This qualitative exploratory case study delves into the intricate experiences between teacher leadership and school improvement factors, focusing on the unique context of rural areas. School leaders and educators possess a limited comprehension of the potential roles and necessity of teacher leaders in driving school improvement efforts.…

This phenomenological study focused on examining how administrative support leads to successful environments conducive to prominent levels of teacher leadership. The purpose of this study was to research teacher leaders' perspectives on how administrative trust supported their role at elementary schools in an East Texas suburban district. The…

This dissertation sought to answer questions about the sensemaking processes of teacher leaders in a middle school that was part of a state-wide improvement process called the "Ohio Improvement Process (OIP)." The context of the research was a historically under-performing school that had been part of the OIP for 6 years at the time the…

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…

Schools are remarkably resilient institutions, with the core of instruction and the dynamics between teachers, students, and school leaders remaining largely unchanged despite a churn of reforms efforts. To move away from "tinkering" around the edges of the system, reach deeper into classrooms, and mitigate the effects of policy churn,…

This study explores existing research on teacher leadership to examine novice teacher leadership. In examining the experiences of novice teachers during preservice preparation, the literature highlights critical practices that assist in the development of their leadership skills. To better understand these practices and their value, this study…

This dissertation seeks to explore whether and how organizational structures of school (educational infrastructure) influence teacher belief alignment and self-efficacy as they relate to school improvement strategies. Within the context of an autonomous network of schools, this study leverages differences in educational infrastructure and…

How educational leaders initiate and sustain change is often hotly debated by those inside and outside of the system. Given the many reform initiatives of the past 30 years, and the resulting changes public educators have made lurching from initiative to initiative, one must ask if public education has truly improved. The answer to why public…

The research aimed to provide a complete understanding of characteristics, facilitators, and challenges in implementing professional learning communities in multi-age schools. This study utilized a mixed-methods multiple case study design. Participants in this study were teachers from two private K-8 multi-age schools. The characteristics of…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore teacher leadership practice in an effort to understand how the behaviors of teacher leaders, and interactions among them, contribute to teacher and collective efficacy for the purposes of increasing student achievement and closing student achievement gaps. Methodology: A grounded theory approach to…

Public schools, specifically teachers and administrators, have been under a high level of scrutiny and accountability. Administrators have been distributing more responsibility to teachers in an effort to build collaboration. One way to distribute leadership throughout a school is to ask teachers to develop and lead their own professional…

The research presented in this study examined what happened when I, as a building administrator, created and supported opportunities for teachers to emerge as leaders with the capacity to support each other, how my engagement with teachers as a building administrator promoted collaborative leadership and learning, and how making the classroom a…

Education reform and improvement in K-12 public education continues to be a national priority. Research within the past half century has brought to the forefront the brutal truth that American public education needs improvement (Tyack & Cuban, 1995). The call for improvement includes the need for teachers to emerge from silence and isolation…

The classroom teacher with a vision and a desire to enact that vision has been identified in the research literature as a key player in school reform. The literature suggests that teacher advocacy for school improvement may be shaped by the context in which they work, and that differences between their vision and the reality of their context can…

Beginning in the latter part of the 20th century, and especially since the advent of No Child Left Behind, the roles and responsibilities of the elementary school principal have undergone significant expansion. While the primary function of the principal at one time may have been to serve as the manager of the physical plant of the school and as…