I originally wrote this article in July, 2019. 

Initial Thoughts

At the beginning of the article, Developing and Empowering Leaders for Collective School Leadership: Introduction to Special Issue (Browne-Ferrigno, 2016), the depth and quality of the referenced literature was very respectable. This mining and presenting of the literature serves to hook the reader into what is being discussed. Thus enabling the reader to be open to what will be proposed next as a well-informed point, not simply speculation.  

Contrast the initial impressions with the start of the final section, where a disappointment settles in when the end is nigh but so little content has been introduced by the author. By the end of the article, there was a clear underperforming in terms of content. The minimalistic body of only one and a half pages of author generated ideas leaves much to be desired. 

Key Themes Agreed 

There were multiple themes discussed in this article: teacher leaders are essential to school improvement (p. 152), teacher leaders take many forms (p. 152), barriers to teacher leadership (p. 152), the growth of teacher leadership (p. 153), and multiple examples from the literature of the essential role that teacher leaders play (p. 153 & 154). Most of these themes can and should be agreed upon by most teaching professionals. The two strongest themes that Browne-Ferrigno (2016) presented were a) teacher leaders take many forms and b) the examination of the literature.

Key Theme Disagreed 

Nearly all of the themes presented in this article were received with the utmost degree of confidence. The one exception to this rule is the notion that there are certain cases that differ from what Carver (2016) suggests. It is not always a teacher’s personal identity transformation, but an identity transformation that a peer or principal makes for that teacher which catalyzes the growth from teacher to teacher leader. For myself, I started at my former school as an inexperienced science teacher. Through encouraging words from a fellow teacher who called me “everyone’s favorite teacher” and my principal who chose to see me as an “emerging expert teacher” I became both of those things in my own mind. My transformation into a confident teacher leader took multiple years of encouragement and effort. But I know for certain that this growth would have taken 10 or more years to occur without their assistance.  

Observations in My System

The system that I have the most experience with is a private, not-for-profit, international school in Bangkok, Thailand called “ICS”. During my three years teaching at ICS, I had the privilege to work alongside many teacher leaders. Throughout its 25-years of existence the leadership team at ICS has developed multiple successful ways to grow teacher leaders. 

The first is a mentorship program for new staff. The leadership team at ICS understands that coming to a new workplace in a new country is a difficult adjustment. The mentorship program partners new teachers with teachers who have two or more years of experience at ICS. This mentorship program serves new teachers well by teaching them about the organizational norms and giving them a friendly face to use as a sounding board during their transition, all while maintaining the caring culture at ICS. 

The second way that teacher leaders are developed at ICS is encouraging current and potential teacher leaders to forge mentoring relationships with members of the leadership team. During my time at ICS I met regularly with my principal and headmaster in order to glean what I could about leadership. I was able to ask specific questions related to the content in my Master’s in educational leadership to further my learning, which is what Huggins, Klar, Hammonds, and Buskey (2016) attested to. 

The third is providing a multitude of opportunities for teacher leaders to grow at ICS including: coaching, curriculum teams, student ministries teams, event coordinating, research teams, and grade level team leadership. Based on the examples of the teacher leaders around me, I was able to become a teacher leader myself. In my first year I was able to invest in the community through some of the opportunities listed above. When I left ICS in June 2019, I was a teacher leader in nearly all of the capacities mentioned above. This is a true testimony to the growth mindset instilled in ICS staff. All of the leadership opportunities mentioned above helped me to grow as a leader in the myriad ways. The leadership opportunities gave me a clearer view of my school as a system, positively influenced my classroom teaching, and helped build my leadership capacity (Lambert, 2000). 

What This Means to Me as a “Systems Thinker” 

I am a product of a system that has worked tirelessly to help me grow as a teacher leader and for that I am grateful. Further personal research that will benefit my professional practice will focus on the process of establishing and developing teacher leader programs. In this endeavor it will be valuable to seek practical tips and examples of teacher leader development programs that can be applied in different contexts. 

As a current teacher leader and future positional leader I see a healthy leadership development program as a necessity that benefits schools, districts, and entire countries as systems. I will work hard to develop a greater understanding of what makes leadership programs work in order to enrich the educational opportunities and systems in my future contexts. 

References

Browne-Ferrigno, T. (2016). Developing and empowering leaders for collective school leadership: Introduction to special issue.

Carver, C. L. (2016). Transforming identities: The transition from teacher to leader during teacher leader preparation. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 11(2), 158-180.

Huggins, K. S., Klar, H. W., Hammonds, H. L., & Buskey, F. C. (2016). Supporting leadership development: An examination of high school principals’ efforts to develop leaders’ personal capacities. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 11(2), 200-221.

Lambert, L. (2000). Framing reform for the new millennium: Leadership capacity in schools and districts. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, (14).

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. It was a pleasure spending time with you today.

Peace & Blessings, 

– Josiah