Reflection on “Enhancing Teacher Leadership” by Jorge and Shary

The article tells us the experience Betsy Henry had when she implemented a program to enhance leadership in her school. It all started with her concern on the curriculum she was using and the involvement teachers had in the classroom at her school. Henry’s school was looking for ways to improve in order to have better prepared and more competitive students. She was appointed a new position in which she would work with teachers on their leadership skills. Henry accepted the job even though she did not want to have an administrative charge because she believed it would benefit her students.
Henry came across some obstacles that show us that often we can encounter the difficulties she faced when we want to make things better in our school. Some of those obstacles can be that colleagues might not want to work extra or be interested in learning new techniques. They might feel jealous of the person in charge’s new title, position, benefits… or might not want to recognize that teacher as an authority. In Henry’s experience they did not want to make changes and said they would just do what was required by the principal. We think it is very sad that your own colleagues are the ones that make it harder for you. More shockingly was finding out that your bosses (principal, coordinator, etc.), the ones that are there to support you and help you through the process, are precisely the ones that do not back you up. We also learned that if we want to change things in our workplaces we may find trouble juggling our time with classes, projects, research and personal life
However hard it may be the benefits are far more than the difficulties thus making the effort worthwhile. The most important benefit to us as teachers is the improvement of our teaching quality and our students’ learning. We can make it happen by helping each other, mentoring new teachers and participating in the use of new methods, techniques and activities. Senior teachers can help the new ones by sharing experiences, monitoring and evaluating. If teachers put their energy into it students benefit too. Another benefit the article mentions that we consider relevant is that it can provide opportunities for professional growth; nowadays we need to keep updating and learning and implementing this kind of programs can be one way to do it. When you are involved actively and see the good results you obtain self-esteem and that motivates you to do even better. Not only teachers and students can benefit but also the principal. It is mainly because the load of work and responsibility can be shared between all the involved ones, then the principal can work on other areas of the school. This leads us to another benefit, which is the creation of a more democratic school environment; since teachers and authorities are sharing responsibilities each member has a say making it more democratic and more beneficial to all. One last benefit is seen in the education reforms, they can be tested, modified and certified by the whole school, giving more realistic results and showing whether or not they work or if they might need to be disqualified. One big problem that comes with school reforms is that a lot of teachers do not know how to implement them. Here we can have the help of more experienced teachers and with constant feedback we can ensure it is working.
The article gives us a list of tips that can help to enhance teacher leadership.
To us valuing and respecting the role and work of teacher leaders is perhaps the most imperative. People respond well when they are valued, and teachers need to feel that what they are doing is important to the rest of the staff. Not giving the credit to the work and efforts made by teacher leaders can cause division in the group and lack of participation in the future. Providing affirmation for teachers’ leadership tasks will help keep teachers’ spirits high. If teachers want to be better and are motivated they will work harder because they will know that they are going on the right track.
Technical support for teacher leaders is basic in order to do things right. It is a good idea to embrace change and take risks but only if it is data-driven and research-based, you do not want to experiment with your whole school because you are dealing with people and the consequences can be dramatic.
It is not easy for everybody to work in team so it would be good for the whole team’s advantage to promote and facilitate collaboration. Placing teachers in isolated rather than in collaborative situations will not help anyone, teachers working alone can feel left out and unappreciated. Make the environment as relaxed and comfortable to all as possible. You can also get some awesome results if you empower your teachers in their leadership tasks, meaning you give your full support and encourage them to take the lead in their tasks; limiting power from teachers who are involved in decision making (especially those with experience, knowledge, and expertise) can do more damage than good. As we mentioned before involving the faculty in decision making can give great outcomes to the whole school.