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Narrating Teacher Leader Identities: Voices From the Field

Over the years, the landscape of educational leadership has evolved, but with a continued focus on leadership in relation to an official title or role. While it used to be practical for schools and districts to rely on the leadership of a single leader, times have changed and leadership has become more complex; the dependence on a single leader has become unrealistic. In recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on teacher leadership in general and teacher leadership in the context of leadership teams in particular. The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to better understand teacher leader identity within the context of a leadership team by examining the narratives of teacher leaders participating on a team as well as narratives from other team members. Specifically, this study examined: 1) How are teacher leader identities narrated? and 2) How do teacher leaders come to see themselves as leaders? Four teacher leaders and four team members from a PBIS Team were interviewed, and four team meetings and one staff meeting were observed. Transcripts and field notes were analyzed to compose the identity narratives of each teacher leader, and to understand the context and influential factors. Findings indicate that teacher leaders had leadership identities that were a part of their teacher identities but different from their classroom identities and also had passion for creating positive school climates. Additionally, the district and school contexts and the role of the principal influenced teacher leader involvement, development, and leadership practice.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/325229
Date January 2014
CreatorsJudkins, Maryann M.
ContributorsBennett, Jeffrey, Bennett, Jeffrey, Ylimaki, Rose, Brunderman, Lynnette
PublisherThe University of Arizona.
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Electronic Dissertation
RightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

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