This study examines teachers' perceptions of the influence professional networks have on their sense as teacher leaders for school improvement. The Model for Collaborative Evaluations (MCE) was used to examine the potential for the inclusion of teacher professional networks in school improvement efforts. Findings indicate teachers within these…

Learning to use improvement science -- a structured process for planning, implementing, and studying change efforts -- takes time. That time is a worthwhile investment for schools aiming to shift teaching and learning, but it can be a barrier in schools that are often beset by leadership turnover. How can schools, and external partners, address…

Teacher leaders play a significant role in school and system improvement. Teacher leaders who maintain teaching responsibilities while taking on leadership responsibilities outside the classroom require professional learning. A school district worked with university faculty and professional learning facilitators to develop a design-based…

Local implementation of science reform efforts in part relies on science teacher leaders (STLs) to improve science instruction in classrooms and beyond. The lack of science-specific professional learning resources drives STLs to act as boundary spanners to locate resources outside their local context to fill that gap. Museums and other informal…

School middle leadership is a complex and increasingly important school leadership position, with research showing the significance of middle leadership to school improvement and teacher development. The purpose of this article is to identify and analyse empirical peer reviewed articles on middle leadership from 2006 to 2020, to understand how…

Educational reforms fail again and again. One reason for the failure is that educational reform stops just outside the classroom door. During the last 25 years, the dominant educational reform initiatives in the US have operated under the misguided conventional wisdom that the educational system is loosely coupled. With this model in mind, decades…

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.…

While the demands of teaching continue to escalate, teacher development has changed relatively little over time, leaving many of today's teachers feeling underprepared, overwhelmed, or demoralized with few opportunities to make real change. Teacher leadership holds promise for both addressing challenges within schools and empowering teachers.…

Purpose: The authors of this study examined how four leadership teams participating in a year-long deeper learning leadership academy understood and adapted key practices for change leadership, deeper learning and equity in their PK-12 schools. Design/methodology/approach: This multiple-site case study used interviews, observations and documents…

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…

Networked improvement communities (NICs) mark a promising approach to address the challenges of sustaining school reform. Whereas NICs are intended to help scale and sustain reforms, there is little evidence on how this works, as few NICs have existed long enough to be described over time. This study uses social network theory to understand what…

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…

In chemistry, a catalyst accelerates change without being depleted. As we seek school improvement, we need sustainable, scalable changes, and therefore catalytic structures are ideal. From communities of practice to professional learning communities to Networked Improvement Communities (NICs) much has been made in the scholarly and consultancy…

Teacher leadership has been defined by researchers as the catalyst for change, and the impetus for school improvement. In this study, the researcher investigated the experiences of teachers and administrators who participated in a nationwide teacher leadership pilot, the Teacher Leadership Initiative (TLI), and the effects that this yearlong event…

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,…