A teacher leader is not someone who simply stands in front of the classroom and lectures at students day in and day out just to get a pay check. A teacher leader is invested in the educational system and acts as an active participant and educational reform and decision making. Teachers are probably the most important part of a student's education; they either make or break it. According to
Leadership for Student Learning: Redefining the Teacher as Leader http://www.iel.org/programs/21st/Reports/teachlearn.pdf, "teacher leaders seek challenge, change, and growth" (10) Any other professional, this study argues, is naturally in the leader position, but teachers, however, face many challenges in this area
. Leadership for Student Learning argues that teachers need to be a part of the important decision making processes in their school; after all, don't these decisions affect them the most? Saying that there are very few genuine teacher leaders in today's schools, I hope to change that. I hope that all of us ProTeach grads become teacher leaders and help move the educational system in the right direction! We need to change the educational system from being mostly "top-down"--teachers need to be an integral part of administrative decisions in the schools. Many people view teaching as a "flat" career, meaning that you can't really advance and move up the ladder, as in so many other professions. Well, people need to take pride in themselves and WANT to advance in skill as a teacher; your future students will thank you!
Teacher Leadership Today http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/teacher_leadership_today/
is the center for teaching equality. This website has blogs and book reviews that deal with all things that involve teacher leadership. There are posts on all sorts of teacher leadership topics, such as "What Makes for a Great Teacher Leader?" and "More Great Start of School Advice." This website contains many great blogs, all written by actual teachers, and they offer great advice about how to become a great teacher leader. I think one of the key aspects in becoming a teacher leader is to be flexible and adaptable. Teachers that are set in their ways and have no intention of changing and learning because they have job security give the field of education a bad name. Teachers need to remember that THE STUDENTS are our main priority, and therefore we need to keep up with the times and be a part of the decision making processes in our schools.
Why do you think there are so few teacher leaders in schools??
I think that teachers might get turned off by the idea of doing even more, and that's why few are considered "teacher leaders." Unfortunately, teaching is beyond a full-time job--it goes home with you, and you carry it around all the time. It's not to say that teachers that aren't teacher leaders don't care about their students or improving their lives and communities, but that they already do SO MUCH during the day, and deal with so much with so little gratitude that they have to just stop and breathe (and go home and relax!) after a certain point and simply can't do any more. It might work out better--those who can't hack it go home, relax, and prepare for the next day instead of taking on too much and burning out.
ReplyDeleteI think that there are so few because it is a very time consuming thing. Many teachers have families and have "lives outside the school." I think many teachers fall into the feeling of just going to work, teaching the students, and then leaving their work at the school... like many people do with other professions. The problem is that there is more than just "teaching" at the school, there are far more opportunities for teachers to become an integral part in students lives, and many teachers shun the idea of being that involved... sad..
ReplyDeleteI think that the nature of the job limits the number of teacher leaders. Teacher leaders have to do more work for the same pay as they would if they were just concerned with their own classroom. The added time commitment can be intimidating and not worth the non-financial rewards. If there was a more comprehensive career ladder in place in the education system and teacher leaders were valued and paid more, I feel that we would see an increase of teacher leaders in the future. I think they're out there, they just don't feel they have the time to make a difference.
ReplyDeleteI think part of the reason is that this idea is relatively new and younger teachers are unwilling to take on this task against older teachers with more experience. I've seen within out practicum that younger teachers are often categorized as being "out of touch" with how education works. I also think that some administrators don't like the idea of giving up control to teachers and like the current employer employee relationship that has remained dominant.
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