Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the meaning of teacher leadership from teachers’ perspectives. The authors examine teachers’ practice of and talk about legitimate sources of power and influence in the context of an urban high school reform. Design: This is an interpretive study of teacher leadership situated in one small high school within a large urban high school (comprised of six small school communities) in a Midwestern city. The school was engaged in a technology-driven, project-based reform requiring team teaching and high levels of teacher involvement in curricular, pedagogical, and other organizational decision making. Researchers conducted monthly observations and two to three in depth-interviews with each participant and collected and analyzed relevant documents during the 2007-08 school year. Participants included all seven teachers in the focus school, the small school administrator, and a district-level administrator. Findings: Data revealed a cultural logic that afforded some teachers more authority than others. Three of the seven teachers were repeatedly identified as being the leaders (despite other teachers actively influencing organizational activities). Analysis of teachers’ talk about teacher leadership and related interactions revealed patterns falling into three categories: organizationally legitimized roles, institutionally legitimized content area expertise, and gendered leadership roles. Significance: Because leadership is a cultural construct itself, this study brings to the foreground the meaning(s) of teacher leadership from teachers’ perspectives and how these meanings reward or eclipse actual leadership practices. This is especially salient for researchers and leaders interested in the role of teacher leadership in nurturing democratic school communities.
Acker-Hocevar, M., & Touchton, D. ( 1999, April). A model of power as social relationships: Teacher leaders describe the phenomena of effective agency in practice. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada.
2.
Avis, M. ( 1995). Valid arguments? A consideration of the concept of validity in establishing the credibility of research findings. Journal of Advance Nursing, 22, 1203-1209.
3.
Bordas, J. ( 2007). Salsa, soul, and spirit: Leadership for a multi-cultural age. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
4.
Brooks, J.S., Scribner, J.P., & Eferakorho, J. (2004). Teacher leadership in the context of whole school reform. Journal of School Leadership , 14, 242-265.
5.
Bryk, A., Camburn, E., & Louis, K.S. ( 1999). Professional community in Chicago elementary schools: Facilitating factors and organizational consequences. Educational Administration Quarterly, 35, 751-781.
6.
Carspecken, P.F. ( 1996). Critical ethnography in educational research: A theoretical and practical guide. New York, NY: Routledge.
7.
Ciulla, J.B. ( 1998/2004). Leadership and the problem of Bogus Empowerment. In J. B. Ciulla (Ed.), Ethics, the heart of leadership (pp. 63-86). Westport, CT: Praeger.
8.
Ciulla, J.B. ( 2004). Ethics and leadership effectiveness. In J. Antonakis, A. T. Cianciolo , and R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), The nature of leadership (pp. 302-327). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
9.
Coburn, C.E. ( 2001). Collective sensemaking about reading: How teachers mediate reading policy in their professional communities. Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis, 23, 145-170.
10.
Coburn, C.E., & Russell, J.L. ( 2008). District policy and teachers’ social network. Educational Evaluation & Policy Analysis, 30, 203-235.
11.
Crowther, F., Kaagan, S.S., Ferguson, M., & Hann, L. ( 2002). Developing teacher leaders: How teacher leadership enhances school success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
12.
Darling-Hammond, L., Bullmaster, M.L., & Cobb, V.L. ( 1995). Rethinking teacher leadership through professional development schools. The Elementary School Journal, 96, 87-106.
13.
Denzin, N.K., & Lincoln, Y.S. ( 2008). The landscape of qualitative research: Theories and issues . Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
14.
Erickson, F. ( 1986). Qualitative methods in research on teaching. In M. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (pp. 119-161). New York, NY: Macmillan.
15.
Fontana, A., & Frey, J.H. ( 1998). Interviewing: The art of science. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials (pp. 47-78). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
16.
Glaser, B.G. ( 1965). The constant comparative method of qualitative analysis . Social Problems, 12, 436-445.
17.
Greenleaf, R.K. ( 2002). Servant leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness (25th anniversary ed.). Mahwah, NJ : Paulist Press.
18.
Griffin, G.A. ( 1995). Influences of shared decision making on school and classroom activity: Conversations with five teachers. The Elementary School Journal, 96, 29-45.
19.
Grumet, M. ( 1988). Bitter milk: Women and teaching. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
20.
Hatch, T., White, M.E., & Faigenbaum, D. (2005). Expertise, credibility, and influence: How teachers can influence policy, advance research, and improve performance. Teachers College Record, 107, 1004-1035.
21.
Heller, M.F., & Firestone, W.A. (1995). Who’s in charge here? Sources of leadership for change in eight schools. The Elementary School Journal, 96, 65-86.
22.
Lee, V., & Smith, J. ( 1996). Collective responsibility for learning and its effects on gains in achievement for early secondary school students. American Journal of Education, 104, 103-147.
Louis, K.S., Marks, H.M., & Kruse, S. ( 1996). Teachers’ professional community in restructuring schools. American Educational Research Journal, 33, 757-798.
25.
McLaughlin, M. ( 1994). Strategic site for teachers’ professional development . In P. P. Grimmett and J. Neufeld (Eds.), Teacher development and struggle for authenticity: Professional growth and restructuring in the context of change (pp. 31-51). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
26.
Metz, M.H. ( 1991). Real school: A universal drama amid disparate experience . In D. E. Mitchell & M. E. Goetz (Eds.), Education politics for the new century (pp. 75-91). New York, NY: Falmer Press.
27.
Ogawa, R.T., & Bossert, S.T. ( 1995). Leadership as an organizational quality. Educational Administration Quarterly, 31, 224-243.
28.
Ogawa, R.T., Sandholtz, J.H., Martinez-Flores, M., & Scribner, S.P. (2003). The substantive and symbolic consequences of a district’s standards-based curriculum. American Educational Research Journal, 40, 147-176.
29.
Page, R.N. ( 1987). Teachers’ perceptions of students: A link between classrooms, school cultures and the social order. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 18, 77-99.
30.
Page, R.N. ( 1991). Lower-track classrooms: A curricular and cultural perspective . New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
31.
Patton, M.Q. ( 2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
32.
Scribner, J.P. ( 1999). Professional development: Untangling the influence of work context on teacher learning. Educational Administration Quarterly, 38, 238-266.
33.
Scribner, J.P., Hager, D., & Warne, T. ( 2002). The paradox of professional community: Tales from two high schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 38, 45-76.
34.
Sewell, W.H. ( 1998). Culture, structure, agency, and transformation. In P. Smith (Ed.), The new cultural sociology (pp. 188-201). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
35.
Snell, J., & Swanson, J. ( 2000, April). The essential knowledge and skills of teacher leaders: A search for a conceptual framework. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.
36.
Spillane, J.P. ( 2006). Distributed leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
37.
Spillane, J.P., Hallett, T., & Diamond, J.B. ( 2003). Forms of capital and the construction of leadership: Instructional leadership in urban elementary schools. Sociology of Education, 76, 1-17.
38.
Spillane, J.P., Halverson, R., & Diamond, J.B. ( 2001). Investigating school leadership practice: A distributed perspective. Educational Researcher, 30, 23-28.
39.
Stoll, L. ( 2000). School culture. SET: Research Information for Teachers, 2000(3), 9-14.
40.
Swidler, A. ( 1998). Culture as social action. In P. Smith (Ed.), The new cultural sociology (pp. 171-187). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
41.
Swidler, A. ( 2001). Talk of love: How culture matters. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
42.
Talbert, J.E., & McLaughlin, M.W. (1994). Teacher professionalism in local school contexts. American Journal of Education, 102, 123-153.
43.
Varenne, H., & McDermott, R. ( 1999). Introduction. In H. Varenne & R. McDermott (Eds.), Successful failure: The school America builds (pp. 1-21). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
44.
Waller, W. ( 1932). The sociology of teaching. New York, NY: John Wiley.
45.
Watson, S.T., & Scribner, J.P. (2007). Beyond distributed leadership: Collaboration, interaction, and emergent reciprocal influence. Journal of School Leadership, 17, 443-468.
46.
Yukl, G. ( 1998). Leadership in organizations. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
