Teacher leaders are critical cultural brokers: As both leaders and active classroom teachers, they possess invaluable knowledge of their school’s instructional culture, which enables them to act as powerful agents of change (Derrington & Angelle, 2013). Specifically, teacher leaders can influence the instructional culture within a school from the ground up. Rather than relying on their positional authority to drive change from the top down, their leadership centers the experiences of teachers and students to build a collaborative culture of professionalism. By openly sharing their own classroom practice, they can create an atmosphere of trust and vulnerability that is necessary to engage their colleagues in meaningful reflection and discussion.
As a classroom teacher, I was continually inspired by my teaching colleagues who dedicated themselves not only to developing their classroom practice, but also to fostering a more student- and teacher-centered instructional culture as teacher leaders. In my current role as a researcher, reflecting on their stories has motivated me to explore the power and potential of teacher leadership anchored in classroom practice.
To learn more, I interviewed 10 classroom teachers, referred to me by instructional coaches in the field, who had assumed leadership roles within their schools. These teacher leaders taught students in grades 1–12 and worked in a variety of school contexts, including public and private schools in the United States and abroad. Their work included a range of leadership responsibilities, such as facilitating professional development, leading professional learning communities, and serving as department chairs, in addition to classroom teaching.
Several interesting findings emerged from the interviews. Throughout my conversations with the teacher leaders, they spoke about the ways they worked to create collaborative cultures of learning at their schools and develop a shared vision for instructional improvement with their colleagues.
Teacher leadership begins with a vision for improving the instructional culture and a desire to actualize that vision in community.
A Culture of Collaborative Learning
Creating a culture of collaborative learning was an important part of the work that the teacher leaders described. Motivated by the desire to learn and improve their practice with their teaching colleagues, one of the main ways they developed this culture was by inviting other teachers to observe their classrooms and offer and receive feedback on instructional practices.
As Nick, a middle school teacher leader commented, “It’s not just leading from what we say, but from what we do. You can reach people by sharing what you’re doing in your classroom. It’s looking for ways to create a culture where you can give feedback to each other.”
Creating a culture of collaborative learning required the teacher leaders to assume the role of learners themselves as they considered the diverse perspectives of their colleagues and engaged in ongoing reflection about their own teaching practices. As Nigel, a high school teacher leader commented, “A teacher leader needs to be a learner, not just about ways to teach content, but about new ways of understanding perspectives outside their own.”
Sharing one’s teaching practice, accepting feedback, and engaging in open dialogue with others requires an atmosphere of trust and respect. Several of the teacher leaders spoke about the role of vulnerability in creating such an atmosphere. Malia, an elementary school teacher leader shared:
A leader needs to be willing to be vulnerable, and to listen. Many of my colleagues had been teaching since I was a child, and some of them didn’t really want to change their strategies. Having this leadership role helped me open myself to them, to be vulnerable with them, to say, this is what I’m doing.We started having more conversations about my journey, like, what made my students successful? Then I started giving them opportunities to come to my class to see what I was doing. I would ask them, “What do you think?” I knew that asking for their feedback empowered them to feel vulnerable as well. Asking for feedback said to them, I’m a colleague, and I also need people to support me and to give me feedback.
By making herself vulnerable through sharing her practice, Malia demonstrated to her colleagues that she not only valued and respected their feedback, but also needed their support. This empowered Malia’s colleagues, including those who were resistant to change, to share their perspectives, and invited them into ongoing conversation about their own classroom practice in which they could be vulnerable. This mutual vulnerability supported the teacher leaders in creating the conditions necessary for collective growth and action.
Building a Shared Vision for Instructional Improvement
Reflecting on and discussing teaching practices in an atmosphere of vulnerability and collaboration supported the teacher leaders in building a shared vision for instructional improvement with their colleagues. Tanya, a high school teacher leader, talked about how she engaged her colleagues in a series of discussions that ultimately resulted in the restructuring of the mathematics program at her school to address inequities related to tracking. After years spent creating a culture that supported ongoing discussion and collaboration between her fellow teachers, as well as other stakeholders within the district and larger community, she gathered her colleagues together to talk about demographic data from her district that illustrated the inequitable impacts of tracking:
My colleagues and I knew that there was never any room for students who wanted to move from the college prep track to the honors track. It was a huge equity issue. I presented them with the demographic data for our first-year honors program. We talked about how the demographics were very different between those two tracks. The honors track was mostly white, while the college prep track included most of our students of color and neurodiverse learners. This made for a great conversation about, okay, well . . . how do we find solutions? We all wanted to do something about it. It was just a matter of finding the right fit for our school. So, I shared a couple different ways that other schools were handling that same issue. We looked at those different models together, rather than me being the one to push a model.
After considering different models, Tanya and her colleagues worked together to develop a program in which all the freshmen were enrolled in the same mathematics classes and given the opportunity to decide for themselves if they wanted to enroll in the honors program. Tanya presented this program to her school and district leaders, who decided to implement it. As a result, the honors program grew considerably.
Tanya’s story illustrates a strategic approach to leadership that supported her colleagues in acting collectively and fostered a more equitable, student-centered instructional culture. She talked about the reasoning behind this approach:
I have learned that as a leader, I need to bring my colleagues on the journey of finding solutions. In the past, I found that when my colleagues weren’t part of building the solution, the buy-in was not there. Then if something didn’t go right, they immediately came back to me and said it’s not working, but when they built it with me and they felt a part of the process and something didn’t work, then we all looked to make it work together.
Engaging her colleagues in developing a solution helped Tanya create a sense of shared ownership and agency. This supported her work toward another important goal, which was to build leadership capacity:
Building other people up to be leaders is important to me. I want my colleagues to feel like they’re brought into the process. It’s not to manipulate them into the change that I want. It’s to make them feel like their words and their opinions are valued, and hopefully inspire them to be leaders as well.
As Tanya’s story illustrates, creating a shared vision for instructional improvement through teacher leadership is a process that unfolds over time and centers on empowering other teachers. Her story also shows how teacher leaders can act as cultural brokers, connecting teachers and students with school and district leaders and advocating for programs to address important needs to improve the instructional culture.
These teacher leaders developed a culture of learning and reflection that invited vulnerability.
Leadership as an Evolving Process
Collaborative school cultures that support teachers in coming together to improve instructional practices have been linked to increased student achievement and a greater sense of collective efficacy among teachers (Lewis et al., 2016). Teacher leaders have a critical role to play in establishing this culture. Teacher leadership begins with a vision for improving the instructional culture and a desire to actualize that vision in community. Sharing one’s teaching practice with others and thinking strategically about how to create a professional community that supports meaningful collaboration are the first steps toward that vision.
In reflecting on my conversations with the 10 teacher leaders I interviewed, I have come to see their leadership work as an evolving and deepening process that was motivated by their desire to further their learning and develop their teaching practices in community. Through sharing practice with colleagues, these teacher leaders developed a culture of learning and reflection that invited vulnerability. By building solutions to issues impacting student learning together with their colleagues, they built a sense of collective empowerment.
