Teachers as Leaders: A Powerful Force (Professional Services)

In my second year of teaching I was provided with a powerful professional opportunity when I  became  part  of  the  leadership  team  for  a new, not-yet-opened school. The four of us met regularly with the principal and helped to determine the school’s general philosophy. When the remaining staff was hired, we met as grade teams and made decisions about how the school’s overarching ideals would  be  transformed  into  the reality of our everyday classrooms.

Later  when  the  school  opened,  some  community  members  were  faced  with  unfamiliar instructional practices. Our  administrator supported us fully, giving parents the message that the  teachers were  knowledgeable professionals who made  sound instructional decisions. This support provided us with the freedom to take risks.

Teams met regularly, during and outside the instructional day (although time to meet during the day was the administrator’s general goal), to set our goals and to discuss our classroom practice and our instructional decisions, always focusing on the academic and social development of students. The principal ensured that we  had the resources we needed. We were a professional learning community without being told we were one.

There is no  doubt  about  the impact  this experience had  on  us: we became more confident, and were better able to articulate our classroom practice and the rationale for our decisions. With increased confidence came a desire for more knowledge and the cycle repeated itself. We clearly were teacher leaders within our school. Later, many of us became leaders in other venues, and it is only now, on reflection, that I appreciate the full impact of the decision to empower the staff to become leaders.

Teacher leadership takes many forms

My experience was an excellent example of how teacher leadership can be fostered, although at the time very few people were talking about this concept. More traditionally, teacher leadership was defined as an assigned role – a team leader or literacy coach, for example. Today teacher leadership is seen more comprehensively. It can be fostered in many ways, all of which can lead to personal development and growth, enhanced teaching and student achievement,  collegiality and professionalism, and ultimately to school growth and improvement. All teachers can be leaders if they choose to take the journey and get the necessary supports.

At its heart, the concept of teacher leadership recognizes teachers  as  dedicated  professionals, engaged in continuous improvement and reflection. There is a growing recognition that teachers  need  to  be  given  more  control  over  how they teach: they need opportunities to work as a group and to ask challenging questions about the instruction in their school.

The province plays a positive role

The Ontario government is partly responsible for  the  current  emphasis  on  teacher  leadership in this province. It has  heralded teachers as professionals and has been providing more opportunities for them to take control over their professional lives.

The   recently   released   School  Effectiveness Framework provides an opportunity for teacher leadership. The purpose of the  framework is to allow an examination of the climate and instructional practices of the school and to foster decision making about how to optimize instruction. As with other such initiatives, implementation is key. A strong administrator will provide staff with opportunities during the day to talk about the indicators the framework describes. A strong administrator will emphasize repeatedly that this process is not about evaluation and will not be part of  any  teacher’s performance appraisal. A less  competent  administrator  might  hand  the framework to the staff and tell them that  they need to use it as a guide to examine their own instructional practices and report back during the TPA process. Any  teacher would be apprehensive about that!

The strong relationships that ETFO local leaders have developed with school board officials, as well as the relationships between the various stakeholders at the provincial level, will work to ensure that the implementation of  the framework goes  as planned. It will be important for teachers  who  have  concerns  to  communicate with their ETFO local leadership.

The Ministry of Education has committed $5 million  to  the  Teacher Leadership and Learning Program to  fund  projects  for  experienced classroom teachers who seek a leadership role in curriculum development, instructional practice, or in supporting other teachers. This is a powerful example of teacher leadership!

Again the key is implementation. We have learned that some school boards will allow only projects that focused on literacy or numeracy to go forward. This was not the ministry’s intention. The application process for projects to begin next fall will get underway soon, and it is hoped that issues that arose during the pilot phase can be resolved at that time.

ETFO promotes teacher leadership

ETFO’s Professional Services department has long recognized the importance and benefits of teacher leadership and offers a number of programs for members who are encouraged to share their learning with colleagues.

• Teachers Learning Together supports teams of teachers pursuing action research while working with staff from education faculties.
• Reflections on Practice, now in its fourth year, encourages an examination of instructional practice. (For a description see “Reflections on Practice,” Voice, Winter 2006)
• ETFO Union School participants are engaged this year in professional learning, reflective practice, and are completing a practicum assignment exploring the concept of effective local leadership.

We are on the cusp of a remarkable change in how teachers and teaching are viewed in this province. As the push towards  teacher leadership continues, teacher unions like ETFO have a complex and challenging role. We will have to ensure that the necessary conditions for teacher leadership exist and are protected in collective agreements, that programs respect the rights of participants, and that opportunities are available for all teachers. We will need to work to protect funding for these projects so that they can be sustained over time.

Any such dramatic change has incredible promise as well as inherent risk. It is incumbent upon us all to ensure that the risks are communicated, managed, and diminished so that the promise may be realize