LITERATURE REVIEW
2.4 EMERGENT FORMS OF LEADERSHIP
2.4.3 Teacher leaders are principally expert teachers
more noticeable or prevalent. I feel that these are very encouraging developments in terms of school improvement. According to Wenger et al. (2002, p.123) cited in Harris and Spillane (2008), as schools become involved with complex collaborative arrangements, distributed forms of leadership will be required to “cross multiple types of boundaries and to share ideas and insights”. According to Harris and Spillane (2008, p. 32) “distributed leadership has empirical power” and research evidence is increasingly indicating that distributed leadership improves on organisational outcomes and student learning. Harris et al. (2007) cited in Harris and Spillane (2008, p. 32) also state that “there are an increasing number of studies that highlight a powerful relationship between distributed forms of leadership and positive organisational change”.
In the following section I contextualize where the teacher leader is aligned within the broader concept of distributed leadership.
responsibility to encourage teachers to become closely involved in decision-making within the school, thus contributing to the power-sharing in schools. Muijs and Harris (2003) conclude that teacher leadership primarily involves forms of empowerment and agency which are also rooted in distributed leadership theory.
There are various views on what is considered to be teacher leadership. Lambert (1998) defines teacher-leadership for school capacity building as broad-based, skilful involvement in the work of leadership. Lambert (1998) suggests that this perspective requires working with two critical dimensions of involvement, namely, “breadth and skillfulness”. Katzenmeyer and Moller (2001, pp.11-12) identify three teacher leadership role functions:
First, a teacher may offer leadership to students or to colleagues in carrying out their responsibilities. Second, the function of a teacher leader may be to contribute to operational tasks within or outside the school. Finally, teacher leaders may function in governance or in decision-making capacities within or outside the school.
Some researchers take the responsibility of leadership beyond the teachers. In terms of broad- based involvement, Lambert (1998) refers to many people, such as teachers, parents, pupils and community being involved with the work of leadership. In the context of South Africa, parents who serve on governing bodies display leadership skills during the course of carrying out their duties. They participate in decision making processes whereby they interrogate, ratify and guide the SMT in the implementation of short and long-term goals. Children serve as prefects, class captains or group leaders and are required to enact leadership in those roles. In terms of
skillfulness, Lambert (1998) further refers to participants who show leadership disposition and who practice skilful involvement by having a comprehensive understanding and by
demonstrating proficiency. I believe that our teachers have the skills and creativity to carry out tasks proficiently. According to Smylie (1995, p.5) “the most visible opportunities for teacher leadership have come from now familiar forms of work redesign-career ladders; lead, master, and mentor teacher roles; and participative decision making”. He takes the position that the broader context of the teacher‟s work and work places is not being investigated adequately to understand the nature and function of teacher leadership. Yukl (1994) states that leadership generally, and teacher leadership specifically, is an organisational phenomenon. According to Smylie (1995, p.6), teacher leadership “occurs in, is influenced by, and exerts influence on
structural, social, political, and cultural dimensions of school organizations”. In addition he points out that several authors believe that the contexts of teacher leadership need to be
developed if we wish to develop teacher leadership. I agree with this view because, in the South African context, it can be argued that teacher leaders operate within strictly controlled
environments, where the school principal is accountable to the Department of Education, which in turn is answerable to political figures. I feel that whilst there must be accountability, it must not be enforced to the extent that teacher leadership development is stunted.
Certainly teacher leadership, in my opinion, needs to be encouraged to flourish in our South African Schools but, because of the multifaceted talents of the many teachers in our schools, this under-utilised resource needs to be channelled for maximum effect by planned organisation. To achieve this, I feel that there needs to be a system or structure which seeks to find a happy medium between the top- down and bottom- up approaches. According to Day and Harris (2002, p.960) dispersed leadership dispels the “notion of structure as a means of control” but rather it is
“a vehicle for empowering others”. Teacher leaders can easily, and unwittingly, work in
opposition to each other. To obviate this problem constant communication and debate should be encouraged around issues. I feel that a school can lose focus if nothing is put in place to temper the micro politics that play themselves out in the school, but I also hold the view that too much power is often vested in the heads of schools. Power makes it impossible to remove those principals who become incapable of being effective in strengthening teacher leader bases or those principals who impede transformative leadership or distributed leadership opportunities.
Certainly tasks should be shared or delegated. Katzenmeyer & Moller (2001, p.12) make the point that “operational tasks keep the school organised and moving towards its goals”. They acknowledge that “some teachers take on more formal leadership roles in their professional organizations. Teachers serve on task forces, boards, or commissions that have a voice in the design of state or district curriculum and assessment” (Katzenmeyer and Moller, 2001, p.12). I support the view that for any school or educational institution to function effectively, there needs to be formal organisation or structure. However I feel that such structures must be based on power sharing and leadership distribution.
In the following section I look at other areas where teacher leaders impact on the lives of others.
2.5 TEACHER LEADER ROLES: BROKERING, PARTICIPATING, MEDIATING AND