Study On Implementing Teacher Leadership In Schools

Teacher leadership is a process for individual teachers or teacher groups to make decisions together and work together to fulfill school teaching task, influence other instructors to promote effective school changes together. Through widening the role and providing the leading positions, teachers as leadership subject of teacher leadership implement common leading by the way of mechanism of distributed leadership on all aspects of schools. Teacher leadership is good for teachers to join in the school changes and it can put up growing ladder for teachers. It is also good for school masters to change their leading styles, for teachers to awaken their professional self-esteem and can promote excellent teachers to take active part in the work of curriculum, instruction and teacher growth. Teacher leadership has significant sense to deepen educational reform and promote teacher growth.This thesis based on the literature of teacher leadership home and abroad and viewed on 4 schools and interviewed with 30 teachers to study the essential conditions of implementing teacher leadership, put forward the strategies of implementing teacher leadership in schools. On the study result, the thesis points out:The quality of concept of teacher leadership is growing. Traditionally, the functions of teacher leadership are mainly within class management and class instruction. Contemporary theory of teacher leadership has greatly widened the teachers' roles and functions as leaders from the leaders of the students to the leaders of the curriculum and instruction, to the leaders of other teachers and to the leaders of school management. The teachers'roles and functions as leaders are to implement the leadership in concert with the headteachers. The teachers as leaders take on responsibility for school changing, teacher development and student improvement in concert with the headteachers. Teacher leadership tends to permeate through all aspects of schools and become a model of leadership.The nature of teacher leadership is that all of the staff in the school work together for long-term improvement and development of the school. The essential conditions of implementing teacher leadership is setting goals together, making decisions tougher, working together and learning together. Having common goals is the prerequisite of implementing teacher leadership; empowering teachers is the essential factor of implementing teacher leadership; cooperation is the key factor of implementing teacher leadership; professional development of the teachers is the source of implementing teacher leadership.Teacher leadership is influenced by school Culture, leadership styles of school masters, school organizational systems and the ways of teacher interaction. Developing cooperative school culture, restructuring school organization and developing teachers' qualities to lead are effective strategies to implement teacher leadership. In order to implement teacher leadership effectively, school leaders can attempt to adopt the following strategies:(1) developing cooperative school culture by forming common idea of leading together, setting shared vision and structuring cooperative system; (2) restructuring school organization by restructuring parallel school organization building teachers' professional teams and creating daily cooperative platform; (3) developing teachers' qualities to lead by arousing teachers' desire to lead, fostering teachers' abilities to lead and creating daily cooperative opportunities.On the study result, the thesis gives the following advice. Pay more attention to the policy making and school systems on teacher leadership, providing more roads for teachers to develop. Make more ways for teachers to lead in the school management, widening the role of teachers, paying more attention on initiate teacher leadership models, and finally it argues more theorist should make more research on teacher leadership.