Teacher Leadership in Practice: Mapping the Negotiation of the Position of the Special Educational Needs Coordinator in Schools

ABSTRACT

Special needs care has taken on a substantial evolution within education. Special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) are no longer considered to provide individual guidance to students but to support and professionalize regular teachers in fulfilling special needs care in their classroom. In doing so, they act as teacher leaders. Many concerns are raised about how teacher leadership may interfere with the existing working relationships in schools. In this study, we use Positioning Theory as a theoretical approach to obtain an in-depth understanding of how the position of the SENCO and the responsibilities attached to this position are negotiated within the school. The findings illustrate that SENCOs received the legitimacy to act as teacher leaders when their expertise was recognized, when teachers perceived their task as first-line helpers, and when school principals were willing to release power.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher leadership
• special educational needs coordinator (SENCO)
• positioning theory
• case studies

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. For reasons of confidentiality, we used pseudonyms for both schools and respondents.

2. In St. George’s College, two school principals were appointed. However, at the moment of the data collection, one school principal had just left the school. The school is not sure yet whether they will replace her.