Enhancing Teacher Leadership By Fer & Monik

ENHANCING TEACHER LEADERSHIP
To start, we considered relevant to mention the following phrase: “Teachers are leaders when they function in professional communities to affect students’ learning; contribute to school improvement; inspire excellence in practice; and empower stakeholders to participate in educational improvements” (Childs-Bowen, Moller, and Scrivner, 2000 p.28).
As it is indicated above, teacher leaders have many characteristics and functions that distinguish them from the others. They are creative and they are always looking for new ways to solve a problem, but the most important thing is that their main purpose is to affect students’ learning, so that they can use different and effective study strategies and they really learn from that. As a result, students see them as models to follow, because their teachers will have inspired them to do what seemed to be impossible: that they like learning, or even studying.
Another important point about teacher leaders is that they have lots of ideas to share. This makes that they can propose school improvements and they can sometimes carry them out.
All of this sounds marvelous, but sometimes it is not as easy at it seems. As teachers, we can make an effort in order to get our objectives and to become teacher leaders. So, there are many tips to encourage teacher leadership, but we just included some of them that we considered as the most relevant:
Value and respect the role and work of teacher leaders
Promote and facilitate collaboration
Involve faculty in decision making
There are many strategies that can be used for enhancing teacher leadership at schools. So, we mention below each strategy and what they are referring to.
Strategy 1: Recognize the Importance of Teacher Leaders. It is about how teacher leaders can affect a way big of teaching, not just in the school but outside too.
Strategy 2: Identify and Create Opportunities for Leaders. The different levels and types of leadership we can find at school. The role of the teacher at certain level and how the principal can create those places for leaders.
Strategy 3: Establish Professional Development Programs. How teachers can get involved in those programs which develop and improve professionalism, specifically for those who check programs.
Strategy 4: Identify Barriers. It mentions some strategies or tips to get over those problems which impede progress of leadership at schools. (Colleagues, time, norms, etc.)
Strategy 5: Improve Development Programs. It says that members at school must be the responsible for those contributions to improve the different curricula. Give training to those who teach
Strategy 6: Build Professional Learning Communities. It refers to strategies used by those leaders in charge to promote cohesion between the staff and communities for learning professional practice.
Strategy 7: Support Teacher Leaders. To give all what it is necessary to the teachers who are willing to work for the improvement of their school.
Strategy 8: Promote Principal Support .To acknowledge their purpose to the principal in order to get his/her support for the main objective.
Strategy 9: Encourage the Development of Teacher Leaders. One way to reach this is by culturing schools with new points of view of leadership. Making a committee of people responsible for letting know the principal those benefits of leadership in the school. Create a good environment making this possible.
Strategy 10: Encourage Positive Faculty Relationships. Making a good environment to allow all the members express their ideas with respect and consideration.
Strategy 11: Recognize Teacher Leaders. Appreciating their effort for their contributions not just by giving them those prizes but also by telling them what worked well.
Strategy 12: Utilize External Professional Teacher Networks. Encouraging teachers to work with peers through platforms, websites, etc, to acquire new knowledge by those who have the skills.
Strategy 13: Recruit Qualified and Effective Teacher Leaders. It has to do with standards for those teachers who want to get prepared for teaching.
Strategy 14: Include Information about Teacher Leaders. To give all the necessary information to acknowledge to the principal what they are willing to obtain once finished the course in order to get the principal`s support.
Strategy 15: Distribute Leadership Tasks. Dividing responsibilities among all the members of a committee (team leadership) in charge of improving the quality of the school. Distributing and reassigning leadership roles.
Strategy 16: Enhance the Professionalism of Teaching and Teachers. Creating learning communities, preparing qualified teachers and rewarding them for those goals obtained.
Strategy 17: Promote Union Support of Teachers as Leader. Making national committees which promote and provide professional development in those schools which need it.
Everything we have analyzed so far has to be taken into account when enhancing teacher leadership. All of them are useful somehow, however we know that many of them are difficult to accomplish.
A leader can be born and leadership can be learnt by practicing these different skills. Not many are able to be a leader. Nevertheless, we can become a person who leads people to success. Students are these people in our concern as teachers and everything they acquire from us will make the difference between having learnt a subject matter or to having gained experiences for life.