The Importance Of Teacher Leadership

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Similarly, the school administrator plays an important role in encouraging the conditions that facilitate teacher leadership, including the following: Create a safe environment. Teachers must be confident that administrators and other teachers will not disparage them for expressing ideas that might seem unusual at first. Some of the most effective attitudes to solving difficult concerns in schools may not be instinctively obvious but may require that educators think innovatively, which can only happen in a safe environment. School administrators should make it clear that teachers are safe to rapid ideas and take professional risks. In the center of great change many schools and regions have examined teacher leadership opportunities (Johnson…show more content…
Administrators must be proactive in helping teachers gain the skills they need to take advantage of opportunities for leadership. Unfortunately, some administrators jealously sentinel their turf, apparently fearing that ambitious teacher leaders will somehow undermine their own authority. In fact, one of the continuing contradictions of leadership is that the more an administrator shares power, the more authority he or she gains. Moreover, effective school leaders are excellent diagnosticians. They are able to diagnose individual and organizational needs, placing the needs of the students first; selecting improvement strategies which complement needs of different actors. Research has shown there is a strong link between setting the direction and restructuring the organization, and between recapturing the organization and improving school conditions (Leithwood, Day, Sammons, Harris, & Hopkins, 2006; Leithwood & Sun, 2009; Robinson, Hohepa & Llyod,…show more content…
Teacher-leaders in overall may feel uncomfortable with the "classless nature of teaching" and feel that they may not be able to achieve acceptance and respect. Such a culture can breed bitterness and aggression from colleagues toward teachers endeavoring to exhibit leadership. In addition, teachers ambitious to emerge as leaders may blame the administration for deteriorating to support their leadership aspirations, thereby generate an even more unfriendly environment. However, teacher-leaders who generate and shape their own roles actually receive more support and experience superior achievement than those who are less willing and able to take the inventiveness. Your principal can help you overcome those barriers. Empower your principal. Help him or her to be a leader of leaders. Let the principal know your vision. Ask for support. Demonstrate how your engagements will resonate with his or her beliefs and values. Indicate how and where you have or can get the wherewithal to achieve what you want to do. Detail how your actions will benefit students and the

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