Teacher quality is receiving more attention than ever in this era of high accountability. There is a great need for research that examines how to improve teacher quality, so this study is an important addition to the literature at this time. The research is encouraging, despite the fact that improvements in student achievement linked to teacher quality have not yet been adequately documented. The study has two goals: (1) to summarize findings through a thorough review of the teacher leadership literature, and (2) to build a conceptual framework from that summary that can direct both present practice and future research into teacher leadership.
Teacher leaders serve as school facilitators and can be a crucial component in promoting and sustaining school reform and improvement. In order to improve education at the instructional level, for instance, teachers must take the lead in the classroom (p 255). The duties of teacher leaders include choosing the curriculum, keeping track of improvement initiatives, and taking part in administrative meetings. Additionally, they frequently have to participate in peer coaching, solicit support from parents and the community, and review research during their free time. These teachers are typically those who have a lot of classroom experience, are regarded as excellent teachers, and are well-liked by their colleagues. They prioritize learning and success and are prepared to take on responsibility and take calculated risks. These teachers lead in both informal and formal ways, serving as department heads, union representatives, and mentors, among other roles.
The Impact of Teacher Leadership
Key teacher leadership skills
Teachers in leadership positions need to possess a number of essential qualities and skill sets. Effective communication, empathy, compassion, motivation to learn, and the ability to offer guidance are just a few of the traits that teacher leaders can have. Additional crucial abilities that make teachers who hold leadership positions successful are listed below:
Listening skills
When mentoring or working together with other faculty and staff during planning sessions, meetings, and other professional conferences, effective teacher leaders may rely on their capacity for active listening. In your role as a teacher leader, active listening can frequently result in mutual understanding between you and your team members regarding the worries or issues that they express. This may present opportunities for you and your team to work together to develop successful solutions and strategies.
Critical thinking skills
Successful teacher leaders can also possess critical thinking skills. Making strategic plans and high-level decisions can be necessary for leading a teacher team, creating teaching strategies, coaching other faculty members, and developing curriculum. Critical thinking skills can be essential for teacher leaders.
Emotional intelligence
In addition to being qualities of exceptional emotional intelligence, empathy and compassion for others are two qualities that are highly desired in teacher leaders. Empathy for coworkers who are undergoing performance reviews or learning new teaching techniques can foster enduring connections with experts in your field. Success in a teacher leadership role can be attained by nurturing and maintaining your team with consideration for both their needs and the needs of the students.
Problem-solving skills
Having the capacity to view a situation or problem from various angles can also be useful. Your development and success in a teacher leadership role can be aided by your ability to use strategic thinking to solve problems and to collaborate with your team to put solutions into action.
Technical skills
New initiatives within a school district frequently involve the use of technology. Effective teacher leaders will be able to learn new technologies, collaborate with their colleagues, and use those technologies in the classroom. In addition, some teacher leaders may collaborate with a school’s IT team and may require a certain level of technological proficiency.
Teamwork skills
Teacher leaders should be excellent team players because they frequently serve in mentoring and coaching capacities. The success of leading a team and working together depends on your capacity to hear, accept, and look for common ground among your coworkers.
Organizational skills
Successful leaders might also develop highly organized habits. Your ability to delegate tasks, give and receive feedback, document curriculum standards, assessments, and other records, and keep schedules and records for district-wide events can all be improved, which will have a positive impact on your teacher leadership abilities. Additionally, having good organizational skills can help you develop and maintain effective lesson plans.
What is teacher leadership?
The process of improving current teaching strategies and creating new ones to support students’ academic success is known as teacher leadership. Teachers collaborate with school faculty and staff in this process.
Additionally, teacher leaders may carry out a variety of leadership tasks, such as implementing district- and sometimes school-wide initiatives and practices like new curriculum implementation and new hire mentoring programs. Although many teacher leaders continue to advance their careers into higher leadership positions where they can make decisions to improve instruction, curriculum development, and student achievement initiatives, they are still effective teachers in their classrooms.
How to improve your teacher leadership skills
You can use a variety of techniques to hone your teacher leadership abilities. To help you build a variety of skill sets and enhance your overall leadership skills, take into account the following advice:
Offer opportunities for feedback
Giving and receiving feedback as a teacher leader is just as important as giving and receiving feedback as an educator because both are an essential part of education. Making opportunities for your teams to provide you with feedback as a leader is a crucial way to begin enhancing your strategies and skill set. You can provide effective feedback to your teammates as well.
Develop your active listening skills
How well you listen to your team’s suggestions, ideas, and concerns can determine how effective your leadership is. Increasing your active listening abilities is another area you can improve in. You can get in the habit of listening to lesson plans and suggestions for instruction while taking notes and asking questions during meetings.
Learn to adjust approaches as needed
Creating your own learning preferences and acknowledging that educators are always learning new things are essential components of being a teacher. You can further develop your teacher leadership skills by committing to learning new techniques and approaches. This also applies to various leadership, instructional, and mentoring approaches. You can modify your approach to teaching and learning as your career progresses as necessary.
Offer to mentor new teachers
You might offer to mentor newly hired or transferred teachers as a teacher leader. As you instruct your teams on how to implement and present effective lessons, you can improve both your current leadership and instructional skills. Additionally, mentoring can help you build lasting professional relationships.
Improve the way you organize
Work on becoming extremely organized as another crucial strategy for enhancing your teacher leadership abilities. You might set up your classroom so that records of students, lesson plans, tests, evaluations, and other academic and administrative paperwork are kept in file cabinets in addition to the school’s electronic database. Similar to this, you can enhance how you prioritize and assign tasks to prevent being overloaded with numerous projects.
Perform evaluations and use them for growth
Participating in educator evaluations is another efficient way to develop your leadership abilities as a teacher, much like giving and receiving feedback. You could ask for a performance evaluation of yourself and use the results to monitor your development and make necessary changes to your methods.
Set goals for your teams
Setting goals for yourself and your teacher teams is a crucial improvement strategy. For instance, you could establish a team objective to assist all students in raising their reading test scores. You can then work together with your teams to put into practice curriculum, instructional, and support strategies that will assist your team and its students in achieving their objectives. The SMART goal method can also be used to evaluate and assess how well you’re doing at achieving any goals you set.
FAQ
What is the meaning of teacher leadership?
Teacher leaders serve as school facilitators and can be a crucial component in promoting and sustaining school reform and improvement. In order to improve education at the instructional level, for instance, teachers must take the lead in the classroom (p 255).
What are the leadership roles of a teacher?
Teacher leaders are excellent communicators. The capacity to listen more than you speak and to try to understand other people’s perspectives are important leadership qualities for teachers. Teacher leaders elucidate, delve into, and synthesize concepts and inquiries to comprehend concerns and draw on the knowledge of others.
What are the 5 teacher leadership competencies?
- Authoritative Leadership. Authoritative leaders push their teams to pursue common goals.
- Affiliative Leadership. …
- Democratic Leadership. …
- Pacesetting Leadership. …
- Coaching Leadership.
What is the best leadership style for a teacher?
- Edutopia. View Edutopia’s Teacher Leadership Resources. …
- Learning for Justice (Formerly Teaching Tolerance) READ ABOUT CONFRONTING BIAS.
- Teach to Lead. BROWSE TEACH TO LEAD’S RESOURCES. …
- Leading Educators. VIEW LEADING EDUCATORS’ TOOLKIT. …
- Center on Great Teachers and Leaders.
