Teacher leadership: What Possibility and Sustainability in a Context of Change?

Author(s):

M-Fátima SanchesAline Seiça

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 04 C, Research on Professional Identity, Beliefs and Understanding of Teaching and Learning in Teacher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-28

16:00-17:30

Room:

NIG, HS 3D

Chair:

Graeme Hall

Contribution

The systemic complexity and the growing factors of uncertainty stemming from trans-national and European policies, all have a systemic impact at the local scale as it concerns the restructuring of the teachers’ career and status as well as their professional identities and work conditions (Ball, Goodson & Maguire, 2007). Despite a well-established official discourse on school decentralization, autonomy, and teachers “empowering”, the State regulation takes forms of scrutiny over teachers each time closer and tighter. Moreover, in line with European policies consecrated in Lisbon Declaration, schools and teachers are expected to pursue values such as diversity and social cohesion while offering “new opportunities” to those students who were left behind. Indeed such policies urge for more dynamic teachers’ identities as well as for more demanding and complex professional leadership to satisfy either professional or national political goals. In this paper, issues and debates on current Portuguese teacher professional policies are discussed in the light of contrasting views on the nature of professionalism and the possibility of teacher leadership (Lieberman & Miller, 2004; Murphy, 2005; Hargreaves & Fink, 2006). While assuming theoretical premises from the sociological critical thought (Ball, 2001; Giroux, 1988, 1985; Giddens, 2003) in association with principles that characterize the concept of “communities of practice” as developed by Lave and Wenger (1991; 1998), the research focused on specific dimensions of teacher leadership, such as a sense of community, social sensibility, and ethical principles that regulate the teaching profession. The analysis puts emphasis on ethical conceptions of professionalism as they might motivate and shape diverse forms of the teachers’ professional praxis ( Fullan, 1999; Hargreaves, 1998, 2003; Little, 2008). The research described here is part of a larger project on teacher leadership and it is guided by the following broad empirical questions: (a) What school contexts may facilitate or inhibit the emergence and sustainability of teacher’ leadership in schools? (b) What are the teachers’ understandings of professional ethics? (c) In what ways do teachers differentiate among ethical dimensions of leadership action?

Method

Diverse and complementary methods of collecting and analyzing data were used, such as, school documents, interviewing leading teachers, and a questionnaire which was pre-ceded by interviews to a diverse group of teachers from several school levels. In this paper questionnaire data was analysed following descriptive and correlational procedures.

Expected Outcomes

In synthesis, results analysis showed that teachers’ perspectives rated high for the ideal dimension in deep contrast with the real professional dimension. This was the case for teaching autonomy, isolation, sense of togetherness, learning and sharing, and collegial norms. These dimensions differentiate among professional groups of teachers by age, professional status, and time in the same school. The results are discussed in terms of the recent and polemic policies regarding the new teachers’ status and their performance evaluation.

References

Ball, S. (2001). Diretrizes políticas globais e relações políticas locais em educação. Currículo sem Fronteiras, 1 (2), 99-116. Ball, S. J., Goodson, I., & Maguire, M. (2007). Education, globalisation, and new times. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Fullan, M. (1994). Teacher leadership: a failure to conceptualize. In D. R. Walling (Ed.), Teachers as leaders: Perspectives on the professional development of teachers (pp. 241-253). Bloomington, IN: Phi-Delta Kappa Educational Foundation. Giddens, A. (2003). Runaway world: How globalization is reshaping our lives. New York: Routledge. Giroux, H. (1988). Teachers as intellectuals: towards a critical pedagogy of learning, South Hadley. Giroux, H. (1985). Teachers as transformative intellectuals. Social Education, Vol. 49, 376-379. Hargreaves, A. (1998). Teaching in the knowledge society in the age of insecurity. Open University Press. Mcgraw-Hill Education. Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambride: Cambridge University Press. Lieberman, A., & Miller, L. (2004). Teacher leadership. San-Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Murphy, J. (2005). Connecting teacher leadership and school improvement. Corwin Press. A Sage Publication. Sanches, M. F.C. (2007). Liderança dos professores em contexto de comunidades de prática. In F. S. Ramos (Coord.), Educação para a Cidadania Europeia (pp. 135-144). Coimbra: Universidade de Granada. Sanches, MFC. (2000). Da natureza e possibilidade da Colegialidade. In J. A. Costa, A.N. Mendes & A. Ventura (Orgs.), Liderança e estratégia organizacional das escolas. Universidade de Aveiro. Sanches, M. F. C. (2002). Convite a uma reflexão sobre a profissionalidade docente. In M. Fernandes, J. A. Gonçalves, M. Bolina, T. Salvado & T. Vitorino (Orgs.), O particular e o global no virar do milénio: Cruzar saberes em educação. Actas do 5º Congresso da SPCE (pp. 79-84). Porto: Colibri/SPCE. Sanches, M.F.C. & Cochito, I. (2002). Ser professor: Projecto, trajectos e modos de apropriação identitária. Revista de Educação, vol. XI, nº2,89-110. Seiça, A., & Sanches, M. F. C. (2002). Domínios deontológicos da identidade profissional dos professores: Um estudo empírico. Revista de Educação, vol. IX, nº2, 53-74. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Author Information

M-Fátima Sanches

University of lisbon

Department of Education/Research Center in Education

1749-016 Lisbon

174

Aline Seiça

high School D. Pedro V

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