Purpose: This paper aims to explore how teacher leaders help teachers improve mathematics and science teaching. Design/methodology/approach: Research focused on a purposive sample of seven teacher leaders selected to vary in their time allocated to teacher leader work and their content knowledge. Each teacher leader was interviewed, as were two…

The purpose of this study was to explore teacher leaders' and principals' perceptions of instructional leadership in a shared context. The multi-stage multiple-case study examined roles and relationships of teacher leaders and principal teams across four schools within a Midwestern urban school district engaging in what has been identified in…

The purpose of this study is to illuminate the reciprocal relation between teacher leaders' perception and practice to subject matter. The researcher conducted interviews and observations of 30 teachers from 8 urban elementary schools. The data and results evidently identify those teachers' views of subject matter both shaped and were shaped by…

This article explores the social and professional dynamics "when teachers face teachers" seeking to impact colleagues' instructional practices to improve student learning. Specifically, it examines a group of 40 teachers leading staff development sessions at their schools in an effort to bring more literacy strategies into the pedagogies of…

Teacher leaders do not fulfill their potential without the right kinds of support. Using the stories of two teacher leaders, Lattimer describes how school and district administrators succeed and fail at encouraging teachers to take on or withdraw from leadership roles. The two teachers profiled were more likely to assume leadership roles when…

School leaders are increasingly called upon to pursue meaningful partnerships with families and community groups, yet many leaders are unprepared to meet the challenges of partnerships, to cross cultural boundaries, or to be accountable to the community. Alliances are needed among educators, families, and community groups that value relationship…

This paper describes the signature role played by accomplished, experienced teachers in professional learning communities, and the importance that these practitioners make their teaching public and shared. In so doing, the authors describe how accomplished practices can be shared between classrooms and between practitioners with varying levels of…

This article examines how high school administrators influence teacher leadership in both positive and negative ways, particularly in an educational reform environment. It specifically looks at how they encourage, discourage, and motivate involvement in teacher leadership activities. Data from two studies were collected from teacher leaders…

Teacher leaders are the pack mules of effective school improvement because they carry the weight of responsibility for ensuring that reforms take root in the classroom and deepen the learning of all students. They continually think about the gap in schools between the real and the ideal, and the discrepancies that they witness compel them to push…

Teacher leadership is "hard." Many of the reasons are obvious: Teaching is a highly labor-intensive profession to begin with, leaving little downtime for work with other adults. School schedules are notoriously stingy with space for adult collaboration. Teachers are rarely paid to exercise leadership; when they are, they are never paid…

This three-year ethnographic study analyzes the ways in which "toxic" school culture was produced through interactions among staff members at Centerville High School, an under-resourced high school where I conducted fieldwork from 2004-2007. Using discourse analysis, I examine adults' competing beliefs about low-income and minority students, and I…

The authors argue that leadership networks when comprised of regional stakeholders including university faculty, school system administrators, and teacher leaders can begin to work together towards common reform goals. (Contains 1 figure.)

This paper attempts to articulate the process and content of the coaching model developed by the staff who work in schools affiliated with the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative (BASRC). BASRC is a 7-year-old nonprofit grant-funding organization with the mission to transform schools in the San Francisco Bay area, California into vital places to…

Makes an analogy that educational leadership in this changing society is a lot like paddling a kayak through calm waters. Suggests that if public school leaders do not instill a sense of urgency in times of calm waters, schools may lose focus and fail to evolve and change. (SG)

Lorraine Monroe, former teacher and administrator of Lorraine Monroe Leadership Institute advises educators to adopt her model for reform. She reveals the right leadership qualities required to acquire change.