Teacher leaders – current or former classroom teachers working with other classroom teachers and other educators in the school or district – are present in many reform efforts in mathematics and science education. Teacher leaders may engage in a variety of practices, which draw on different kinds of knowledge and skills. Well-designed preparation programs help ensure that reform efforts are successful by equipping teacher leaders with the necessary knowledge and skills to be effective in their work to improve instruction.
Practice-based Insights on Teacher Leaders’ Preparation: Developing Knowledge and Skills for Teacher Leadership
Advice from experienced practitioners offers guidance to those involved in work with preparation programs that develop teacher leader knowledge and skills. Insights provided by a group of expert practitioners with diverse backgrounds and experiences in working with teachers included the following ideas:
- Align preparation to the work – The knowledge and skills developed in a preparation program should reflect the focus of teacher leaders’ work in schools.
- Fill the gaps – Teacher leader preparation should reinforce, or develop as needed, the knowledge and skills called out in teacher leader selection criteria.
- The making of a leader – Teacher leader preparation should further develop teacher leaders’ knowledge of and skills in leading others.
- We’re all in this together – Teacher leader preparation should develop the learning community mentality, as well as teacher leaders’ capacity to foster such communities.
Research on Teacher Leaders’ Preparation: Developing Knowledge and Skills for Teacher Leadership
In a review of the published empirical literature, twenty three research studies were identified that included findings related to the knowledge and skills developed for teacher leadership through participation in a structured preparation program. These studies investigated three aspects of this topic. One set examined the relationship between the specific knowledge and skills developed in a preparation program and teacher leader practice. Findings from these studies indicated that what teacher leaders learned in a preparation program was replicated in their practice with teachers. A second set of studies investigated the relationship between a preparation program and change in teacher leader knowledge and skills. These studies found that preparation programs had a positive impact on participants’ knowledge and skills. An analysis of a third set of studies focused on the topics addressed in teacher leader preparation programs. A review of these studies revealed that programs most frequently addressed multiple topics within disciplinary content knowledge, pedagogy and leadership skills.
Teacher leaders come to their roles with a range of knowledge and skills. For some, teacher leadership will be an entirely new role. For others, the specific type of leadership they are to provide in the context of a mathematics or science education improvement effort may differ from past leadership activities. It is almost guaranteed that a reform program will have specific goals for instructional change that will shape the particular knowledge and skills teacher leaders will need. While program leaders attempt to select teachers who have the requisite background, they will likely want to provide a preparation and support program that will develop a common vision, expectations and capacity for the work of teacher leaders.
Experienced practitioners, including MSP program leaders, offered insights around the preparation of teacher leaders. Data were collected and vetted through multi-round, online panel discussions with practitioners, as well as interviews and focus groups with MSP leaders. The insights below reflect general agreement among these practitioners around the knowledge and skills developed during teacher leader preparation programs and include illustrative examples from their own practice. After reviewing these insights, you will be given an opportunity to share your own experiences with teacher leader preparation. The information you provide will be included in the analysis of insights and examples from other practitioners as this website is periodically updated.
Align preparation to the work – The knowledge and skills developed in a preparation program should reflect the focus of teacher leaders’ work in schools.
In preparing teacher leaders, experienced practitioners noted the importance of developing knowledge and skills that are aligned with the focus and goals of the reform effort they will help lead. For example, teacher leaders might be charged with supporting the implementation of new science curricular materials. Preparation for these teacher leaders might be focused on developing deep understanding of the content and pedagogy featured in the materials and how that content might be challenging for the teachers with whom they will work. Or, teacher leaders may serve as mathematical resources for teachers, answering questions about content, clarifying areas in which instructional materials are unclear, and contributing to curriculum development. Knowledge of both mathematics content and students’ conceptual development would then be foundational. Teacher leaders charged with providing leadership to grade level, department or school-wide teams may also need broader expertise, including knowledge of the needs and interests of different constituents (e.g., district staff, school administrators, and/or classroom teachers). In short, the vision of teacher leaders’ practice should shape their preparation.
In one MSP program in which teacher leaders were expected to engage in lesson planning with classroom teachers, teacher leaders were trained on how to effectively facilitate that process with groups of teachers using a specific lesson planning protocol. In another MSP, teacher leaders who would serve as coaches to classroom teachers received “common preparation in cognitive coaching, data analysis, and classroom observation training.” One MSP leader described using study groups and a lesson study model to bolster the skills of new teacher leaders:
Teacher leaders learned a lesson study model, used it in their preparatory program, and then brought this lesson study model into the work they do with teachers at their school. We find that a lesson study model is particularly well suited with teacher leaders who are real novices in leadership, because it gives them a structure and because the lesson study experience puts them in a larger learning community.
Preparing teacher leaders is especially difficult when teacher leader roles are not identified in advance. In those cases, a preparation program must address the bigger challenge of developing a wide array of knowledge and skills so the teacher leaders will be able to address the specific needs in a particular context. According to one MSP leader,
Teacher leadership programs need to prepare teacher leaders as thinkers, with the intellectual rigor needed for them to flexibly respond to the myriad of contexts they will encounter and the different people they will work with. As they learn about various tools/strategies, the preparation program needs to help teacher leaders recognize how those strategies fit within a research framework for effective collaboration or effective instruction. This kind of flexible/adaptable knowledge and skills, rather than models of leadership that all too often prepare teaches to deliver canned workshops or facilitate very specific strategies, is critical.
Insight in action
As part of an MSP program working to improve middle school science and mathematics instruction, teacher leaders were responsible for providing in-class coaching support to classroom teachers using a variety of strategies. As part of their preparation, each teacher leader attended two to three professional development sessions before they began their work in the classroom. These early sessions were dedicated to providing teacher leaders with the basic knowledge they would need to carry out their leadership roles. After the teacher leaders began their work with classroom teachers, project staff conducted on-site visits to observe each teacher leader’s work in the field. Based on their observations, project staff worked one-on-one with individual teacher leaders to improve their skills in certain areas. They also noted areas where numerous coaches’ practice could benefit from continued knowledge and skill development and brought these areas back to the general coaching forums to develop the skills of the larger teacher leader cadre.
Fill the gaps – Teacher leader preparation should reinforce, or develop as needed, the knowledge and skills called out in teacher leader selection criteria.
With often limited time and resources available to devote to the preparation of teacher leaders, there are necessary choices that must be made around what topics to cover and how deep to go in any given topic. Experienced practitioners recommended that teacher leader preparation programs provide experiences that surface and address teacher leaders’ most salient weaknesses and misconceptions so that teacher leaders are aware of their limited understandings and can make the most of what’s offered in a preparation program. As one MSP leader noted,
Just as students’ fundamental ideas about content must be surfaced, challenged, and reconstructed, so too for teacher leaders as they develop their fundamental understanding of instruction, content, and leadership. Preparing teachers as leaders begins with having them develop and reflect on their own practice. Seeing the teacher leader engaged in this process helps others in their building see that first and foremost “leadership” begins with self-reflection and commitment to learning and improving.
Experienced practitioners noted the importance of teacher leaders’ own recognition of where their knowledge or skills may be lacking, in order to make best use of the opportunities provided in a preparation program.
Insight in action
In a district-level coaching program, a capacity-building model of teacher leader preparation was used so that more skillful teacher leaders who had considerably smaller gaps/holes in their knowledge and skills were paired with those teacher leaders who were less skillful and who needed additional support. The teacher leaders engaged in lesson study and other learning experiences to deepen and broaden their knowledge, and brought this knowledge back to their schools. There was an attempt to be clear about the various skills required of teacher leaders, and then an attempt to develop a menu of offerings that allowed teacher leaders to focus on developing the skills they were missing.
The making of a leader – Teacher leader preparation should further develop teacher leaders’ knowledge of and skills in leading others.
A teacher’s exemplary classroom practice, deep content knowledge, and effective communication skills may make him or her a good candidate for teacher leader work, but additional preparation is often needed to help the new teacher leader use this knowledge and experience to lead others. One MSP leader argued:
Too often, assumptions are made that good teachers will be good teacher leaders. While it is important to have the personal qualities necessary to lead, teacher leadership also requires a new set of skills and knowledge that prepare teacher leaders for new roles and responsibilities.
Therefore, after selecting teachers with the appropriate background content and pedagogical content knowledge and skills (addressing weaknesses as necessary), experienced practitioners noted that a preparation program for teacher leaders should develop and strengthen their abilities to serve as leaders. As in the case of deepening content-related understanding, development of leadership knowledge and skills should be closely related to the specific leadership work they will do with teachers.
One MSP leader described a set of skills, extending beyond disciplinary and pedagogical content knowledge, required of teacher leaders:
In order for a teacher leader to successfully help teachers grow professionally in their knowledge of content and instruction, the teacher leader must be able to develop relationships with teachers that allow the kinds of interactions that lead to learning. Building these relationships takes time and an understanding of who the teachers are. Without those relationships, the professional development becomes a sterile exercise that is tolerated but not internalized. Teacher leaders also have to know how to set up situations that lead to disequilibrium for teachers – a way to motivate the need to change – but do so in a way that does not destroy mutual trust and respect.
We’re all in this together – Teacher leader preparation should develop the learning community mentality, as well as teacher leaders’ capacity to foster such communities.
A teacher leader preparation program, experienced practitioners suggested, should support the development of a mindset among teacher leaders that they are learners as well as leaders, and that they will work with teachers as part of a learning community. This means that teacher leaders view themselves and their colleagues as individuals with expertise and experience to share with one another. Experienced program leaders suggest that teacher leaders who are part of such a culture and recognize its importance are better able to promote this same culture at their schools. Teacher leader preparation programs should explicitly identify the development of a professional learning culture as an intended outcome. This outcome can be achieved by providing experiences that allow teacher leaders to struggle with material, recognize potential areas for their own growth, and learn from each other. As an MSP leader noted,
Teacher leaders should be aware that they are always learning, looking for new ideas about content, how students learn, new connections, new books that do things differently. They should be ready for challenges related to content, and encourage their teachers to do the same. In other words, they are risk takers with respect to content, pushing at the bounds of what they know in order to improve what kids know.
If you are interested in how these practitioner insights were collected and analyzed, a summary of the methodology can be found here.
Teacher Leadership Matters
Empirical evidence shows that teacher leaders’ practice impacts teachers’ instructional practice and, in some studies, provides evidence of positive impact on student outcomes. Findings across studies include:
- Teacher leaders’ practice, particularly in providing instructional support to teachers, impacts teachers’ classroom practice.
- Teacher leaders’ practice occurs in a larger context of conditions that impact teachers’ practice.
- Teacher leaders’ practice is related to positive student outcomes.