With the political and public press for raising school performance – interpreted internationally as improved student achievement on select public examinations – particular significance has been attached to the role of leadership at all levels. To this end, this symposium examines teacher leadership in relation to current policy context and discourse. It will be an interactive, comparative international symposium that will examine teacher leadership and its impact on the professional learning of teachers as it is operationalized within a culture of accountability. The presentations will offer themes from the literature, a conceptual underpinning, policy discourse and case studies.

The objectives of the session are firstly to inform the discourse surrounding the relevance of teacher leaders to the professional learning of their colleagues. Secondly, to further conceptualise this construct utilising the Leadership for Learning framework. Thirdly, to widen the policy discourse in this area in terms of examining whether the rhetoric of teacher leadership matches the reality or whether teacher leadership is another form of managerial control to adhere to accountability frameworks in place at district, state and national levels. Fourthly, to examine in detail some innovative initiatives in this field through international case studies based in Europe and the USA.

Several essential questions will frame the conversation:

• How do perceptions of the purpose of teacher leaders impact their viability?
• Can teacher leaders facilitate both teacher learning and teacher compliance?
• Can teacher leadership serve to promote both systemic accountability and systemic growth?
• Is it possible for teacher leaders to avoid becoming quasi-administrators in a high-stakes accountability environment? And if so, how?

This symposium will encourage interactive dialogue on an underlying question – which is explored in much recent teacher leader research (Hilty, 2011) – is teacher leadership a “new niche” (Harris and Muijs, 2005) to enhance the quality of teaching as well as teaching profession or are these roles guises for the ‘same old story’ of controlling and monitoring the work of teaching? A discussant will encourage interaction and dialogue among paper authors (who are all leaders in the field of teacher leadership research) and audience members (who may be teacher leadership researchers, administrators, teacher leaders, and teachers). Each presenting author will speak initially for no more than 8 minutes (total: 32 minutes), followed by a discussant who will link and comment on these views for no more than 8 minutes. The second half of the symposium will invite audience members to engage presenters in dialogue via questions and comments. The discussant will steer the discussion forward with provocative questions related to the position of contemporary teacher leaders. Single page summaries of key points, and links to full papers, will be made available in the symposium.