Personal Definition of Teacher Leadership and Plan of Action 1

Personal Definition of Teacher Leadership and Plan of Action

Wenli Liu

North Carolina State University

PERSONAL DEFINITION OF TEACHER LEADERSHIP AND PLAN OF ACTION 2

Even Today, I still remember the first day that I stepped into SCUD vocational high

school. Looking around the office desks, blackboards, and chalks, they were exactly the

same as what I expected for years. At that time, the word “teacher” was an honor to me.

Struggling how to be an eligible teacher took up my most working time. The word “leader”

was an unreachable position to me. Finishing a whole class was hard enough for me.

How did I dare to covet such a position? At that time, I never heard the word called

“teacher leadership”

Even today, I still remember the moment when the course title Teacher

Leadership caught my eye in the course recommendation email. At that time, I thought it

should be an interesting class that prepares me to a position for mid-aged people when I

was only twenty-two.

Even now, I cannot help laughing every time I recall my understanding of teacher

leadership before I began this class. I believe my personal experience represents teacher

leadership learning process of many new teachers. Basing on my class reading, personal

experience, personal leadership log, I, a pre-sever teacher, a-year-teaching-experience

teacher, divided this essay into two parts: personal definition of teacher leadership and

personal leadership action plan.

Personal Definition of Teacher Leadership

Definition

In their book Awakening the sleeping giant Katzenmeyer & Moller (2009) point out

that teacher leadership is “teacher leaders lead within and beyond the classroom; identify

with and contribute to a community of teacher learners and leaders; influence others
PERSONAL DEFINITION OF TEACHER LEADERSHIP AND PLAN OF ACTION 3

toward improved educational practice; and accept responsibility for achieving the

outcomes of their leadership” (p.6). From this perspective, I believe that teacher

leadership is a perception, actions, and skills that eventually benefit students’ outcome

and teacher proficiency.

As Zemelman & Ross (2009) mention that everyone in a teaching community

actually Leads” (p.5). I believe Teacher leadership is a perception that every teacher is a

teacher leader. However, so far, there are still numerous teachers who have potential

teacher leadership but don’t realize they are teacher leaders. For one reason, they believe

teacher leaders are people who have authority in schools. On the other hand, some

teachers are under the pressure of colleagues. Katzenmeyer & Moller (2009) found that

some teachers fear to admit the leadership because they are afraid not be acceptable by

colleagues (p.4). In my opinion, teacher leadership is not embarrassing to admit. They

originate from teachers’ obligation and passion. We should accept it expansively.

Teacher leadership is actions that teachers lead beyond and within classrooms.

Barth and Boyer state that “in the past, a commonly held belief was that if you were a

teacher, the only way to become a leader was to leave the classroom and possible the

school.” (as cited in Katzenmeyer & Moller, 2009, P. 6). Traditionally, people believe that

teachers are only responsible for teaching in classrooms. Admittedly, instruction in class

is an importance section in the teacher leadership. Nevertheless, they ignored that

teachers also devote in class management, decision making, new teacher mentoring,

college cooperating, and reaching outside for better development. In fact, teacher

leadership shows teachers’ connection between teaching and leading.

In addition to actions, teacher leadership is skills. Besides instructing, teacher

PERSONAL DEFINITION OF TEACHER LEADERSHIP AND PLAN OF ACTION 4

leadership is skills that empower teachers to lead effective, for instance, speak up

constructive, solve conflicts with different people, or reach out buildings. Teachers can

also learn and share these skills when contributing to communities. When teacher leaders

reach out their classrooms or even schools, they gather with other colleges or principles.

Some of them may reach out for seeking help, some of them may reach out for developing

proficiency, and some may reach out for sharing. Eventually, teachers would benefit from

the influencing and learning.

Benefit of Teacher Leadership

According to Coggins & McGovern (2014), teacher leadership has positive benefits

on student study outcome, the teaching profession, and schools. In my opinion, students’

outcome is the final benefit in teacher leadership. In order to reach this final objective,

schools should start support teacher leadership firstly. If teachers receive supports from

principles and schools, they will have more motivation and confidence to improve

themselves and cooperate with others. In this way students will benefit from teacher

proficiency, then schools will gain reputation from decent student outcomes, teacher

leaders quality, and sustainability, which enable schools provide better resource and

support for teachers and students. In this way, it will be a virtuous cycle for students,

teachers, and schools.

Personal Plan of Action

Being a teacher has been my dream since the first year in the elementary school.

During these years, I understand that it is not hard to be a teacher, however, being a good
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teacher is not easy. At the end of this semester, I realize that teacher leadership plays an

essential part in every teacher lead’s career life. In order to better develop my teacher

leadership, as a new teacher, I divide my plan into several steps.

Analyzing before leading

As Bill Ferriter said in the book Awakening Sleep Giant, “Understanding strengths

and weaknesses is the first step towards accepting one another—and toward maximizing

the potential of collective action.” (p.23). Katzenmeyer & Moller also believe teachers

leaders who pay attention to and learn from self-assessment information find that it is

helpful both professionally and personally (2009, p.66). Personally, I believe analyzing

personal personality, strengths, and weakness helps teachers design and revise their

teaching methods. Take me for example. I am a positive but impetuous person, with this

in mind, I always remind myself being patient to students in every situation. Moreover, I

also believe that every student can achieve good academic performance. In this way, I

never give up instruct every single student.

Understanding before teaching

Katzenmeyer & Moller mentioned Instructional proficiency is necessary to lead

effectively with students in the classroom and to establish credibility with peers and

administrators (2009, p.68). In the book Thirteen Steps to Teacher Empowerment,

authors Zemelman & Ross express that observing students and analyzing their work and

their needs will make teaching more effective (2009, p.8). Learning from that I recognize

the connection between student background and teaching strategies.

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Every time when mention my students in SCUD vocational high school I am proud

of them, even if they don’t have outstanding academic performance. Most of my students

are from remote rural areas in which do not provide good education resources for students

so that they do not usually have a strong academic basis. They come here to study skills

that will support their future careers and family life. According to their study background,

I plan to simplify the knowledge in textbooks. In addition, I would teach more practical

English and communication skills in classes in order to help them catch more

opportunities in future career.

Start by myself

Recall my teaching experience in SCUD vocational high school, I do not think we

have good teacher leadership climate there. Principles do not value new teachers

teaching mentoring, which results new teachers exploring teaching strategies on the

internet. Besides lacking support, teachers barely have chances participate in decisions

making. All we can either obey school rules or quit the job. Out of my passion for high

school teaching and the school cultural, I don’t want to leave the campus. So far, the

negative teacher leadership climate spread in the school, but I would like to stat from

myself to set a positive teacher leader model for colleagues.

As a graduate young teacher, who have a lot of academic knowledge but have little

teaching experience, I would like to start by improving my instructional proficiency. First,

I will keep a teacher leadership journal in which record my teaching methods and

reflection. Reaching out for help is my second step. In the school, I will cooperate with

colleagues by observing classes and exchanging teaching experience. Also, resources

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beyond teaching buildings can also benefit my teacher leadership. I plan to participate in

a vocational high school teacher community, from which I can gain more leading and

teaching skills for vocational high school education.

Katzenmeyer & Moller indicate that teacher leaders are able to influence situations

in their school through by modeling effective practice, establishing collaboration with

others, and involving in decision-making and problem-solving (2009, p.102). Hopefully,

my modeling would evoke a more positive teacher leadership climate at school, which

accelerates a closer collaboration among teachers and principle so that provide students

with better study outcomes.

Conclusion

To sum up, every teacher in teaching community is a teacher leader, and everyone

should agree with and support in. Katzenmeyer & Moller (2009) encourage everyone to

support teacher leaders. They believe that leaders cannot do it alone within the existing

system (p.3). From this point of view, we can see that teacher leadership requires the

cooperation with teaching system. Teachers lead and influence within and beyond their

classrooms. Schools should provide more support and resource for leaders. Colleagues

and professor should prepare students as leaders.

Last but not least, teacher leadership is a life-long learning process, which requires

efforts and patience. It may be not easy at the beginning, but you can try to start by

yourself and then reach outside for more improvement. As Zemelman & Ross (2009)

suggests, teachers can start by expanding your scope, building your leadership ability,

and participating more fully professional community. Then move out to learn more about

your students, connect with colleagues, engage in the professional life of school (P.7-8).
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Reference
Coggins, C., & McGovern, K. (2014). Five goals for teacher leadership. The Phi Delta

Kappan, 95(7), 15-21. doi:10.1177/003172171409500704.

Katzenmeyer, M., & Moller, G. (2009). Awakening the sleeping giant. Thousand

Oaks ,CA: Corwin.

Zemelman, S., & Ross, H. (2009). Thirteen steps to teacher empowerment. Portsmouth,

NH: Heinemann.