Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Eastern New Mexico University, USA; bWest Chester University, USA; cFayette City,
Pennsylvania, USA
What knowledge, skills and experiences combine to support leadership potential and desire? Are
rich sources of human potential remaining untapped and untrained to the detriment of student
learning, site-based effectiveness and renewal of the profession? A four-phase model of leadership
development for teachers is proposed in this paper.
Few teachers begin their careers with a vision of future leadership roles. In many
cases new teachers probably fail to grasp the implications of their roles as classroom
leaders, much less the broader notion that they have an important contribution to
make to the preparation of future teachers or the reshaping of education as a whole.
If the full potential of untapped and unschooled leadership is to be realized, then
teacher preparation programs must include leadership models and support staff
development for inservice teachers pursuing leadership roles.
New teachers must be socialized and educated to assume leadership roles within the
schools and within the profession. A four-phase model for inclusion of leadership
learning within the framework of preservice and inservice teacher education programs
holds promise for increased participation in site-based leadership and leadership within
the larger educational community. The development of national certification
standards, the focus on teacher empowerment and the desire to change public
perception that teachers are subordinates subject to the whims of the powers that be
have all contributed to the desire to articulate a model for leadership preparation.
Defining and describing a set of skills and experiences necessary for assuming
leadership roles provides the framework for a preparation model. The necessary
elements for providing skills, practice and meaningful experiences for both preservice
and inservice teachers resulted in a model with four distinct phases of professional
development.
Phase I includes those skills necessary for effective classroom leadership. Phase II
explores leadership with peers and within professional associations. Phase III
illuminates the responsibilities for leadership in preparing the next generation of
*Corresponding author. Department of Educational Studies and Professional Education, Eastern
New Mexico University, Portales, NM 88130, USA. Email: Cheri.Quinn@enmu.edu
ISSN 1363-2434 (print)/ISSN 1364-2626 (online)/06/010055-14
# 2006 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13634230500492954
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C. L. Quinn et al.
teachers. Finally, Phase IV addresses leadership issues for affecting change within the
profession. While this model presents a framework, it is not an exhaustive model.
What it does present is a point of departure for those who desire the inclusion of
leadership teaching in their teacher education programs. A description of the skills
and experiences that inform this model is followed by an examination of each phase
of the model.
Skills and experiences for leadership preparation
The teacher-leader
The literature is replete with allusions to the new, improved teacher*the teacherleader. This new breed of teacher is intimately involved in the decision-making
processes that impact student learning (Moran, 1990), curricular imperatives (Berry
& Ginsberg, 1990; Bozik, 1990), budget allocations (Ryan & Cooper, 2000),
personnel selections (Darling-Hammond, 1988) and the assessment of outcomes
(Ryan & Cooper, 2000). Teachers involved in these new roles are variously labeled
empowered teachers, members of site-based management teams, peer mentors
and lead teachers. Many teachers, through increased political activism, try to
influence education policy at the state and national levels. Teacher-leaders abound
within the educational community. The issue is, would leaders emerge more readily if
they were coached from the beginning of their preparation programs to know there
were future leadership roles for them? Elizabeth Swart (1990) a classroom teacher,
jealous of her pharmacist husbands professional networks and ability to influence his
profession, writes, What teachers need is credibility . . . teachers will . . . train their
own support personnel . . . demand relevant research and readily accessible information . . . set standards of practice and police their own ranks . . . take responsibility for
results (pp. 317318).
The preceding quote represents a glimpse of the thinking about leadership within
the profession. According to Dougherty and Hammack (1990), When professionals
are employed in bureaucratic settings, their free exercise of professional practice may
be limited by bureaucratic hierarchy (p. 170). As schools are currently fashioned, the
opportunity to control their professional practice will remain unavailable to teachers.
The teacher-leader is an individual who has the knowledge, skills and temperament
to engage in the important decisions that guide the educational endeavor. Without an
appropriate venue for fulfillment of leadership talents and without some semblance
of a career ladder within teaching, many teachers will opt out of teaching for lack of
an outlet for their interests and talents. Figure 1 provides a visual representation of
the four stages of leadership development.
/
57
Professional
Development for
Teacher
Leadership
Phase 1
Cooperative
Preservice practice
with leadership
skills for the
classroom
Phase 2
Extended
Peer and
Professional
Association
Leadership
Phase 3
Mentoring
Phase 4
Global
Leadership roles
with new teachers
Leadership for
changing the
profession
and learning. The attitudes, beliefs and images they bring with them to the program
are vivid and valid. The first order of business is to begin addressing teaching and
learning from the other side of the desk. From the very beginning and throughout
the preparation program it is essential to include leadership issues in every course.
With limited, and often contrived, opportunities to practice newly acquired skills it is
important to keep some simple but attainable goals in mind. At the conclusion of the
preparation program, successful preservice teachers can:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Effectively organize students, time, materials, space and content for instruction.
Effectively choose strategies and methods that are appropriate for a given group
of students and a particular kind of content.
Effectively, creatively and consistently convey content-specific information at the
appropriate student level.
Effectively interact with students, colleagues, administrators and parents.
This set of goals sounds like the goals of most teacher preparation programs. So, what
does this have to do with developing leadership skills? At the preservice stage of
leadership development the most pressing concern is that of effective classroom
leadership. The first step to develop effective classroom leaders is to realign the
students (i.e. preservice teachers) thinking about what it means to be a teacher. Role
definition and the opportunity to practice the role of teacher are integral parts of the
preservice experience. When defining the roles of teacher it is important to use
leadership vocabulary. The preservice teacher comes to the preservice program with a
history as a student. As students they received instruction, but perhaps little understanding of the process that formulated a particular teachers lesson. Too many teacher
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C. L. Quinn et al.
educators provide little modeling of the methods they advocate and even fewer engage
in sharing their own thinking processes with their students. The framework for Phase 1
includes the four goals for successful preservice teachers. The subtext attempts to
address the issue of teacher educator behaviors that promote leadership learning.
Goal 1. Organization
The process of learning to organize for instruction requires skill development in
coordinating the elements of the curriculum. The preservice teacher must become
adept at identifying and obtaining appropriate materials to support instruction.
Planning for effective instructional space and managing time are also important.
Finally, formulating evaluation methods that measure success for students and a
critique of the design process further develops the preservice teachers ability to
provide leadership in the classroom.
Table 1 provides examples of experiences that enhance skill development in these
areas. Careful planning with coordination across the courses of a preparation
program maximizes the opportunities for preservice teachers to develop confidence
in their ability to organize for instruction.
Goal 2. Strategies and methods
Once the preservice teacher has organized for instruction it is time to determine how
to approach the content for the benefit of learners. The primary method of
instruction in the college or university classroom is lecture. University-based teacher
educators model a variety of instructional methods more frequently than their
university peers, but only at slightly higher rates. Preservice teachers need to practice
designing and delivering instruction from a wide selection of available models.
Aspiring teachers need to observe many models of instruction and they need to make
the connections between teaching methods and student achievement. Preservice
teachers who are encouraged to experiment with methodology are more likely to
engage in positive risk-taking behavior.
Table 2 illustrates experiences for developing skill and creativity among preservice
teachers. Facilitating these experiences requires new ways to organize time and
instruction within the preparation program.
Goal 3. Conveying content
The content of basic education courses is shaped by state guidelines, often in the form
of standards and benchmarks. Alongside the public and political demand for increased
student performance levels is the parallel demand for increasing the standards of
performance for those seeking teacher certification. Even the most engaged preservice
teachers have gaps in their content knowledge. For all teachers, regardless of career
stage, an awareness of these gaps becomes as important as the need to develop strategies
59
Experiences
Curriculum Content
Materials
1. Develop a table of materials for each of the four courses you identified
and calendared. Organize the materials inventory by those you have,
those that are available (note the source & location), and those you need.
2. Identify the source of existing materials for your list of those needed
or develop appropriate materials.
Assessment
for extending content knowledge. This is too crucial to leave to chance. Preparation
programs largely ignore content knowledge in favor of pedagogical concerns.
Table 3 demonstrates one approach to extending content knowledge for preservice
teachers. This design assumes that preservice teachers own the task of extending
their content knowledge and further, highlights the belief that all teachers must take
responsibility for extending their content knowledge throughout their careers.
Goal 4. Interaction
Positive, productive personal interaction requires practice, self-knowledge, confidence, flexibility, empathy and a sense of fair play. The examples in Table 4 attempt
to recognize that interactions are both planned and unplanned, enjoyable and
agonizing and always subject to the vagaries of the human element.
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C. L. Quinn et al.
Table 2. Strategies and methods
Skills
Experiences
Curriculum Content
Materials
Assessment
Experiences
Self-assessment
Research
Incorporation
61
Experiences
Planned interaction
Unplanned interaction
Negotiation
1. Prepare and present proposals for funding for a field trip, classroom
materials, a professional meeting and a course to improve your teaching.
2. Develop a contract for a student with behavior problems. Seek input
from the student.
Conflict
theoretical bases of learning and instruction are introduced during the preservice
years, practice is, rightfully, the emphasis of instruction. At this point in their careers
novices can revisit the foundations of practice and theory with the insight of practical
experience. The abstract becomes application based on real encounters with varying
student aptitude, learning problems and motivation. Novices now have the freedom
and the confidence to explore and innovate within their classrooms, a luxury that was
missing during the preservice period.
Classroom management issues seem to be the dominant concern for the majority
of new teachers. The acquisition and implementation of skills in management, as
opposed to instruction, is a major determiner of success or failure. Practitioners
who fail to shape their own style of management struggle with control and instruction
and cannot then extend their efforts beyond these basic tasks (Gilles et al., 2001).
Planning for instruction, creating and maintaining productive learning environments, allocating the resources of time and materials, putting in place effective
control and feedback systems and providing for motivation and personal satisfaction
of students are the tasks of management that support but are not synonymous with
instruction. These same skills, applied to different contexts, are skills that support
interpersonal skills to produce effective professional leadership.
Since curricular decisions drive the most educational changes, the practitioner
needs to become proficient and knowledgeable about the structure of curriculum and
familiar with the concepts of scope and sequence of content. These are the
foundations of the end products of the educative process and determine how the
essential goals of education are tailored to each school district. As local input
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C. L. Quinn et al.
provides focus on what emphases are preferred for the students of the district,
knowledgeable practitioners must know how to apply these emphases to the selection
of specific content and performance skills. Thus, the professional educators role
becomes more important, rather than less, as parent and community input becomes
more frequent. Curricular leadership can be accomplished only when the practitioner possesses these requisite skills.
Looking beyond the classroom
Practitioners must be able to focus beyond the local scene. International educational
practices and student achievement provide an important yardstick by which to
measure the educational performance of the practitioner and the district. A realistic
comparison allows teacher-leaders to help themselves and colleagues focus on
deficits that are found as a result of the analysis.
One of the most powerful tools available to practitioners in their quests for teacher
leadership roles is the ability to use the evaluation measures that are available to
them. Self-evaluation is a process taught to all preservice teachers, but mastered by
few. The threat of constant evaluation of performance by others rather short-circuits
ones ability to look internally with painful honesty. The confidence the practitioner
gains by having control of the job site (the practitioners classroom) allows more
productive introspection and better use of student learning as part of the feedback
system for assessing performance. The use of data collection via daily teaching
diaries, in which the practitioner records the most and least successful activities,
strategies and decisions of the day, can clearly show evolving patterns which
will become the practitioners teaching and management style. Unmonitored,
repetitions of ineffective practice can become habits that interfere with high-quality
performance. These data can also be used with the SWOT process previously
discussed in Table 3.
In addition, novice teachers are given periodic opportunities to be evaluated by
principals and/or supervisors. These evaluations can be used both for immediate
performance improvement and as jumping-off points for discussions with these
evaluators about how the results of the evaluation can be used as a basis for a more
long-term professional development plan. The new practitioner who takes initiative
for the professional development plan has the advantage of putting analytical skills to
use in problem-finding, solution-generating, assessing and implementing; core skills
needed by teacher-leaders.
The practitioner who continually accesses new information and research findings
maintains a wellspring of resources for enriching present performance as well as a
variety of means to achieve the goals of professional growth. Selecting and
maintaining membership in relevant professional organizations provides a reliable
source of such information. Attending conferences gives the practitioners both the
opportunity to discuss new ideas with presenters and colleagues and the confidence
of hearing an expert taking a position with which one agrees. Professional
63
organizations also provide the opportunity for the practitioner to present the results
of action research and analysis of how ones students have achieved as a product of
ones instructional and management performance.
The teacher leader is necessary for the educational process to keep pace with the
needs of a changing student body within a changing environment. The principal, the
traditional educational leader, is unable to function in every situation in
which leadership is needed. Without the teacher leader, little innovative problemsolving could be implemented (Patterson, 2001). Committees and task forces
within the school and district are rich settings to develop and exert leadership
abilities. Participation in similar groups in professional organizations gives
opportunities to watch other effective leaders in action, to share leadership
roles and to acquire information that is useful, and perhaps needed, at the local
level.
Although novice teachers have several tasks to accomplish in the initial years of
their careers, the tasks are interrelated. As practitioners refine their instructional and
management skills, they also develop skills essential to effective leadership. The
practitioner who recognizes these skills and is willing to accept the role of teacherleader will also move forward toward excellence in teaching performance. Table 5
extends the discussion with examples of skills and experiences that promote
leadership learning for the novice teacher.
Phase 3. Mentoring new teachers
A Phase 3 or mentoring teacher has been in the profession for five to seven years and
has a commitment to continued employment as a teacher. This person likely holds
tenure in the employing school district and is eligible for second -level or advanced
teacher certification. The mentoring teacher actively works with novice and
preservice teachers. Helping to establish directions for the district, school or
department through curriculum or textbook selection committees or school councils,
the mentoring teacher has found a professional voice.
A major area of endeavor beyond classroom teaching focuses on mentoring
novice and preservice teachers. The skills required for this level of activity
should be developed through direct training (Bey, 1990; Huling-Austin, 1992). A
frequent oversight in the preparation for mentoring preservice teachers is the
orientation of the mentor to the desired type of partnership (Inglis, 1988). The
mentor teacher must acquire strong skills in the evaluation of instructional
effectiveness (Odell, 1987).
The National Center for Education Statistics (Haynes, 1988; NCES) found that
first-year teachers are 2.5 times more likely than their experienced colleagues to leave
teaching. Furthermore, the attrition problem persists into the beginning phases of
teaching with 15% of new teachers leaving after Year 2 and another 10% after Year 3
(NCES, 1995). If mentor teachers are taking advanced courses as part of a
professional development plan for licensure renewal or a graduate degree, then
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C. L. Quinn et al.
Table 5. Leadership for inservice teachers
Skills
Experiences
65
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C. L. Quinn et al.
67
Experiences
Self /motivation
Problem-finding
Problem-solving &
collaboration
Continuous improvement
of teaching
General knowledge
Interpersonal skills
Note
1.
The preliminary work for this paper was presented at the Association of Teachers Educators
Summer Workshop in 1992.
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C. L. Quinn et al.
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