Teacher leaders can lead quietly in their classrooms through building knowledge, conducting research, reflecting on their practices, and aligning beliefs and actions. They can also lead more visibly by advocating for themselves, students, colleagues, and the teaching profession. This includes finding mentors, joining professional organizations, and sharing research. While advocating requires risks, clear goals and planning can help. The difference between an effective teacher and teacher leader is that leaders influence beyond their own classrooms, while professionals continue learning and contribute to the teaching field.

1. Teacher Leadership:
Thinking and Action

2. Table of Contents
• Characteristics of Leaders
• Thinking
• Building Your Knowledge
• Researching and Exploring New Ideas
• Reflection
• Aligning Beliefs and Practices
• Action
• Advocating for Yourself
• Finding a Mentor
• Joining a Professional Organization
• Sharing Research and Practice
• Advocating for Others

3. Characteristics of Leaders?

4. Characteristics of Teachers Who
Demonstrate Power
• High motivation to change
• High self-esteem
• Creative problem solving
• Assertiveness
• Deep commitment to students
• Understanding of children's needs
• High regard for professional development
(Berry, 1995)

5. Ways Teachers Use Their Power
• To involve and support families
• To seek and engage in professional development
• To set and maintain high expectations
• To speak for the profession
• To contribute to the larger good of society and
adhere to a standard of excellence in all that they
do
(Couchenour & Dimino, 1999)

6. Thinking: Quiet Ways to Lead
• Building your knowledge
• Researching and exploring new ideas
• Reflecting
• Aligning beliefs and practices

7. Building Your Knowledge: Know the Issues
Could you explain the controversies surrounding these
terms to a noneducator?
Tenure Professionaldevelopment
NBPTS Alternative licensure
Zero tolerance TVAAS/VAM
Common Core PARCC
RTI Computer-based testing
Vouchers Race and inequality
School lunch programs Charter schools
Restorative justice School violence
Standardized testing Scripted curriculum
Privatization of education Bullying

8. Researching and Exploring New Ideas
Teacher research addresses issues of power within
the structures of “school.”
• “Teachers who collect their own data to use in making
decisions about their schools and classrooms” (Mills,
2003)
• Helping fight “remote controlling” of teachers (Yendol-
Hoppey, 2006)

9. Steps in Teacher Research
• Decide what it is you want to know and write your research
question(s).
• Conduct a review of the literature; see what the research
says about your question.
• Make a plan!
• Decide who you are going to study.
• Decide what you are going to do and how often and for
how long you are going to do it.
• Decide what exactly you are going to measure and how
you will measure any changes.
• Implement your plan and collect your data.
• Analyze your data.
• Make changes in your instruction based on what you find
out.

10. Reflection Is . . .
Thinking that involves intentional questioning and
critiquing of beliefs, practices, or knowledge with
the intent to become more mindful of and
responsive to the associated implications and
assumptions
• Open-mindedness
• Responsibility
• Wholeheartedness
(Dewey, 1933)

11. Aligning Beliefs and Practices
Clearly articulate what you believe about
• Children
• Learning
• Teaching
Carefully examine your practices
• Is there evidence that what you are doing
matches your beliefs?
• Where are there gaps?
• What needs to change in order to be aligned:
beliefs or practices?

12. Action: Leadership Out Loud
• Advocating for yourself
• Find a mentor
• Join a professional organization
• Share research and practice
• Advocating for others
• Students
• Colleagues
• Public schools
• The teaching profession

13. Advocating for Yourself: Mentor
• Official (school-assigned) mentoring
• Unofficial (your choice) mentoring
• Should you search for a mentor at your school or outside
of it?
• Is it important that you and your mentor work at the
same grade level?
• Are you comfortable sharing your concerns about your
teaching with the person?
• Do your personalities mesh?

14. Advocating for Yourself:
Professional Organizations
• Take time to figure out the right organization for
you
• Invest money in a membership
• Read the publications
• Attend the annual conference
• Present within your professional organization
(start local. . .)

15. Advocating for Yourself: Sharing
Understand the context of your school
• Spend time watching your colleagues
• Run your idea/plan by a trusted mentor
• Start small
• Talk to your principal

16. Advocating for Others
What holds teachers back?
• Lack of time
• Belief that politics isn’t part of teaching
• Lack of confidence in public speaking (or writing,
or networking, etc.) abilities
• Fear of offending administrators
• Fear of drawing more ire from the public
• Belief that time spent out of the classroom will
harm students’ learning
(Coulucci, 2013)

17. Advocating for Others
• Power
• Influence

18. Advocating for Others
Guidelines for speaking out
• Consider the risks
• Have a clear goal in mind
• Talk with your administrator(s)
• Get others on board
• Know your audience
• Overplan
• Stay focused
(Zemelman & Ross, 2009)

19. 2010 Florida Teacher of the Year
Speaks Out
Her video letter is directed at Florida, but could
apply to many states.

20. Pick a “Team” of Two or Three and
Explore the Issues in Your State
Look at:
• Newspaper articles
• Blogs
• Department of Education website
• Legislation
Create your own “Dear John” letter to your state

21. Share: What Issues Did You Find?

22. Through Your Thinking and Action
• What can you control?
• What can you influence?

23. The Bottom Line:
• What is the difference between an effective
teacher and an effective teacher leader?
• What is the difference between a teacher and a
teaching professional?

24. Summary
• Teacher leaders share characteristics of all good
leaders.
• Teacher leaders can lead quietly in their own
classrooms through building their knowledge,
conducting research, reflecting, and aligning their
practices with their beliefs.
• Teacher leaders can lead in a more visible way by
advocating for themselves and others, both
within and outside of schools.

25. References
Berry, B. (1995). School restructuring and teacher power: The case of Keels
Elementary. In A. Leiberman (Ed.), The work of restructuring schools:
Building from the ground up (pp. 11-135). New York: Teachers College
Press.
Couchenour, D. & Dimino, B. (1999). Teacher power: Who has it, how to get
it, and what to do with it. Childhood Education, 75,194-198.
Coulucci, A. (10 September, 2013). Five beliefs that hold teachers back from
leading. Education Week Teacher. Retrieved from: http://
www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2013/09/10/ctq_colucci_leaders.html.
Dewey, J. (1933). How we think. Chicago, IL: Henry Regnery.
Mills, G. E. (2003). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher (2nd
Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2006, Summer). Understanding the complexity of teacher
learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, Division K Newsletter: American
Educational Research Association, pp. 9-11.
Zemelman, S. & Ross, H. (2009). 13 steps to teacher empowerment: Taking a
more active role in your school community. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.