Teacher Leaders Providing Leadership to Teams of Teachers and Administrators
Research on Teacher Leaders Providing Leadership to Teams of Teachers and Administrators
Teacher leaders are frequently called upon to provide leadership as members of teams of teachers, such as grade-level teams, or as members of building-level leadership teams that include administrators, such as school councils or school improvement teams. In these teams, teacher leaders serve as leaders by drawing from their knowledge of subject matter content, their experience in the classroom, and/or their facilitation skills. Thirteen studies were identified that featured teacher leaders providing leadership to teams of teachers and administrators. The construct of teacher leaders “providing leadership” to instructional teams is described in varying degrees of detail in these studies. In some studies the leadership provided by teacher leaders was implied, based on their inclusion on the team (Burch & Spillane, 2003; Doyle, 2000; Neufeld & Woodworth, 2000; Petzko, 2002; Wallace et al., 1990). More often, the responsibility of leadership of grade- and building-level teams was more explicitly described as part of teacher leader practice (Bliss, Fahreney & Steffy, 1995; Coggins, Stoddard & Cutler, 2003; Feldman & Tung, 2002; Hammerman, 1997; Keedy, 1999; Little, 1995; Madsen, Gallagher & Lanier, 1991; Madsen & Lanier, 1992). In this review, the language used to describe individual studies conveys the degree to which teacher leaders’ role as leader of a team was made explicit in the study itself (i.e. the term “facilitated” is used in a study where teacher leaders were described as actively leading a team, and “involved” is used to describe a study where their leadership was implied).
The MSP-Knowledge Management and Dissemination project conducted an extensive review of the empirical literature on teacher leadership. The review was based on a rigorous process developed by the MSP-KMD project (read a detailed description of the process) that applied standards of evidence to the findings of each study. In the review, thirteen studies were identified that investigated the work of teacher leaders in teams of teachers and administrators. Nine studies investigated teacher leaders’ leadership of teams of teachers (Bliss et al., 1995; Burch & Spillane, 2003; Coggins et al., 2003; Feldman & Tung, 2002; Hammerman, 1997; Keedy, 1999; Little, 1995; Madsen et al., 1991; Madsen & Lanier, 1992). Four studies examined teacher leaders’ leadership of building-level teams that consisted of teachers and administrators (Doyle, 2000; Neufeld & Woodworth, 2000; Petzko, 2002; Wallace et al., 1990).
This set of thirteen studies investigated the topic in three ways: teacher leaders’ impact as leaders of grade-level and building-level teams, factors that influenced teacher leader-led teams of teachers and administrators, and reports of teacher leader participation in instructional teams.
Teacher leaders’ impact as leaders of grade-level and building-level teams
On grade-level teams, teacher leaders impact the teachers whom they lead; however, there is no evidence that teacher leaders impact administrators in their work providing leadership to building-level teams. Three studies investigated the role of the teacher leader as a part of grade-level teams (Feldman & Tung, 2002) and school leadership teams (Wallace et al., 1990), and their work on grade-level teams relative to other teacher leader functions (Coggins et al., 2003). Coggins et al. (2003) found that the coaches (i.e., teacher leaders) believed they were most effective supporting reform efforts in their schools when facilitating teams of teachers in meetings that were focused on instruction (such as analysis of student achievement data and discussions of research). Coaches reported that other coaching responsibilities (such as finding resources for teachers or coordinating school reform efforts) were less effective at improving teachers’ classroom practice. Feldman and Tung (2002) investigated the perceptions of teachers on grade-level teams led by coaches (i.e., teacher leaders). They reported that teachers saw the coaches as important to the functioning of the team and that the coaches had influenced their classroom instruction. Wallace et al. (1990) studied teacher leaders’ perception of their participation in their school leadership teams. They found that teacher leaders provided improved representation of teachers’ needs in these meetings. The teacher leaders reported that the greatest limitation for these teams was the lack of genuine collaboration in decision-making with school administrators.
It should be noted that these three studies investigated teacher leaders from unspecified subject areas, therefore we do not know if these were studies in mathematics or science. Future studies should report the subject area(s) that are addressed through the work of these teams so that the relevance of subject area may be examined in subsequent reviews of the published literature. Coggins et al. (2003) and Feldman and Tung (2002) each employed multiple sources of data and Coggins et al. (2003) provided detailed descriptions in support of the reliability of the data analysis strategies and instrumentation, providing additional confidence in the validity of the findings. These methodological strengths, in studies of different grade ranges, support the finding that teacher leaders impacted the teachers with whom they worked with on grade-level teams, although the kind of impact is not detailed or substantiated beyond self-reported data. Wallace et al. (1990) offered limited documentation of their data collection strategies and analysis, indicating that further study is warranted of the impact of teacher leaders on teams that included school administrators.
Factors that influence teacher leader-led teams of teachers and/or administrators
A range of factors have been investigated that may influence the functioning of teacher leader-led teams of teachers and administrators. Studies included findings on the influence on teacher leaders’ leadership of teams by subject matter (Bliss et al., 1995; Keedy, 1999; Little, 1995), group dynamics (Hammerman, 1997; Neufeld & Woodworth, 2000), and teacher leader preparation (Madsen et al., 1991; Madsen & Lanier, 1992).
There is some evidence that teacher leaders provided greater instructional leadership in teams of teachers when focused on specific subject areas than in teams with an interdisciplinary focus. Keedy (1999) compared the instructional leadership of teacher leaders facilitating two teacher study groups: one focused specifically on mathematics and science and the other with an interdisciplinary focus. Keedy found that the teacher leader of the mathematics and science group demonstrated greater instructional leadership than the facilitator of the interdisciplinary study group, by sustaining a greater focus on curricular and instructional issues in group meetings. Little (1995) found that teacher leaders who led interdisciplinary teams of teachers as department heads were closely associated with administration and administrative authority, while teacher leaders who led teams of teachers organized around subject areas derived their authority from their subject area affiliations. Bliss et al. (1995) found that subject matter influenced the role of teacher leaders in providing leadership to teams of teachers, in an investigation of department chairs. Bliss et al. (1995) found that the primary responsibility for the chair in mathematics was to provide instructional leadership, and the chairs of science, social studies, and English departments were reported as primarily responsible for administration.
Findings from Keedy (1999) and Little (1995) are supported by the use of multiple sources of data, clear description of data analysis techniques, and triangulation of data collection. Findings from across these three studies suggest that teacher leaders are more likely to exhibit instructional leadership in teacher teams focused on mathematics or science (or other specific subject area) than when leading an interdisciplinary team.
Teams of teachers and administrators that included teacher leaders are impacted by the way team members interact with one another. Hammerman (1997) found that teacher leader-led inquiry groups of teachers were dependent on the ability of group members to listen, support and respect one another. Neufeld and Woodworth (2000) found that high-functioning groups (those that fully involved teacher members and facilitated cross-school discussions on instruction), that included teacher leaders working with teachers and administrators, were collaborative, collegial and focused on instruction. The validity of these findings is strengthened through the use of multiple sources of data (Hammerman, 1997; Neufeld & Woodworth, 2000), and documentation of protections against potential bias in data analysis (Hammerman, 1997). The findings from these studies indicate that the work of teacher leader-led teams of teachers and administrators was influenced by how team members communicate and work collaboratively.
Deepening teacher leader knowledge of support strategies for working with other teachers may help them provide leadership to teams of teachers. Madsen et al. (1991) and Madsen and Lanier (1992) found that, through their involvement in a preparation program, teacher leaders moved into the role of facilitating grade-level teams of middle grades teachers of mathematics and science. Both studies drew from the same data sources as part of a single program evaluation. Participation in the preparation program was linked to an increase in teacher leader knowledge of and experience with methods for supporting grade-level groups of teachers. Madsen et al., (1991) and Madsen and Lanier (1992) employed multiple sources of data and triangulate data collection, supporting the validity of the findings. The generalizability of these findings is limited, as participation in the study was voluntary and therefore may not be representative of teacher leaders in general. This concern indicates that additional study is warranted into the impact of teacher leader preparation on the leadership they provide to teams of teachers.
Teacher leader participation on instructional teams reported as an activity
There is additional evidence of teacher leaders’ involvement in teams of teachers or school administrators. Three studies (Burch & Spillane, 2003; Doyle, 2000; Petzko, 2002) reported teacher leader involvement in grade-level (Burch & Spillane, 2003) and building-level (Doyle, 2000; Petzko, 2002) teams, among other teacher leader responsibilities. These studies did not investigate the effect or nature of teacher leader participation in these teams, but provided additional evidence that teacher leaders are called upon to participate in instructional teams of teachers and administrators. In these three studies, the leadership provided by teacher leaders is implied by their involvement on the team and not explicitly stated. These studies occurred at elementary (Burch and Spillane, 2003; Petzko, 2002) and middle grade levels (Doyle, 2000) and across subject areas, suggesting that the activity of teacher leaders providing leadership to teams of teachers and/or school administrators may be generalizable across grade levels.
For a bibliography for the research on teacher leaders providing leadership to teams of teachers and administrators, click here. [PDF 13K]
The thirteen studies described above were part of a more inclusive review of research on teacher leaders' administrative practices. For a summary of research on these practices, click here. [PDF 126K]
