Challenged to increase leadership opportunities for teachers, an El Paso elementary school principal appointed two master teachers to a vice-principal vacancy, increased teacher collaboration time, and experimented with vertical-team representation, teacher input for hiring decisions, and creative scheduling. Only the principal can actually…

Presents a contemporary leadership model comprised of three elements necessary to successfully recognize and promote teacher leaders. The elements include establishing an appropriate school culture, recognizing teacher leaders, and inspiring teachers' confidence. The three elements, along with enabled teacher leadership, create positive cultural…

Discusses the changing role of teacher leadership, which extends beyond the classroom, suggesting it is no longer viable for one person to act as the school-level authority and recommending a reconceptualization of teachers' professionalism which acknowledges that teachers can provide intellectual leadership in identifying and solving schoolwide…

According to National Center of Educational Statistics data, principals perceive that their influence on schoolwide issues has increased slightly (from 75% in 1987-88 to 85% in 1993-94). Teachers perceive their own influence as remaining the same and primarily confined to classrooms. Only 35% of teachers said they had considerable influence in…

Teacher leadership is increasingly being seen as a key vehicle for school improvement and renewal. However, research on this phenomenon is limited, especially outside of the US. This article presents findings from an empirical study of teacher leadership in the UK, aimed at exploring both the ways in which teacher leadership can influence school…

Explores the benefits of teacher leadership as well as the barriers to and opportunities for making teacher leadership work in practice. Concludes that teacher leadership could have beneficial effects on school improvement, but that the right conditions need to be in place. (Contains 79 references.) (MLF)

This document provides a history of the relationship between higher education faculty and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Highlights include the first AFT higher education local formed in 1918, the role played by the union in the expansion of the G.I. Bill following World War II, increased activism in the 1950s and 1960s to win…

When we learn, we learn through our own experiences. So when we teach, how do we incorporate our own invaluable life lessons into a state mandated curriculum? Dale Brubaker's "Revitalizing Curriculum Leadership" provides an innovative and liberating solution to this problem. In this updated resource, the author tells why educators need to move…

If contemporary plans for devolved decision making to schools in Australia are to be realized, the role of all teachers in curriculum decision-making processes will need to be acknowledged. This paper presents findings of a study that sought to build a theory of curriculum leadership from the teachers' own perspectives--a theory of curriculum…

Principals play a key role in developing teacher leadership. To identify, develop, and support teacher leaders in their schools, principals should define teacher leadership, be comfortable with teacher leaders, encourage teachers to become leaders, help teachers develop leadership skills, and provide positive and limited constructive feedback.…

This paper addresses educational reform centering on teacher participation and leadership. Although schools have developed new mission statements and implemented strategic planning and site-based management in recent years, most schools are not set up to accept teachers in leadership roles. The literature suggests that our "new" schools…

This study examines the mediating effect of teacher empowerment on the relationship between teachers' participation in decision making and their professional commitment. The data were collected through quantitative questionnaires from a sample of 983 teachers in 25 junior high schools and 27 high schools in Israel. Hierarchical regression analyses…

This report presents the results of a study that examined the role and activities of reform coaches. Positions for reform coaches have been developed in a number of schools and districts in the San Francisco Bay Area through the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative (BASRC). The study examined the reform coach role, the functions it provides to the…

Teachers and students must become empowered to be active participants in educational improvement and school decision making. They need opportunities to develop professionally. Empowered schools and their principals are very different from schools with little empowerment. Their principals understand how to foster empowering environments. Empowered…

Discusses the importance of preparing teachers to be leaders, explaining that the best method is to change teacher preparation curricula to provide explicit education in teacher leadership. The paper describes three preparation programs for teacher leadership, noting that only through partnerships in education will the goal of providing quality…