Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Critical Reflection
Teacher leadership is described by Neumerski (as cited in Cheng & Szeto, 2016) as independent
from the formal leadership roles within the school. According to Cheng & Szeto, (2016), a teacher
leader is any teacher that contributes to the improvement of the school, or overall educational practice
(p.141). In our group task, we made a video presentation aiming to persuade principals to implement
our designed school improvement program. Through planning this activity, we have become teacher
leaders (Cheng & Szeto, 2016, p.141). This reflection is based on Schon’s (1983) work and takes the
stance of an ‘on-action’ reflection, which is looking back on our process. Our program was aimed at
improving the student’s personal and social capabilities, by having the students reflect on various topics
in a writing activity implemented during their daily roll call class. Our group worked well together and
did not require many meetings to finalise our implementation timeline for the video presentation.
During our plenary meetings, we collaboratively discussed the expectations of our program outcomes.
We decided, through democratic processes, how we would divide tasks amongst ourselves. The aim
Hypothetically, our Principal has decided that Camden High School requires a boost in students’
Personal and Social Capabilities. He/she announces this to the staff meeting, where teachers are then
invited to share their ideas. In this circumstance, our group would present their idea to the staff. Once
it is approved, the timeline of implementation can begin in the last term of the year, in order to begin
Week 2, Term 1, of the new year. Planning involves the creation of daily topics for the journals, which
will revolve around the development of the skills demanded in the Australian Curriculum and Reporting
Authority (ACARA) model for Personal and Social Capabilities. All school staff will need to be shown
the procedure. Additionally, written instructions will be created, and taped into all the roll call folders,
so that every staff member, even casuals, can implement the program during roll call. This program for
school improvement will be measured and adjusted, as necessary, after one term of implementation.
For this process to begin, the Principal simply had to highlight the area for improvement, and his/her
staff stepped-up to improve the school culture. Cheng & Szeto (2016) highlight the assistance of
informal teacher leaders as a “useful strategy for school improvement” as they are usually open to
sharing ideas for innovations (p.140). Furthermore, Zepeda (2013) states that “the Principal […] and
organisational structure of the school must be ready to support teacher leadership. Supporting and
nurturing leadership across the school can help make the work of school improvement more
meaningful” (p.49). Therefore, only through the support of the Principal, and fellow roll call teachers,
Throughout this hypothetical process above, our group of student teachers collaboratively
discussed ideas, and researched them, to arrive at that detailed timeline for implementation. Our group
work was guided by the question of how to improve personal and social capabilities within a school
where there is already a Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) policy, which is not very strongly
referenced in their existing behavioural management. The student’s reflection, demanded in the daily
roll call activity, will influence the overall impact of PBL in improving the school’s culture.
As previously established, through this planning process, we would be labelled as teacher leaders;
Forrest & Moquett (2016) explain that “teacher leadership occurs when teachers collaboratively
participate in decision making in their quest of shared goals and purposes” (p.180). As mentioned
above, we worked well together towards this goal, even when we found it difficult to physically meet
up. We communicated using email, and shared any documents, research, audio file or visual files via
google drive. This collaborative relationship could be replicated within a school environment, as
teachers usually have little time. Our hypothetical situation outlined above will deliver the outcome of
increased Personal & Social Capabilities, because we would constantly improve the program based on
participant feedback at the end of each term. The act of implementing this program would mean the
school’s teachers are learning more about their students, and they are “facilitating communities of
learning, growing and developing professionally and being enquiry based” (Lai & Cheung, 2015,
p.676). Our program is based on data from academic research, and demands the collaboration of all
school staff, to improve student’s behaviours and capabilities, specifically for their futures.
Teacher leadership involves collaborative interactions. In fact, any action undertaken by groups
of teachers which is aimed at the improvement of the school, or overall educational practices, is
considered by Cheng & Szeto, (2016), to be teacher leadership; whether you are in a ‘formal’ leadership
role or not. The improvement of a school depends upon the innovations of teacher leaders (Cheng &
Szeto, 2016). Any recommended improvements to the school, by teacher leaders, require support to be
implemented; by the Principal and then consistently throughout the school (Zepeda, 2013). Sterrett
(2015) explains; “the bottom line is that each leadership role depends on us moving forward and
growing together to accomplish the goals of the entire school” (p.2). The implementation of the
recommended program will move forward by building teacher relationships; student relationships with
the teachers; and also working towards developing the teaching profession with this form of action
research (Lai & Cheung, 2015). Teacher leaders are useful for providing their individual expertise, and
References
ACARA. (2016). General Capabilities. Retrieved Jun 20, 2018, from Australian Curriculum Assessment and
Cheng, A. Y., & Szeto, E. (2016). Teacher Leadership Development and Principal Facilitation: Novice Teachers'
Forrest, S. N., & Moquett, K. D. (2016). Improving Writing of College-Bound Students With Rubrics: An English
Department's Collaborative Journey through Teacher Leadership. The Clearing House, 89(6), 179-184.
Lai, E., & Cheung, D. (2015). Enacting Teacher Leadership: The Role of Teachers in Bringing About Change.
Schon, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner : How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.
Sterrett, W. (2015). Igniting teacher leadership : How do I empower my teachers to lead and learn? Virginia:
ASCD.
Zepeda, S. J. (2013). Instructional leadership for school improvement. New York: Routledge.