LITERATURE REVIEW: EXPLORING THE TERRAIN
2.6. EXPLORING THE PARAMETERS OF TEACHER LEADERSHIP WITHIN THIS SOUTH AFRICAN STUDY LEADERSHIP WITHIN THIS SOUTH AFRICAN STUDY
The purpose of this section is two-fold. Firstly I present my own understanding of teacher leadership for the South African schooling context as it developed during the course of this study. Secondly, I introduce the model of teacher leadership which developed during the course of the study and which I used in the thesis as an analytical tool.
2.6.1. Defining teacher leadership in the study
In the initial stages of my study, and particularly in the first (p. 514)43 and second (p.
45)44 chronicles I worked with Katzenmeyer and Moller’s (2001) definition of teacher leadership as it provided a useful starting point to a South African exploration of the concept. They write that “teachers who are leaders lead within and beyond the
43 Section 5.2, p. 107
44 Section 6.2, p. 187
classroom, identify with and contribute to a community of teacher learners and leaders, and influence others towards improved educational practice” (2001, p.17). In line with this conceptualisation of teacher leadership, I asserted that teacher leadership was critical to the transformation of South African schools (Chronicle 1, p. 514)45. I was of the view that one of the ways schools would be able to meet the transformation challenges they faced in post-apartheid South Africa would be to tap the leadership potential of all staff members in order to ensure sustained and whole-school change.
In the second chronicle I used Katzenmeyer and Moller’s (2001) definition of teacher leadership in the development of my own tentative definition of teacher leadership for the South African schooling context. As I mentioned in an earlier section, the Norms and Standards for Educators document (RSA, 2000) envisages a teacher who is expected to perform a range of roles; amongst them that of leader, manager and administrator. With this policy document in mind, my initial premise was that teacher leadership was a form of leadership beyond headship or formal position (Chronicle 2, p. 45)46. For me teacher leadership referred to the process of classroom-based teachers
“becoming aware of and taking up informal leadership roles both in the classroom and beyond. It includes teachers working collaboratively with all stakeholders towards a shared vision of their school within a culture of mutual respect and trust”
(Chronicle 2, p. 45)47.
However, as my research into teacher leadership evolved so too did my understanding of the term. I therefore acknowledged in the eighth chronicle that a definition of teacher leadership which excluded those teachers holding formal management positions (such as the principal, deputy principal and Head of Department) was too restrictive – too limiting in terms of how teacher leadership ought to be defined (p.
186)48. While I was convinced that teachers in informal positions of leadership in the South African context should remain central to any discussion of teacher leadership, I argued more expansively that the concept itself must also include teachers leading in formal management positions. With this distinction in mind, I defined teacher leadership in the eighth chronicle as:
45 Section 5.2, p. 107
46 Section 6.2, p. 187
47 Section 6.2, p. 187
48 Section 7.3, p. 233
a form of leadership beyond headship or formal position. It refers to teachers becoming aware of and taking up informal and formal leadership roles both in the classroom and beyond. It includes teachers working collaboratively with all stakeholders towards a shared and dynamic vision of their school within a culture of fairness, inclusion, mutual respect and trust (p. 186)49.
Thus, for me, teacher leadership is an expansive concept which refers to a range of teachers, some of whom are predominantly classroom-based while others hold formal management positions. My interest in this study is primarily in the classroom based teacher leaders as there has been little research into the leadership practices of post level one teachers in our country.
2.6.2. Describing teacher leadership: towards a model
The primary research question, which guided my study, explored how teacher leadership was understood and practiced by educators (post level one teachers and SMT members) in mainstream South African schools. In response to this question, I developed a model of teacher leadership and I discuss the three phase development process of this model in Chapter Eight of this thesis. Briefly, the first phase of the model emerged in the first chronicle (see p. 525)50 as a result of the educators’
deliberations on the meaning of the concept of teacher leadership during a professional development initiative reported on in the chronicle. In this first phase of the model, teacher leadership was understood and described according to four semi- distinct levels. However, as my research progressed, I realised that any analysis of teacher leadership according to the four levels identified in the first chronicle, was inadequate in developing a comprehensive understanding of teacher leadership. I therefore turned to the international literature on teacher leadership to determine how I could extend the model and, in so doing, offer a more nuanced analysis of teacher leadership.
49 Section 7.3, p. 233
50 Section 5.2, p. 118
In exploring the international literature on teacher leadership, I came across the work of Devaney (1987) and, in particular, her six areas of teacher leadership which I found useful in giving substance to the four levels in my model. In attempting to capture the essence of teacher leadership, the Carnegie Foundation in the United States tasked Devaney (1987) with the responsibility of developing a description of what teacher leadership might look like. Her paper entitled The lead teacher: Ways to begin, describes the following six areas in which teachers might demonstrate leadership at school level and which might assist them to become “architects of school reform”
(Wasley, 1991, p. 20):
1. Continuing to teach and improve one’s own teaching 2. Organising and leading peer reviews of school practice 3. Providing curriculum development knowledge
4. Participating in school level decision-making
5. Leading in-service education and assisting other teachers 6. Participating in performance evaluation of teachers
Each of the six areas of teacher leadership listed above is broad and captures many of the individual roles that teachers may take up, either within the classroom or beyond.
For example, area one is similar to Day and Harris’ (2002) first dimension of teacher leadership where teachers help translate the principles of school improvement into the practices of individual classrooms. This area also includes the centrality of expert practice and of expert knowledge (Zimpher, 1988), the design of learning activities and engagement in school based action research (Ash and Persall, 2000) as well as the process of reflective practice (Rogus, 1988). Organisational diagnosis and dealing with the change process (Lieberman, Saxl and Miles, 1988), action research (Ash and Persall, 2000) as well as the mediating role (Day and Harris (2002) constitute roles within area two. Joint curriculum development (Howey, 1988) is clearly a role within area three while area four is about participative leadership where all teachers feel part of the change or development and have a sense of ownership (Day and Harris, 2002). Area four also includes problem identification and resolution (Howey, 1988), conflict resolution and communication skills (Gehrke, 1991) as well as school-based planning and decision-making (Clemson-Ingram and Fessler, 1997). Area five incorporates forging close relationships with individual teachers through which
mutual learning takes place (Day and Harris, 2002), staff development (Zimpher, 1988; Clemson-Ingram and Fessler, 1997), peer coaching (Joyce and Showers, 1982) and the mentoring role of teacher leaders (Anderson and Lucasse Shannon, 1988;
Gehrke, 1988) as well as rapport building, together with building skills and confidence in others (Lieberman, Saxl and Miles, 1988) while area six includes peer assessment (Zimpher, 1988).
Devaney’s (1987) six areas of teacher leadership have been central to my study.
During the second phase of the development of the model of teacher leadership, I reorganised her six areas and mapped them onto the four semi-distinct levels. As mentioned earlier, I discuss the development of this model in detail in Chapter Eight.
These six areas enabled me to expand my model of teacher leadership for the South African context and contributed to a more finely-grained analytical tool.