Sarah V. Mackenzie

How Teacher Leaders Influence Others and Understand Their Leadership.

This study elaborates the many ways that teachers lead work with colleagues to improve teaching and learning, and their understanding of their work as leadership. Through qualitative case studies of seven Maine schools and a review of the literature, the authors developed a conceptual model, Spheres of Teacher Leadership Action for Learning. They describe the various strategies teachers used to influence colleagues in direct and indirect ways, through formal and informal leadership. The authors discuss the importance of relationships, informal collaboration, trust and collegiality in supporting teachers’ leadership development and school improvement. However, they also found teachers engaging in leadership to build these supportive conditions where they did not exist in schools. Teachers leading school improvement work were reluctant to see themselves as leaders, and rarely referred to themselves or others as ‘leaders’. In fact, they viewed their informal and collaborative work as having greater impact on school improvement than formal efforts directed by school administrators. Yet, teachers did recognize the contributions and individual strengths that colleagues brought to their collective efforts. The authors suggest that in advancing the focus on school improvement and a shared accountability for the learning of all children, the term ‘teacher leader’ may be counterproductive.

Spheres of teacher leadership action for learning

This paper offers a conceptual model and rich narratives that describe the contexts in which teacher leadership emerges and the many ways that leadership is enacted. Drawing on qualitative case studies of seven Maine, USA schools, the authors found that teachers initiated their own professional learning efforts with the central goal of improving the conditions and outcomes of student learning. Teachers were leading through their strong commitment to continued learning, and by modeling a willingness to take risks, to collaborate and to question existing practices. Teachers often began with a focus on their own learning and classroom teaching and later moved into other leadership spheres where they collaborated with and influenced colleagues and other stakeholders on a wider scale. When they encountered conflict, teachers found they needed to build both interpersonal and intrapersonal awareness and skills. This study broadens conceptions of what constitutes teacher leadership and professional development. The work of teacher leaders results in teacher learning as well as improved student learning. The findings indicate that informal and formal, individual and collective teacher work all contribute to teachers’ professional learning and significant change in schools.

Rethinking Leadership Development: How School Leaders Learn in Action.

In order to meet the needs of evolving school leaders, university professors and others who provide professional development must rethink and expand their roles. Based on experiences as instructors in a leadership development program, the authors had the opportunity to explore and understand more fully how leaders grow. This article describes our conceptualization of how students in our program—themselves full‐time educators—learn and the kinds of leadership coaching we engage in to precipitate and support deeper learning in action. It is rooted in our understanding of the needs of adult learners through an evolving model of leadership development.

Who Should Make Decisions? A High School Wrestles With Tracking

This case concerns conflict over decision-making in a high school. It highlights major differences of opinion regarding the purposes of schooling and the democratic ideals of education. Vocal parents and some teachers are at odds over course offerings that maintain tracking, assigning students to particular courses of study based on their abilities and career goals. Parents want a separate honors track for their children. Members of the faculty have been influential in moving the school toward greater heterogeneity, and they have set up a process for decision-making regarding change that assures they have a voice in matters of curriculum and instruction. The schools principal is caught in the middle, trying to keep parents happy while honoring the principles of shared leadership with the faculty. This case demonstrates the tension between the needs of individual students or group of students and the aim of the school to best fulfill the learning needs of all students. It focuses on the democratic underpinnings of American education: how do you balance the input of all stakeholders when making decisions about school practice and policy?

Poverty, Privilege, and Political Dynamics within Rural School Reform: Unraveling Educational Leadership in the Invisible America.

This case was written to help prepare teacher-leaders, principals, and central office administrators, particularly those in rural and economically marginalized settings, who are expected to lead teachers and stakeholders in their community through increasingly stressed economic conditions. The intent of the case study is for educators to examine the impact privilege has on the often White, middle-class mind-set of educators, particularly when supporting economically marginalized communities. Educators studying this case should examine the role that poverty, privilege, and politics play in school leadership, specifically when thinking about school reform and community improvement efforts.

Who Should Make Decisions

This case concerns conflict over decision making in a high school and highlights major differences of opinion regarding the purposes of schooling and the democratic ideals of education. Faculty members who have worked toward greater heterogeneity are at odds with parents who want more honors classes. The schools faculty council has instituted a process for decision making that assures teachers have a voice in matters of curriculum and instruction. The principal wants to keep parents happy but also honor the principles of shared leadership. The case demonstrates the tension between the needs of individual students or group of students and the aim of the school to best fulfill the learning needs of all students. It focuses on the democratic underpinnings ofAmerican education: How do you balance the input of all stakeholders when making decisions about school practice and policy?

Leadership Learning That Makes a Difference in Schools: Pushing the Frontier at the University of Maine

This chapter describes the model of leadership knowledge and the approach to leadership development employed in the University of Maine’s graduate program in Educational Leadership. The model and learning framework described here emerged from the Educational Leadership Area Faculty’s developmental work over the past 15 years with a broad array of educators in Maine and beyond. The model has been through many refinements as faculty have used it to shape learning experiences and their own andragogical roles in the service of leadership development. The program follows a model of leadership development based on three complementary dimensions of leadership knowledge: cognitive, ideas, and research about the “technology” of schooling; interpersonal, the relationships, and human dynamics of leadership; and intrapersonal, the “internal” dynamics of the leader’s philosophical and personal world. Leader learning generates the capacity to self-manage (intrapersonal) and to form productive relationships (interpersonal) so that people are mobilized to action that benefits student learning (cognitive). The chapter describes the model of leadership knowledge and shares some of the learning methods faculty have developed to match the particularities of the cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal knowledge bases that make up leadership performance.