Purpose: The purpose of this article is to analyze both teaching-research officers' (TROs) role perceptions and work engagement, figuring out how their competing roles are balanced to ensure continued work engagement and which roles have greater benefits to the community and educational reform. Design/Approach/Methods: The study employs a…

This article addresses the professional challenges faced by teacher leaders in Iraq. The country is beginning to emerge from a period of political unrest and violent threats to personal safety. This has seriously affected the educational provision; nowhere more so than in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city. The article examines three issues: how…

This study discusses the fulfillment of value forms by examining the virtue of school leadership. The virtue of school leadership stresses character traits in leaders that focus on the pursuit of excellence, appear as a value form, comprise paths to fulfilling values, reinforce leaders' positive motivation, and foster reform in schools. To…

This article recounts my experience of developing as a teacher leader in Philadelphia. When I worked at a traditional high school, a hierarchical leadership structure frustrated my attempts to foster teacher leadership among colleagues. By building networks of teachers outside my own school, I found the relationships and opportunities that helped…

The rapidly changing world and the increasingly complex demands placed on schools because of that change has led to an increasing awareness that the school principal alone cannot provide all of the leadership necessary for school development. More and more school districts are asking teachers to share leadership responsibilities with school…

Teacher-written editorial columns in local newspapers can challenge the broad, simplistic conceptions of the profession that have been encouraged by contemporary politics and that obscure the real work of teachers. The publication of such columns written by a diverse group of teachers in the West Texas Writing Project has proved an important tool…

Transformation of public education requires the reawakening of the sleeping giant in the room: the learners. Students, teachers, and principals must develop a learner-centric, standards-driven school. "Reawakening the Learner" is a guide to creating just such an environment. Continua describe the journey of teachers, teacher leaders, and…

Increased emphasis on content coverage and test scores can be an obstacle to many middle level practices, such as curriculum integration and differentiated instruction. While an increasing number of well-prepared, exemplary middle grades educators know and understand this situation, these educators are often not the ones leading school change.…

For decades teacher leadership has been widely promoted by policy makers and education leaders as a prime strategy for improving the educational enterprise. As practitioners of exemplary teaching, as innovators of pedagogy and curriculum, and as promoters of high-quality instruction for all students, teacher leaders are uniquely positioned to…

As the pressure on schools to meet higher and higher expectations with less and less resources increases, educators seek to explore school models which are centered on reforms that increased the likelihood of meeting this challenge. One reform initiative which has received much attention is the utilization of teacher leadership to improve school…

The National Staff Development Council (NSDC) has won recognition for the field of professional development. Researchers and education change agents acknowledge the importance of professional learning among strategies essential for reforming schools and raising teacher and student performance. The federal government, states, and school districts…

Presents an interview about learning communities with Ann Lieberman, known for her work in teacher leadership and development, educational change, collaborative research, and partnerships. The interview addresses characteristics of schools with professional learning communities; how such schools are created; necessary external supports; on-the-job…

This report pays tribute to the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Rural Systemic Initiatives (RSIs), an investment of more than $140 million to improve mathematics and science education in some of rural America's most impoverished communities. The report illustrates the impact of NSF's RSI program on a national scale. Each RSI planned a project…

This book addresses the contemporary realities of schools and teaching, focusing on both the constraints and possibilities embedded in practice. It uses the words and experiences of teachers and principals to show what growth and change look like from the inside, focusing on what change requires, how differences in context and personnel are…

This paper examines the demands on teachers' knowledge, attitudes, and practice associated with reforms commonly attempted in high schools and the corresponding opportunities for teacher development. Data come from a study of comprehensive school reform to illuminate the degree of fit between high school reform agendas and teachers' professional…