This book addresses the critical gaps among understandings of teacher leadership across organizational and cultural contexts. It challenges the use of the term teacher leadership as if there is a widely shared understanding of what it is and what it means for exercising influence and making decisions. The book describes how implicit meanings and competing assumptions about teacher leadership may contribute to uncertainty and confusion in school communities. The authors caution against the incorporation of teacher leadership in international policy making discussions without adequate consideration of contextual, organizational, historical, and cultural differences that may lead to school community members struggling to accommodate the concept or, worse, ignoring other frameworks for facilitating more culturally appropriate decision making. This book shares the findings of research conducted in several North American, European, African, Latin-American, and Australasian contexts as part of the International Study of Teacher Leadership. Study findings are used to posit contextualized conceptualizations of teacher leadership and to offer a perspective for positioning researchers and practitioners in the international teacher leadership discourse.

This book addresses the critical gaps among understandings of teacher leadership across organizational and cultural contexts. It challenges the use of the term teacher leadership as if there is a widely shared understanding of what it is and what it means for exercising influence and making decisions. The book describes how implicit meanings and competing assumptions about teacher leadership may contribute to uncertainty and confusion in school communities. The authors caution against the incorporation of teacher leadership in international policy making discussions without adequate consideration of contextual, organizational, historical, and cultural differences that may lead to school community members struggling to accommodate the concept or, worse, ignoring other frameworks for facilitating more culturally appropriate decision making. This book shares the findings of research conducted in several North American, European, African, Latin-American, and Australasian contexts as part of the International Study of Teacher Leadership. Study findings are used to posit contextualized conceptualizations of teacher leadership and to offer a perspective for positioning researchers and practitioners in the international teacher leadership discourse.

This is the third and final book in the series Transformative Pedagogies in Teacher Education. Like the first two books in the series it is geared towards practitioners in the field of teacher education. This third book focuses on transformative leadership in teacher education. In other words, the kind of leadership and practices that will be important and necessary to bring about the kind of changes that both teachers and students seek to improve educational outcomes for all students, but in particular Black, Indigenous and racialized students who have been traditionally underserved by the education system. Teacher leadership plays an important role in transformative educational change that challenges all forms of oppression and white supremacy. This book features chapters by a collection of scholars, teacher educators, researchers, teacher advocates and practitioners drawing on their research and experiences to explore critical issues in teacher education. The book will be useful to teacher educators working with teacher candidates in different contexts, experienced teachers and school leaders. Given demographic shifts and the need for educators to respond to growing diversity in schools, educators will find valuable strategies in Transformative Pedagogies in Teacher Education: Re-Imagining Transformative Leadership in Teacher Education they can employ in their own practice. In addition to valuable strategies, authors explore different approaches and perspectives critical in these changing and challenging times. Critical notions of education are posited from different perspectives and contexts. This book will be useful for teacher education programs, principal preparation programs, in-service teachers, school boards and districts engaging in ongoing professional development of teachers and school leaders.

The study of educational leadership makes little sense unless it is in relation to who the leaders are, how they are leading, what is being led, and with what effect. Based on the premise that learning is at the heart of leadership and that leaders themselves should be learners, the Leadership for Learning series explores the connections between educational leadership, policy, curriculum, human resources and accountability. Each book in the series approaches its subject matter through a three-fold structure of process, themes and impact. Series Editors - Clive Dimmock, Mark Brundrett and Les Bell The notion that school transformation is dependent on exceptional leaders is increasingly seen as unrealistic and unsustainable. Instead, the idea of distributed leadership, which promotes the view that all stakeholders have complementary leadership roles to play in enhancing student learning, is now being promoted as a more useful framework for understanding schools and how they might be changed. Subscribing to the notion of distributed leadership, O’Donoghue and Clarke identify two key groups: the ‘leaders of learning’ and the ‘leaders for learning’. The leaders of learning – and the focus of this book – are those working at the school level to improve the quality of learning in the classroom, such as teachers, principals, pupils and involved members of the local school community. The leaders for learning are the policy-makers and administrators whose support is crucial. The authors argue that in order to be effective leaders, both groups require an understanding of: Broad trends in contemporary leadership theory Recent views on learning theory The importance of teachers engaging continually in learning about their practice The significance of creating and sustaining schools as learning organisations Forging links between leadership and learning The book’s examination of the shifting approaches to leading learning in contemporary schools is enriched by innovative examples drawn from a range of international contexts. Leading Learning will appeal to students involved in masters and doctoral courses relevant to the field and those undertaking programmes of school leadership preparation and development. It will also be of interest to academics working in the field of educational leadership and management.

The impact of globalization is being felt in numerous spheres of educational policy and practice, in rapid growth of information and communication technologies, in economic transformation, and international market competition, all of which conspire to create new demands and place new pressures on school leadership.

Interest in and knowledge of leadership and learning, separately and together, is an international and continuing phenomenon. This book adds to a somewhat under-researched aspect of the field. It focuses both on a particular form of leadership – teacher leadership, and on a particular form of learning – professional development. It considers the connection between teacher leadership and professional development and the first chapter relates this connection to a ‘Leadership for Learning’ conceptual framework, developed through an international, three-year project. The book’s chapters explore teacher leadership and professional development from a number of perspectives, giving rise to three points of particular significance. Firstly the chapters show that, either by accident or design, there is a growing cadre of teacher leaders emerging from a multitude of professional development activities and initiatives. Secondly, a number of new conceptual frameworks are put forward, alongside the adaption and development of extant ones that add to the ever-increasing theorisation of educational leadership and professional development literature. Thirdly, the chapters provide evidence of the connections between leadership and learning as conceptualised in the ‘Leadership for Learning’ framework. This book was originally published as a special issue of Professional Development in Education.

This book was written to define teacher leadership; provide case studies specific to teacher leadership; and acknowledge the commitment and success of 24 teacher leaders who serve as exemplars.