Teachers who crave more leadership responsibilities but don't want to leave the classroom are often left with few options. Even when teacher leadership positions are available, many teachers don't know about them or have chances to develop the skills to succeed in them. Teacher leadership programs at higher education institutions fill this gap.…

Given discourse across the globe on school reform and the importance of teachers' work to school improvement, teacher leadership represents an opportunity to re-imagine school cultures, and to consider a range of factors that impact the teaching profession and contribute to overall school improvement. Based on a qualitative inquiry of 24 teacher…

This qualitative study explores the ways teacher leaders define educational social justice for themselves and what that means in their teaching. The purpose is to contribute to the body of literature on teachers' own perspectives and experiences of how they attempt to teach and lead for social justice within their context and roles. By using…

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…

With the increasing focus on inclusion, special needs educators (SNEs) are now expected to share responsibility for pupils with teacher colleagues and to lead school development, but it is a challenge to enact this role in schools. The aim of the study was to explore how professional roles of Swedish SNEs are enacted in local school contexts. From…

Educators in the United States are being asked to do more with less: school budgets are shrinking, principals are struggling to be instructional leaders in the face of huge management issues, and teachers are trying to meet the needs of increasingly diverse students at a time when a standardized, one-size-fits-all curriculum is mandated. The tenor…

To increase student achievement, schools and districts are hiring teachers as leaders to support peers in improving teaching and learning. Their roles are variously called coach, school-based staff developer, instructional specialists, or program facilitator. Yet though many have exceptional teaching skills, they seldom have a deep understanding…

In this article, the author contends that state and national policymakers should tap the talent pool of National Board Certified Teachers to boost student achievement and enhance teacher quality. This resource represents over 32,000 teachers who are nationally certified through a rigorous process, requiring demonstration of high levels of teaching…

This booklet for teachers reports what participants in the U.S. Department of Education's 1996 National Teacher Forum had to say about teacher leadership. Forum participants were 120 exemplary public and private school teachers nationwide. The report also includes thoughts of teachers who used e-mail to share their ideas on teacher leadership.…

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…

Some promising educational reforms are aimed at the classroom (strengthening the interaction between students and teachers and enhancing the curriculum). Change models most likely to succeed are those that give teachers, students, and other stakeholders a clear, common vision of their school's direction. When teachers translate visions into…

Describes one principal's success at helping teachers guide reform in a Wisconsin elementary school by creating, with the help of his teachers, a school that abolished age-based grade levels and traditional grades for some students. The paper describes what it takes to create a successful program that encourages teacher collaboration. A sidebar…

George Mason University, Virginia, prepares teachers through a professional development school model, which empowers teachers to assume leadership roles as clinical faculty and site coordinators. Classroom teachers and the former Director of Teacher Education describe the effects of teachers' experiences as teacher educators on their roles within…