citizens, and American politicians continue to seek school reform as a means for providing the United States with a workforce consisting of employees who possess 21st century skills. The development of teacher transformational leadership and the use of distributed leadership practices are needed to create public…

The purpose of this "intrinsic multi-descriptive" case study was to explore how a mathematics curriculum leadership graduate degree program influenced seven participants' views and actions as they transitioned into new mathematics curriculum leadership roles. The mathematics curriculum leadership graduate degree program was a joint…

This qualitative critical multi-case study examines the nature of resistance as it emerges within the work of two urban secondary teachers acting as teacher educators, each teaching a secondary teacher preparation course within their own respective school context. Both research sites are discursively and functionally similar in terms of their…

This descriptive qualitative case study explored the changing role of the reading specialist through various perceptions of professionals in the Neon Shadow School District. The purpose of the study was to explore what, how, and why the duties and responsibilities of the reading specialist have changed since first employed as an…

Universities and schools are struggling with the critical issues surrounding teacher quality, student learning, and the gap between research and practice. This study employed a collective case-study design to explore the impact of leadership teams and school-university partnerships on teacher leadership, professional development, and overall…

The CAST (content area specialized training) model of professional development enables sustainable teacher leadership and is responsive to the need for culturally relevant educational practices. The purpose of this paper is to share the background, methods, findings and recommendations of a case study on the CAST initiative in Guam. The case study…

The teaching profession has long been structured around full-time classroom responsibilities that are defined by the location, timing, and schedule of the school day and a ubiquitous one-teacher-per-classroom model. In most districts, the only option for highly successful teachers to advance in the profession or serve more students is to leave the…

Service-learning is promoted widely by professional organizations (NCSS, 2001), but often with little reflection on the nature of meaningful student participation and the impact of teacher leadership styles. The authors studied mixed-age "small school" advisory groups involved in service-learning at one elementary school; observational, interview,…

In 2003, a curriculum reform of education was initiated in mainland China to improve the quality of senior secondary education. The major purpose of this reform was to move from a teacher-centred to a student-centred approach in teaching. In order to find out how teachers coped with the challenges of the reform and how their work was affected, an…

The purpose of this study was to examine and describe the role of trust, a complex and understudied aspect of working relationships, among teachers in smaller learning communities (SLC). Based on a review of the literature, four kinds of interpersonal professional relationships were defined and described from individualism to community. An…

Improving teacher retention and resiliency are key educational problems. In this article, we share findings from case studies of six educators who, for over 200 combined years, worked in urban, high-poverty schools and highlight what teachers need to remain in such contexts. We argue that developing "professional resilience" is a process…

School reformers hope that converting comprehensive high schools into collections of small schools will produce results similar to those realized in freestanding small schools. This comparative case study revisits two "conversions" as they complete the grant funding that supported the reform, in order to explore the extent to which…

The purpose of this case study was to identify effective leadership practices of an African American principal in a high achieving school, and the relationship to those the leadership practices found in the literature. This study focused on an African American female principal, located within the Piedmont geographical area of a southern state. The…