Development and application of the Social Justice Teacher Leader Self-Assessment (SJTLSA) instrument

ABSTRACT

This article describes the processes employed in developing the Social Justice Teacher Leader Self-Assessment (SJTLSA), a tool designed to foster teacher leader self-reflection, stimulate collegial dialogue, assess school culture, and direct social justice initiatives. Tool development procedures included examining precedents, developing a prototype, establishing face validity and pilot testing. The resulting SJTLSA offers a procedure for systematic self-evaluation of six dimensions of teacher leadership: Dispositions, Knowledge, Personal Attributes, Personal Experiences, Leadership Skills and School Culture. The final format includes 75 closed-response questions, a self-scoring guide, and reflective questions to help respondents identify a personal focus for action research. When used in multiple contexts, the SJTLSA has been found to increase self-awareness, expand knowledge of social justice and teacher leadership and increase respondents’ identity and agency as teacher leaders. Through its content and structure, the SJTLSA theorizes the knowledge, attributes and dispositions essential for social justice leaders, and the leadership skills, personal experiences and school cultures that support teacher leaders to be effective as change agents. As a practical tool that stimulates reflection and dialogue, the SJTLSA supports practitioners including informal and formal leaders in school systems, graduate program faculty, and facilitators of professional development and leadership development programs.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support for this research was provided by The Manitoba Association of School Superintendents (MASS), the Manitoba School Improvement Program (MSIP), Manitoba Education and Advanced Learning (MEAL) and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Doctoral Fellowship, Grant # 752-2011-1394. In-kind support was received from the Manitoba Teachers’ Society (MTS) and the Manitoba Education Research Network (MERN).

Notes on contributors

Cathryn Smith

Cathryn Smith (PhD) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Leadership and Educational Administration and Chair of Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Education at Brandon University. Her research interests include teacher leadership, teacher-led learning and leadership for social justice.