To address the inequities within the educational system, there are calls for teachers to have an intentional focus on equity. Unfortunately, teachers often do not receive enough preparation within their certification programs or during in-service trainings to center equity- driven practices. This study provided insight into the features that one…

This study explores the ways in which charter schools manage principalship socialization of individuals as they move into principalship roles. The topic is important in the context of increasing concerns about the need for quality educational principalship and the pressure charter schools face to demonstrate higher levels of student achievement…

This qualitative research investigated the applicability of teacher leadership, a notion mostly grounded in the Western literatures, to the educational settings in China. The current research focused on the Chinese lead teachers, backbone teachers (BTs), their experiences, and perspectives of teacher leadership. As a program designed to increase…

Structured dialogue, grounded in self-study, has been used to improve teaching practice, but its effects on mentor practice have not been assessed. This article reports findings from an analysis of the effect of this approach toward teacher development on novice mentor's coaching skills. Using a qualitative inductive thematic analysis using…

This qualitative case study examined the distribution of leadership and the implementation of an instructional reform in a low-performing urban middle school. Leadership for the instructional reform was widely distributed and stretched across formal and informal teacher leaders. School personnel were highly invested in the instructional model and…

The purpose of this study was to explore novice teachers' perceptions of professional agency in facilitating their development of a teacher leadership stance during the initial years of their work. Participants were thirteen novice teachers who had less than three years of teaching experience in Qatari government schools. Analysis of interview…

Some recent district-level teacher leadership programs have incorporated both instructional coaching and formal evaluations into teacher leaders' (TLs) responsibilities, which research suggests could challenge the relational dynamics necessary for effective coaching. Using a sensemaking lens, we conducted a qualitative case study of one district's…

Educators in PK-12 schools were surveyed to seek their perceptions of colleagues who they considered informal teacher leaders, defined as leaders who were not appointed to a leadership role by a school or district administrator. The survey asked administrators, educational specialists, and teachers working in PK-12 schools across four states to…

This article explores contextual factors that influenced teacher leadership behavior during the evolution of a dual language education program for elementary English-language learners. Teachers' narratives provide evidence of the relative strength of school leadership streams, that is, relationships, moral purpose, and commitment to action.…

Researchers assert that the influence of teacher leadership on school change is highly contingent on the actions and beliefs of school principals. Self-efficacy theory also suggests that the extent to which teacher leaders feel they can impact change will influence how they engage with leadership opportunities. This study considers the interplay…

Increasingly, teacher leaders are being asked to undertake administrative practices, particularly around instructional policy implementation. Yet little is known about this approach to teacher leadership in current educational contexts or how it may support teachers' work as boundary spanners between administration and faculty. This case study…

Teacher leadership is frequently implemented alongside top-down mandates as a way to provide both pressure and support for change. At the same time, the convergence of policy tools with fundamentally different theories of change can complicate and hinder improvement efforts. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to examine one instance…

Research has affirmed the importance of principals and mentors in supporting novice teachers; however, little is known about how teacher leaders contribute to this work. We employed a mixed methods design to examine teacher leaders' contributions to induction by surveying principals, teachers, and other staff (n = 246) and interviewing teacher…

This study considers how configurations of leadership practices impact perceptions of implementation during large-scale reform: implementation in the United States of Common Core State Standards. Comments of 951 respondents to a national teacher survey were examined. Analysis revealed the hybrid nature of leadership enactment with a range of…

This paper describes the development and validation of a science teacher leadership instrument modeled on the seven domains of the Teacher Leader Model (TLM) Standards (The Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium, 2011). Instrument development was part of National Science Foundation--funded Mathematics and Science Partnership (MSP) program that…