Teacher Leadership

1. Jennifer Kaupke
EDA 534
March 3, 2010
Book Report: Teacher Leadership
“The atmosphere in my school is so negative. I know in my heart
that this is wrong. I feel pain and loneliness. I don’t want to give
up. But I feel that I am being drowned by a huge wave.”
Ann Lieberman and Lynne Miller used this quote and several others as an
introduction to their book Teacher Leadership. Teachers across the country are feeling
extreme levels of burnout. This book describes ways that teacher leadership can provide
an environment of increased student achievement and a more collaborative atmosphere
for teachers.
The text refers to three main roles for teacher leadership: advocates for new forms
of accountability and assessment, innovators in the reconstruction of norms of
achievement and expectations for students, and stewards for and invigorated profession
(pg 12). Through each of these roles, teacher leaders have the ability to make major
changes within a school. I believe that each of these different roles is extremely
important. I believe that the final role, which involves support for the profession and
building a collaborative environment, would have the greatest impact in the least amount
of time. Teacher isolation has been the norm for many years and a shift to a more
collaborative environment where teaching can be critiqued and improved, with positive
reinforcement, will have huge impact on the achievement of our students. Also, through
continued education of our teachers and a more professional atmosphere within our
schools, we would have greater respect and support from our communities.

2. “In 1995, Fullan wrote about the necessity of extending the notion of teacher
leadership. He advocated moving away form a narrow view of a single individual trying
to make a dent in a bureaucratic system toward a more complex perspective that involves
multiple levels of leadership, all engaged in reshaping the culture of the school. Working
together as a cohort rather than as individuals, teacher leaders can build a new
collaborative culture.” (pg 25) Bringing people together is the key to building a
successful school. As a leader, I find the biggest challenge is creating more teacher
leaders. The school where I work has many teachers who are not interested in being
leaders. The difficult part about building teacher leadership is that if you are able to build
it among multiple teachers but cannot build in with the majority of teachers, the burden
becomes far to large for those few involved. It is also very difficult when working with a
small staff. For example, my staff consists of only nineteen teachers so the fact that we
already have about five teachers who have taken on leadership roles is quite good but the
burden on those five can be overwhelming.
This text spends several pages outlining the National Writing Project (pg 33) that
brings teachers together to improve techniques for teaching writing while also developing
leadership skills. Although this program sounds like a wonderful way to improve
teaching techniques and develop leadership skills, I feel that those involved in the
program are already natural leaders who just need to improve their skills. The teachers I
encounter who are working toward bettering themselves as educators are typically those
who also take on leadership roles of some sort and they simply need to improve those
leadership skills.

3. The second program discussed is Leadership for Tomorrow’s Schools, which
sends representatives from a district through a two-year program for building leadership.
The program includes the superintendent, school principals, as well as representatives for
all grade levels and subject areas. The first year is centered on the question: How do we
know when effective teaching and learning occur? (pg 45) This central question, which is
focused on the learner and the effectiveness of our instruction, in my mind, is a great
focus for any professional development. The second year of this program is centered on
the question: What kind of leadership is necessary to create and sustain an
organizational culture and enabling structures that promote learning? (pg 47) This
question is also an excellent focus for professional development for teachers. Although,
my worry is that those involved are already the leaders of the school; they are already the
teachers who are taking on extra responsibility. This is an exercise of making these
current leaders into better leaders who are more effective in their leadership. Although
the development of teacher leaders into better teacher leaders is important, my fear as a
future administrator is that continually relying on the same teachers to be the leaders
instead of building new leaders will cause burnout among current leaders.
“When teachers lead, they help to create an environment for learning that
influences the entire school community… This is not to say that being a teacher leader is
easy.” Teacher leaders create a more optimistic environment where teachers can see
changes surfacing. Somehow, we must find a balance for teacher leaders so they can
bring this optimism and change to our schools without causing burnout among these
leaders.

4. Although this book provided many excellent ideas for improving current teacher
leaders, I would like to have seen more examples of strategies for how to motivate
teachers to take on leadership roles who currently refuse to take on anything beyond their
classroom. As future administrators, it is critical that we find solutions to end the
negative feelings that teachers are feeling and find ways to increase optimism so that
there will be less burnout among our teachers.