Research On The Distributed Leadership Of College English Teachers

As the 21st century witnessing the increasing globalization tendency in educational reform and development,teachers are being endowed with a more and more important role.Since 1980s,"teacher leadership" was taken as an effective strategy to propel teachers' professional development,improve teaching quality and students' academic performance,this theory has undergone three development periods,experiencing the changes from appointing certain teachers as formal leaders to developing all teachers as leaders through the construction of "the community of leaders",to share the leadership with school administrators and undertake their professional responsibility for the school reform,teachers professional development,students' academic progress and a new school culture.Currently,the educational notion of "teacher leadership" has been acknowledged by more and more countries in the world and become a hot topic in educational research,but its development is far from maturity.Through the literature review,this paper finds that more research should be given to the following areas:first,a more accurate definition about "distributed teacher leadership";second,more study on the development of the informal teacher leaders;third,the development and design of the measurement tool of "distributed teacher leadership";forth,a holistic understanding about the multiple situational factors in the construction of teacher leadership;fifth,the research target should not be only limited to the primary and secondary school teachers,the study on college teachers should also be included.With the above problems considered and after a systematic study on the distributed leadership mechanism and professional learning community,this study proposed a definition to "distributed teacher leadership" and built up its analyzing framework;developed a measurement tool to the distributed leadership mechanism of college English teachers;made an empirical study of the development of "the professional community of teachers being leaders" with China's college English teachers as the study target and made some relevant suggestions on how to develop the"the professional community of teachers being leaders" in China's universities.This thesis mainly includes the following parts:1.Proposing a definition to "distributed teacher leadership" and building up its concept analyzing framework.After a thorough study of the literature about the concept framework made by Spillane,Elmore,Murphy,York Barn&Duke and Jin Jianshen,this paper summarized the important variables of "distributed teacher leadership" and proposed a definition from four aspects:organizational culture,organizational structure,teacher leadership practice and teacher leadership efficacy,illustrating the importance of teacher leadership to the school reform,students academic progress and teachers' professional development.2.Designing a measurement tool-----a questionnaire to the development of distributed leadership mechanism of college English teachers.Through the research on college English teachers' leadership practice,leadership situational factors,teachers'leading will and capacity,this study analyzed the current development situation of "the professional community of teachers being leaders" in the case of China's college English teachers from a comparatively holistic understanding,thus proving the relative relationship among the organizational culture,organizational structure,teachers"leading will,teachers' leading capacity and teacher leadership efficacy subjectively.3.Making a case study on the successful practice of developing "the professional community of teachers being leaders" by the college English teaching department of H University.The study shows how the department made more and more teachers grow up to be leading teachers through the forming of cooperative and trusted interpersonal relationship,cultivating the professional atmosphere of understanding and dialogue,constructing the teacher leadership mode featuring collectiveness,fluidity,distribution and interactivity.4.Providing suggestions on how to develop "the professional community of teachers being leaders" in China's universities.First,the concept of "teacher leadership"should be clarified;college English teachers' leadership consciousness should be aroused.Second,the university culture featuring teacher leadership should be shaped.The culture of teacher leadership emphasize the importance of teachers and the colleniality,which development must be based on the premise of the changes of university administration policy and the evaluation system.Third,the construction of teachers' professional community should be propelled.Teachers' professional community provides the practice basis for the teachers' distributed leadership.It should be constructed through the shaping teachers' shared vision and values,creating the organizational strucutre which support teacher leadership,emphasizing collective creatiaon and experience sharing,keeping the fludity and openness of the team.Fourth,paying attention to the development of informal teacher leadership.The development of informal teacher leadership cannot be finished in a short period.It is a long-term project,which invlolves a changing process from the practice of the formal leaders to informal leaders.The development of the distributed leadership mechanism should take a gradual involvement and adjustment as strategy,which successful practice depends on the support and initiativeness of the informal leaders instead of weakening their functions and getting rid of all the framework of informal leadership.The pracice of the informal teacher leadership are mainly invleved in the interactive activities of teacher teams and individuals,which development can be realized by establishing the pracitical system of hierarchical relationship across sectors,trusteeship and equality relationship between teachers and administrators,decentralizing management and forming a friendly organizational atmosphere.