Seeking sustainable ways for school development: teachers’ and principals’ views regarding teacher leadership

ABSTRACT

This study aims to explore the understanding and actualization of teacher leadership among teachers and principals in the school development process. Teacher leadership is considered a powerful concept by providing teachers with the opportunity to contribute to sustainable school development by supporting professional development among their colleagues and improving teaching practices. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in five Estonian schools with sixteen teachers and five principals. Deductive and inductive approaches were applied to data analysis. Three analysis themes were used: 1) understanding of teacher leadership characteristics and activities of a teacher leader; 2) the impact and; 3) the conditions for teacher leadership. The results revealed that although some of the characteristics and activities coincided with earlier findings, teachers and principals in this study had a rather limited understanding of teacher leadership. Therefore, we argue that the concept of teacher leadership should be introduced much more systematically during initial teacher education and should be fundamental to the continuing professional development of the school development program. Furthermore, principals need to improve their skills as they play an influential role in creating a school environment that supports teachers to take the initiative.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their appreciation to colleagues Reet Sillavee, Rina Ronkainen and Marco Snoek for their valuable support and advice during the research process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the European Social Fund for the program ‘Development of the Competence Centre for Educational Innovation in Tallinn University’.

Notes on contributors

Piret Oppi

Piret Oppi is a doctoral student in educational sciences at the School of Educational Science at Tallinn University. Her main areas of research are teacher leadership, collaborative learning and teachers’ professional development.

Eve Eisenschmidt

Eve Eisenschmidt is a professor of educational leadership at the School of Educational Sciences at Tallinn University. Her area of research is teachers’ professional development, school development and leadership.

Mihaela Stingu

Dr. Mihaela Stingu is a lecturer at University of Bucharest. Her main areas of research are related to teacher training and induction, evidence-based practices and policies.