The term teacher leader is one that I am hesitant to use in 2009. While I stand in awe of the way great teachers are able to juggle unit planning, parent-teacher conferences, building relationships with students, and after school meetings, while keeping their family as a priority, I have been in education long enough to see the meaning of teacher leader evolve.
As a first year teacher, the term teacher leader was reserved for someone in our school with ten or more years of experience. The only way that I was going to become a leader was to wait nine more years or enter the field of educational administration. While working with high school teachers, I have frequently observed the department chair as the teacher leader. I suppose this makes the other teachers in department meetings teacher followers.
Within the past three years, I have observed teacher leaders who are entering the teaching profession and teacher leaders who are in their final year of teaching. I have observed professional learning communities in which each teacher has a voice in selecting the team norms and each teacher is expected to contribute to the curriculum development for that specific course.
"No matter how competently managed a school may be, it is the extra quality of leadership that makes the difference between ordinary and extraordinary performance" (Sergiovanni, 1990). Do we need one teacher leader in each department? Do we need young teachers to wait until their ten year anniversary with the school district before they begin assuming leadership responsibilities? What is your view of Teacher Leaders in 2009?
References:
Sergiovanni, T. (1990). Value-added leadership: How to get extraordinary
performance in schools. New York: Harcourt Brace Javonovich.
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