Teacher leadership and teachers’ learning: actualizing the connection from day one

ABSTRACT

This article offers a review of research and scholarly work about why it matters that new teachers have early opportunities to engage in leadership activities despite their beginner status. It builds on a continuing strand of literature grappling with leadership work as an organisational quality, manifest in activity and practice which need not be restricted to those with formal leadership roles. If capacity building for leadership is left until later in a teacher’s career, this can mean those with potential to lead may have already left the profession in search of new challenges. That early career teacher attrition continues to be a worldwide concern, suggests more could be done to address this unfortunate trend. This article takes on that challenge through a deepening of insights about essential on-the-job practice for early career teachers. The literature is presented through three themes: teachers’ need for learning, teacher leadership as collective work for improved student learning, and trusting relationships, colleagues’ pedagogical expertise and modelling with coaches and mentors. These themes recognise teachers’ professional learning as the pathway to leadership influence which can begin on entry to teaching. The article concludes with questions to be addressed by schools in dialogue with early career teachers.

KEYWORDS:

• early career teacher
• teacher leadership
• professional learning
• professionalism

Introduction

This article draws upon research and scholarly literature to address why it is important for new teachers to have early opportunities for leadership work to develop personalised conceptions of leadership despite their beginner status. Findings from a recent survey of Early Career Teachers (ECTs) in England (Spencer et al. 2018, p. 33) suggest the needs of ECTs are only partially met by their schools and that ‘long-term, planned and deep approaches to development’ are required. That early career teachers are navigating unpredictability and complexity makes them particularly vulnerable and at risk of not reaching their potential which may include the possibility of leadership work without timely job-embedded support from the profession. Furthermore, when capacity building for leadership is left until later in a teacher’s career, this can mean that many of those with potential to lead have already left the profession in search of new challenges away from teaching. That early career teacher attrition has not abated and continues to be a worldwide concern suggests more could be done to address this unfortunate trend. Indeed, a recent study surveying 2444 Australian primary and secondary teachers (Heffernan et al. 2022) confirms this concern by reporting that just 41% of respondents expressed intentions to remain in the teaching profession. The teaching profession must retain teachers if it is to avoid later shortages in the supply of positional leaders. This means intentional work with early career teachers to keep them engaged and committed to the profession as learners, looking for new challenges, of which teacher leadership is one possibility. This article addresses this challenge through a deepening of insights about essential on-the-job practice for ECTs, work which is deemed urgent. My purpose, therefore, is to establish ways to connect teachers’ professional learning and the development of their pedagogical capacity as they engage simultaneously in leadership activities with colleagues from day 1 in the profession. Here Timperley (2011a) advocates for teachers having sensemaking opportunities with colleagues, referred to as a teacher inquiry and knowledge-building cycle. It is through exposure to a structured approach about what makes a difference to students’ learning that ECTs gain the confidence to contribute to the learning of their colleagues, which is an early indicator of leadership activity. Interest in how collegial conversations can develop knowledge of, about and for practice was also reported by Kvam (2023) in a Norwegian study with participants ranging from 2 to 33  years of teaching experience. Semi-structured interviews captured the knowledge processes and knowledge development from collegial conversations. The article ended with a call for further research about ‘how collective knowledge processes as an integral part of teachers’ everyday work can interact with knowledge processes as an aspect of guided development measures’ (p.438). This call prompts teachers to see each other as sources of expertise, support and influence and for the conditions for such learning to be a priority for their schools.

My review builds on the repeated pleas from Katzenmeyer and Moller (2001, 2009) to awaken the sleeping giant of teacher leadership and an earlier study and literature review (Lovett 2018), the outcomes of which were four interconnecting activities to understand the emergence and development of teacher leadership. Now in this article, I take three of those activities, expressed now as literature themes, in order to progress what is critical in making the connections between professional learning and teacher leadership.

The interconnection with colleagues means insights about practice and therefore influence need not be contingent on those appointed to formal roles. This is why an alternative conception of leadership as an activity or practice offers ready access to all teachers rather than waiting for a limited number of formal roles and the notion that leadership work is only possible for those with a named position.

Leadership as activity

The view that leadership can be expressed as activity or practice has already gained helpful conceptual and theoretical justifications in the literature (Crevani et al. 2010, Endrissat and von Arx 2013, Raelin 2016). This action-oriented view offers a way to recognise leadership work as a social activity (connecting members of the profession through dialogue around matters of student learning, often expressed as the moral purpose of schooling) requiring collective input and agency rather than being restricted to work undertaken by individuals, typically positional leaders (MacBeath et al. 2018). That leadership work occurs in the flow of practice, a phrase adopted by Simpson (2016), is to emphasise trans-action signifying action that is ongoing, coordinated, mutual and unfolding through collegial dialogue. It is this kind of collective work with a learning and leading focus that holds the potential to connect early career teachers with their professional colleagues, knowing their input and influence will be valued and nurtured from the outset.

The article begins by justifying the urgency for ECTs’ learning as essential from the first day of appointment. This is followed by discussing three literature-based themes highlighting what research studies deem necessary for teacher leadership to emerge. In essence, the article is about making visible, the actions required to establish the synchronicity between professional learning and teacher leadership. The article concludes with three sets of questions, responses to which, actualise those connections.

Why concentrate on ECTs?

A decision to frame this article around teachers new to the profession is quite deliberate as it is many of these teachers who have the potential to be the positional leaders of tomorrow. Indeed, King et al. (2019) suggest that rather than having new teachers wait for a period of time before they can embark on leadership work, there is merit in supporting their nascent influence from the outset. This challenges the view that one must be a teacher first before moving into leadership work. It suggests that teaching and leading can be concurrent activities. King et al. have shown that leadership learning for inclusion can begin in initial teacher education programmes when a transformative approach combines growth as a teacher, leader and researcher simultaneously (Poekert et al. 2016).

A focus on ECTs emanates from a sense of disquiet that the profession is not doing enough to support, encourage and retain early career teachers (Johnson 2004, Harrison Berg et al. 2005, Gallant and Riley 2014, Cameron and Lovett 2015). Needless to say, despite adopting a narrow illustrative focus on early career teachers, the professional learning needs of teachers in general are not dismissed. Efforts to grow the pool of future leaders must be inclusive of all teachers as stipulated in documents such as New Zealand’s Education Council (2018) Leadership Strategy. Elsewhere, the development of a coherent strategy to build leadership capacity has been a national priority, as is evident in Scotland. Contributors to the Scottish development (Hamilton et al. 2018), have explored leadership development, particularly how system and individual needs can be balanced in career-long leadership development. An explicit focus on the front-end of the profession serves as a reminder that the work to build tomorrow’s leaders begins on day 1 and is a plea not to overlook these teachers just because they are beginning their professional journeys.

The issue of ECT attrition is readily evident across continents. Figures show 40–50% of new teachers leave the profession in the first 5 years. This diaspora has been described both as an intractable problem (Gallant and Riley 2014) and a danger zone for the profession (Harrison Berg et al. 2005). The matter is one I consider now relies largely on individual schools to resolve because they are the closest points to the profession’s newest recruits. Each workplace needs to accept its responsibility to address professional attrition, by embracing leadership induction actions from each new recruit’s first day in the profession.

Research studies about the working conditions that enable new teachers to thrive have revealed that schools vary in the extent to which they offer support to novitiates. The Next Generation of Teachers Project (Johnson 2004) is an oft-cited study that has highlighted the school-level factors able to enthuse and retain teachers, or conversely, stifle, ignore or disillusion them.

A decade later, a study by Gallant and Riley (2014) explored reasons why large numbers of new teachers were still leaving teaching early. These authors found that while new teachers had entered the profession feeling optimistic, their optimism had waned over time. Early experiences were characterised by arrested development, followed by feelings of disillusionment and finally decisions to quit. In practical terms, arrested development may be sheeted home to experienced members of the profession failing to attend to the learning needs of ECTs as a priority.

The Teachers of Promise Study (TOPs) (2005–2011) from New Zealand offers further evidence in a longitudinal study which has contributed to knowledge about ECTs’ job satisfactions and aspirations. Findings revealed three categories of teachers: those realising their potential, those persevering and coping and those who were detached and disengaged (Cameron and Lovett 2015). That the numbers in the persevering and coping categories outnumbered the other two categories provides added justification for paying attention to the early years in the teaching profession.

A more recent study (Nerlino 2020) has likewise explored the job satisfaction of ECTs. That study recognised the vulnerability of this group of teachers, calling for increased connections with colleagues and mutualistic relationships with a learning focus so that influence flows between colleagues. This supports the grounding of new teachers in trans-actions involving a fluid view of leadership learning as suggested by Simpson (2016) in the introduction to this article.

Having explained the background to the article’s title and its focus on leadership learning and experience from a teacher’s entry into the profession, attention is now drawn to three themes readily evident in relevant international literature as a way to specify what research findings have to say about the scope of leadership learning when beginning the professional journey as a teacher. The first of these themes is teachers’ need for learning through leading, the second examines teacher leadership as collective work for improved student learning, while the third explains trusting relationships, colleagues’ pedagogical expertise and modelling with coaches and mentors. All three of these themes carry urgent messages for action.

Theme 1: Teachers’ need for learning through leading

It is indisputable that no new graduate is completely ‘work ready’ on taking up a professional appointment (Quinn et al. 2006). This is true for all professions, making the need for on-the-job learning a career-long imperative (Hunzicher 2012). Moreover, the need for authenticity in professional learning is a strong motivator (Horn and Little 2010, Kvam 2023) supporting teacher retention, especially when that learning is driven by teachers themselves. Slack (2019) has described two benefits to teachers when they design their own learning agendas, maintaining the purpose is ‘not only to improve student learning but also to make the job sustainable and meaningful for those who dedicate their lives to creating a more just world’ (p.25). This finding suggests that there are satisfactions to be gained from learning with and from colleagues whose counsel is considered credible and legitimate because of their closeness to classroom action (Harrison Berg and Zoellick 2019). It is in sharp contrast to the externally driven ‘one size fits all’ professional development programmes about which teachers often complain, yet still encounter (Timperley 2011b). It is why a call to normalise the sharing of problems of practice is warranted because the sharing represents ‘the starting point for detailed discussion of specific classroom instances … a means to help anchor emergent advice to more general problems and principles of teaching’ … [and where] the problem teller [is] positioned with substantial agency in defining and elaborating on the problem and in working out possible responses’ (Horn and Little 2010, p. 192). Here, the teacher, as a problem sharer, is supported as a learner and scaffolded into problem solving, an important attribute of leadership practice.

Concerns for the relevance and timeliness of professional learning are key features underpinning teacher-led development work as part of the HertsCam network in the United Kingdom. The HertsCam network exemplifies what is needed to sustain, excite, and retain ECTs, a developing pool of tomorrow’s school leaders. It offers regular professional and personal connections with colleagues across the network as opportunities for sense making, and ultimately thinking of teaching, learning, and leading as collective professional behaviours.

The HertsCam network frames learning opportunities through scaffolded approaches and in doing so, prepares teachers for working on development projects. This incremental learning in a safe and trusting environment builds leadership capacity from career entry, thereby drawing attention to the potential of the profession’s newest members. Frost et al. (2019) claim the participating teachers ‘feel a strong sense of empowerment and voice. Their human agency is enhanced’ (p.6) all of which indicates that this type of networked learning opportunity is welcomed by ECTs who engage with others in workshops to develop their teaching practices. This type of learning opportunity, Frost et al. say, ‘tends to have the effect of mobilising and refreshing their sense of moral purpose’ (p.6) as they come to see they can influence others at the same time as they are building their own knowledge of practice. Another point to note is the network’s deliberate emphasis on teacher leadership as professional learning which they report appeals to ECTs. That professional learning is the connecting piece, no matter one’s time in the teaching profession, is to accept ‘teacher leadership … as an effective form of professional development for oneself and one’s colleagues’ (Poekert et al. 2016, p. 310) reinforcing the notion that in order to lead, teachers must first be learners and never let go of that learning intent. It is why Poekert et al. claim ‘leadership development as an iterative and recursive, rather than linear, experience that centres on the construct of personal growth but also includes the overlapping constructs of growth as a teacher, researcher and leader’ (p.307). This also confirms Collinson’s (2012) earlier finding from a study of exemplary teachers and how they learnt to lead. Collinson reported that as teachers ‘learn, they refine who they are as a person. Over time the teachers find, accept, or create ways to help colleagues by sharing innovations, ideas and insights … Always focusing on learning, they quickly learn that leading opens many new possibilities for learning’ (Collinson 2012, p. 247). In short, this suggests an axiom: teachers lead by learning and learn by leading.

The attractiveness of professional learning agendas being shaped by teachers themselves is apparent in accounts of the International Teacher Leadership Programme, an extension of the previously mentioned HertsCam model. One example from Palestine showcased how strongly teachers’ contributions were valued when it was renamed ‘teachers leading the way’. This, Ramahi (2019) explained, helped ‘shift teachers’ views of professional development towards a more ongoing, capacity-building one’ (p.30) in which they were active rather than passive participants whose involvement was subsequently recognised as emancipatory learning. The flow on effects of teachers being able to respond to their own issues of practice with other teachers deepened ‘critical thinking, the capacity for action, collaboration and really useful knowledge’ (p. 31) all of which, in turn, strengthened commitment and passion for their continuing work.

That teachers’ need for continuous professional learning constitutes a pathway into a different kind of leadership, i.e. non-positional leadership work, which offers promise for the field of teacher leadership. Accounts of the HertsCam network in countries beyond the United Kingdom have been added to the knowledge base about the conditions and processes which further the involvement of non-positional teacher leaders. For example, Qanay et al. (2019) reflections on work in Kazakhstan, revealed four episodes in the process of building teacher leadership capacity. These were creating the conditions, re-orientating, enacting and reflecting. A facilitator in the Kazakhstan network summed up teachers’ learning through leading by saying:

They used to be invisible among their colleagues…. the programme increased their self-confidence. They started participating in school discussions, became more active in seeking professional learning opportunities, sharing their knowledge with colleagues, taking responsibility and achieving results. (Qanay et al. 2019, p. 58)

Summary

The literature supporting teachers’ need for learning through leading (theme 1) points to significant actions which must take place. The benefits of reciprocity enable all members of the teaching profession to thrive. Regardless of their status, early career teachers can soon recognise that they may contribute to others’ practice. Inter-dependence, collegial connections, and a sense of belonging to a profession are important for ongoing job satisfaction and engagement. Finally, embedding teacher learning as the pulse of the profession makes professional learning interactions both the platform for and the pathway to leadership. All this needs to be intentional work rather than being left to chance.

Theme 2: Teacher Leadership as collective work for improved student learning

The work of teachers and school leaders is about how to improve learning outcomes for students and doing just that. That this is collective work with others rather than individual work needs to underpin approaches to and experiences for beginning teachers through induction and mentoring. It is essential that teachers foster connections with other teaching professionals in the workplace and beyond to deepen their knowledge of how to teach (Conway and Andrews 2016, Schnellert and Butler 2021). Sometimes these connections are actively structured by formal leaders but teachers also need to be able to connect with each other and initiate collegial talk about what matters to them and their practice (Collinson 2012, Kvam 2023). In essence, a commitment to students and their learning means all teachers need to find ways to support their own learning about practice by tapping into the expertise held by their colleagues (Nguyen and Ng 2020). This does not mean waiting for others to determine what teachers’ professional learning needs might be. Instead, it means fostering collegial relationships which enable the safe exploration of the puzzles of practice (Lovett 2018, Lefstein et al. 2020). It is why the sharing of collegial expertise is the essence of leadership as an activity carrying the influence from which both teachers and students benefit.

More often than not, the sharing of expertise by those without a named leadership role runs counter to the common understanding that it is leaders (in positions of authority) who lead and teachers who teach (Lovett 2018). Action on professional learning by teachers themselves without the sanctioning of a person in a positional role is frequently downplayed as leadership activity. This narrow-sighted view is what needs to be questioned to disrupt the continuing dominance of leadership emanating only from position holders (MacBeath et al. 2018, Branson and Marra 2021). When the focus is shifted from leadership as individual direction to leadership as freely chosen collective work, the shared moral purpose of that work becomes prominent, and it is work to which all may contribute regardless of role or positional status. It is why there is a need to emphasise collective professional action over positional responsibility in pursuing the shared moral purpose of education.

The bulk of the scholarship on this theme in the last decade has highlighted the commonality of research findings related to teacher leadership as collective work for improved student learning. This claim is clear in the conclusions of researchers such as Frick and Browne-Ferrigno (2016), Hargreaves and O’Connor (2017, 2018), Tong and Razniak (2017), Stoll and Kools (2017), Nguyen and Ng (2020), Donohoo et al. (2020), Schnellert and Butler (2021).

A synthesis of the conclusions from these contemporary researchers confirms three fundamentals underpinning the relationship between professional learning and leadership. First amongst these is the over-riding obligation to be student-centred in the pursuit of pedagogical initiatives aimed at improvements in student learning (Stoll and Kools 2017).

While this seems self-evident, it does not occur without a strong commitment to professional learning as a social process that demands structural adjustment in institutional settings like schools if it is to be realised – the second of the three fundamentals (Tong and Razniak 2017, Hargreaves and O’Connor 2017, 2018, Schnellert and Butler 2021). The corpus of this research shows us that there are practical approaches to creating systems of knowledge exchange between teachers to open up helpful ways of sharing information (Frick and Browne-Ferrigno 2016, Stoll and Kools 2017, Nguyen and Ng 2020). However, nothing in schools occurs without the application of finite resources, and, in the case of professional learning, time is required for reciprocal learning, more-so in formal learning communities than in loose networks (but both are necessary). The benefits of accepting professional learning as a social process are seen in the sense of belonging engendered in new and experienced teachers alike as they make sense together of the teaching and learning issues germane to the students they teach (Donohoo et al. 2020). Collaborative leadership unfolds in circumstances where inquiry is enriched through mutual dialogue. These research outcomes are compelling.

The third fundamental explicit in the body or research above involves the exercise of autonomy by individuals and collectives as they engage together in professional learning (Hargreaves and O’Connor 2018). Without it, new teachers are left dependent on decisions about their professional learning determined by those in positional authority, as are those with most experience. Grassroots agency in leading professional learning flows from a healthy respect for the concept of collegial autonomy. This quality is held to be axiomatic in leadership for learning, indeed for teacher leadership, by the authors I have cited.

Summary

Leadership expressed as collective work to improve student learning has the potential for all teachers to view themselves as contributors to a larger agenda not restricted to one determined by those afforded the status and recognition of a leadership title in a named positional role.

Knowledge and expertise exchanged between colleagues can serve as the seeding ground for teacher leadership as professional influence. It is why there is a need to connect leadership and learning because learning is the circulatory system that pumps lifeblood into teacher leadership. When teaching, learning and leadership are connected, leadership work is synchronised with professional learning. If leadership continues to necessitate leaving the classroom behind to take up the authority of a positional role, there will inevitably be a compliance culture in schools with teachers blindly following the dictates of position holders. Teacher leadership must indicate and open up spaces for all teachers to undertake leadership work. This is effectively achieved by acknowledging and supporting teachers to take an active part in initiatives which develop trusting collegial relationships focussed on how pedagogical expertise and modelling with coaches and mentors promotes professional growth and teacher leadership simultaneously. These three matters constitute the substance of the third theme.

Theme 3: Trusting relationships, colleagues’ pedagogical expertise and modelling with coaches and mentors

My own work (Lovett 2018) and the work of others (Tschannen-Moran 2001, Lambert 2003, Hallam et al. 2015, Robertson 2016) draw attention to the three practical matters listed above, which are necessary enablers if the significant messages reported in themes 1 and 2 are to be realised. Each of these is now addressed in turn.

Trusting relationships

Many might ‘take it for granted’ that trusting relationships are necessary features for those making the connections between professional learning and leadership, but in the hierarchical setting of the school, this is not so. Positional power dominates, at worst leading to ‘coercive control’ of subordinates and fear of those in authority, at best producing feelings of helpless dependence and a dampening of resilience. Neither of these two consequences provides a platform for the development of trusting relationships. This kind of relationship requires a genuine sharing of power and in some instances, for trusting relationships to flourish, positional power must be ceded. Doing so requires an acceptance by those in authority of the significance of teacher agency in the leadership of professional learning. When ECTs determine their own learning needs, they disrupt the power imbalance of others making decisions for them. Timperley (2011b) warns against using the term ‘professional development’ because of its suggested dependency on others. Interdependency is preferred and signalled through the term ‘professional learning’. Timperley advocates that this is about time spent ‘focusing on students, attending to requisite knowledge and skills, engaging in systematic inquiry into the effectiveness of practice, being explicit about underpinning theories of professionalism and engaging everyone in the system in learning’ (p.4). When expertise is not limited to those with positional status in a hierarchy, teachers can recognise sources of professional knowledge in and amongst each other (Hargreaves and O’Connor 2017, Tong and Razniak 2017).

The extent to which work cultures are conducive to this professional learning depends on reciprocity around a shared purpose. Reciprocal (learner-to-learner) relationships matter because:

The most powerful influences consist of deeply human relationships in which two or more persons engage with one another and, thus, for a leader, the arena of power is no longer the exclusive preserve of a power elite or an establishment or persons clothed with legitimacy. Power is ubiquitous; it permeates human relationships.

(Branson and Marra 2022, p. 15)

Mutual respect for colleagues as learners who share the same goal, working for student learning, enables teachers to learn with and from each other without fear of reprimand or competence.

Trusting relationships develop over time and are enabled when learning is a valid and mutual exchange of expertise for the greater purpose of improving students’ learning (Stoll and Kools 2017).

Colleagues’ pedagogical expertise

Expertise amongst teachers can be thought of principally, as one’s own and others’ pedagogical knowledge and skill. It can be considered as a finite state associated with excellence, though this view should always be contested, or it can be regarded as an infinite process of expanding and deepening that knowledge and skill (Nguyen and Ng 2020). When it is the latter, this is made more effective through collective action which recognises multiple contributors no matter their status (Hargreaves and O’Connor 2018).

A continuing challenge for the teaching profession is, therefore, that as teachers enter their professional employment in schools, they are likely to be treated as novices in need of support from more knowledgeable colleagues. It matters, therefore, how colleagues work with ECTs to retain their job engagement and commitment to students’ learning (Kardos and Johnson 2007, Stoll and Kools 2017) despite being the ‘newbie’. What is important here is that pedagogical expertise flows in all directions – from experienced teachers to the newly appointed; from the newly appointed to experienced others and from position holders to teachers in general and vice versa. For ECTs, recognition and encouragement to contribute to others’ practice serves as confirmation that they are of value to the collective cause of student learning, albeit perhaps in small measures in the beginning stages of employment. The satisfaction gained by a less experienced teacher through influencing colleagues’ professional practice provides immediate access to the tangible benefits of leadership work for those who do not hold leadership positions and titles. However, if a ‘top down’ approach to the sharing of expertise occurs, it reinforces the notion of hierarchy in the profession, downplaying the expertise of teachers, no matter their career stage, ignoring the possibility of mutual exchanges of pedagogical knowledge aimed at improving student learning. This sense of mutual benefits is important. It challenges the notion that early career teachers are ‘on their own and presumed expert’ (Kardos and Johnson 2007) and instead acknowledges the need for collegial input as teachers continue to develop their expertise. Confidence and competence are realised when early career teachers can influence other colleagues.

Modelling with coaches and mentors

Part of the discussion in this section so far has highlighted the practical matter of teachers’ professional learning for the shared development of pedagogical knowledge and skill over time, the clear intent of which is to benefit student learning and achievement. Now a third practicality is highlighted examining the importance of modelling with coaches and mentors locally. Doing so brings the reciprocal relationships so important in professional learning and leadership into prominence. This leaves no doubt about the power of collective endeavour.

The potential of learning with and from colleagues is well captured within research and scholarly work on coaching and mentoring (Hudson 2013, Robertson 2016, Conway and Andrews 2016). These concepts are often selected as strategies to personalise learning for teachers but with some caveats about the differences between intent and application. It is noted that a dependence on a coach or mentor can disempower an ECT to the extent that personal agency may be diminished as others make decisions about the ‘what, when and how’ of ongoing professional learning. Despite well-meaning intentions to support colleagues, those with positional status wedded to hierarchy will continue to reinforce the view that professional learning is predominantly top-down originating from those in remunerated positional roles.

It is opportunities for working alongside colleagues which stimulate leadership actions while making visible the benefits gained by helping each other. Rather than leaving this to chance, the leadership research literature points indisputably to actions that should be taken by individual schools, actions such as those brought out into the open by responses to the sets of questions now posed.

What then are some of the questions requiring responses on professional learning and leadership that benefit ECTs in the schools to which they are appointed?

Key messages from the preceding thematic analyses are now formulated into sets of questions offered to schools to be addressed collaboratively by position holders (principals and members of leadership teams), experienced teaching colleagues and ECTs. Responses to these questions will require shared, open dialogue and thoughtful co-operative planning to ensure ECTs are able to grow their teaching and leadership potential right from their initial appointment. Early career teachers, who experience workplace cultures where enhancing their knowledge of practice is a continuous, collaborative endeavour, are more likely to see how, through collective leadership activity, they can add value to their own and the school’s commitment to improvements in student learning. The first set of questions goes to the heart of a school’s culture and its values.

Questions with a focus on the school’s culture

• Has a top-down approach to the leadership of professional learning been ‘put to bed’ in this school?

• If professional learning is understood as a social process, how is it manifest here?

• Is teacher autonomy and agency in professional learning central to the school’s improvement processes? If so, for what reasons has the agency of ECTs and teachers been privileged in the leadership of their professional learning?

The second set of questions goes directly to the organisational and operational issues, the flow from the values embedded in the responses to the culturally oriented questions above.

Questions about organisational and operational questions

• What specific resource allocations are made in support of professional learning for ECTs and the teachers with whom they are working? (Time, money, materials, people?)

• How is collective power enacted in the way professional learning is organised amongst teachers and ECTs?

The third set of questions moves forward to a time when the outcomes or effects of activity on professional learning have had sufficient time to be felt, e.g. at the end of the first semester.

Questions about effects

• How is the influence of ECTs in professional learning groups acknowledged and valued?

• In planning and implementing coaching and mentoring procedures, what do ECTs report on how their autonomy is accommodated?

• What tells us that a genuine trust for the leadership of professional learning has been ceded to teachers by those in positional authority?

Conclusion

While professional learning and its links with leadership engage all teachers, it is particularly important for ECTs to see this in action. This necessitates work for those at the local level understanding three matters. The first of these is that student learning is the dominant focus of the work of teachers. Improvement is about identifying what works and why. The second is realising the power of professional learning as a social process, expressed as collective work around that shared commitment to students. The third is about paying attention to learner-to-learner collegial relationships, particularly how teachers share their expertise, and show trust and respect for one another regardless of their time in the profession. It is by paying attention to these matters that professional learning becomes a conduit for teacher leadership, especially important for a school’s newest recruits.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.