Session Information
26 SES 13 B, Teacher Leadership Development in the Educational Context (Part 2)
Paper Session continued from 26 SES 06 B
Contribution
Objective: This study aims to explore how Chinese volunteer teachers enact their leadership. Generally, volunteer teachers are those who support teaching in underdeveloped areas without payment or with little payment (Zhou & Shang, 2011). This teacher group has been and is making immeasurable contributions to students’ learning, regional educational resources’ balance, and educational equality in underdeveloped areas, especially areas where education development lags (Duthilleul, 2005). Governments and non-governmental organizations in some countries and regions (e.g., China, America, and Africa) also constantly organize and implement diverse volunteer teaching programmes to exert the leadership of volunteer teachers (Koerner et al., 2008). Under the efforts of volunteer teachers, these public welfare activities positively influenced students’ development and social well-being. However, a few researchers paid attention to volunteer teaching activities, not to mention how volunteer teachers enact their leadership and the corresponding implications (Zhou & Shang, 2011).
Research Question: 1) how do volunteer teachers enact their leadership in a Chinese underdeveloped area? 2) what are the outcomes of their leadership’s enactments?
Theoretical Framework: Although it is challenging to gain consensus on defining teacher leadership (Wenner & Campbell, 2017), this study found two main trends in conceptualizing this term: competence- and interaction-oriented. Competence-oriented teacher leadership emphasizes that teacher leaders can engage colleagues in experimentation and examination of effective practices for students’ learning” (Wasley, 1991, p.170). However, interaction-oriented teacher leadership focuses on the relationship between teacher leaders and contexts. One high-incited definition is that “teacher leadership is the process by which teachers, individually or collectively, influence their colleagues, principals, and other members of school communities to improve teaching and learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and achievement (York-Barr & Duke, 2004).” Whether competence-oriented or interaction-oriented teacher leadership, teacher leaders tend to balance the relationship with different contexts. For example, to encourage teachers to master a specific teaching ability, teacher leaders would cooperate with teachers to explore this strategy and explain its benefits (Sinha & Hanuscin, 2017). As a result of teacher leadership’s enactment, teacher leaders’ dispositions and abilities in teaching and learning would be strengthened (Landa & Donaldson, 2022). Also, teacher leadership’s enactment could contribute to achieving educational goals in various sub-contexts (Akiba et al., 2019; Campbell et al., 2022).
However, there is a gap between the research and practice of volunteer teachers’ leadership (Zhou & Shang, 2011). Although many volunteer teaching activities are conducted, and volunteer teachers play a non-negligible role in alleviating educational inequality in the world (Koerner et al., 2008), these teachers’ leadership has not been thoroughly analyzed and discussed in the research field. This gap is, to some extent, detrimental to the improvement of volunteer teaching programmes and the preparation of volunteer teachers.
Therefore, this study was rooted in the Chinese context to research the enactment of volunteer teachers’ leadership in self, interpersonal, institutional, and socio-cultural sub-contexts. China has been and is now making national efforts to realize modernization, including getting rid of poverty in education, accompanied by apparent challenges and changes (Xi, 2022). For example, the central government encouraged high-quality teachers as volunteers to support the development of students, teachers, and schools in remote areas (Xi, 2022). These volunteer teachers need to coordinate and balance their relationship with self, interpersonal, institutional, and socio-cultural sub-contexts, and on this basis, exert their leadership to improve the educational quality in schools and regions. Thus, the Chinese context could help me understand volunteer teachers’ leadership from various perspectives.
Method
This study adopted the case study as the methodology. This research regarded the leadership of three volunteer teachers as a case since a case is a circumstance that includes the context, time, or people (Yin, 2015). The informants are three volunteer teachers participating in a volunteer teaching programme called “Education Assistance Action in Nujiang (EAAN)” held by the Ministry of Education (National Teacher Training Program Office of the Ministry of Education, 2020). 113 teachers from diverse areas were dispatched to this programme in two batches. Participants were recommended by national expert teachers recognized by the government. Also, these teachers have three common characteristics. First, these teachers had high professional competence. The Chinese government sets up a system for assessing the professional development level of teachers. Teachers will be awarded specific professional titles after assessment. These titles include third-, second-, first-, advanced and distinguished level (Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, 2015). The participants have a first- or above-level professional title. Second, participating teachers have been teaching in Nujiang for half a year to a year. Third, participants came from national expert teachers’ professional development studios, which established long-term cooperative relationships with universities. This means that participants can get professional support from national expert teachers and scholars in volunteer teaching. Thus, participants can provide rich information and various perspectives on teacher leadership and the enactment practice. This study relied on the longitudinal way to collect data. The first approach is the one-on-one semi-structured interview. According to the research questions, I designed a series of questions to interview participating teachers. Then, I interacted with participants to build a reliable relationship with them, which can provide a trustful and relaxed atmosphere in interviews. When all the preparations were in place, I interviewed each participant. Another way is the materials collection. I collected participants’ reflective reports on their practice in this volunteer teaching programme, which can help me understand the enactment of volunteer teachers’ leadership. Given the data type, this study chose the content analysis method (Cohen et al., 2007) to analyze data. First, I transcribed all video recordings to the texts and proofread them to make sure these texts were correct. Second, I read all transcriptions and reflective reports more than once and tried to understand these transcriptions deeply from the participants’ perspectives. Third, I coded the raw data and constructed code to answer the research questions.
Expected Outcomes
This study found that volunteer teachers enacted their leadership with three paths, including the enactment of volunteer teachers’ leadership for the subject, school, and cross-school improvement. The first path is volunteer teachers’ leadership enactment for subject improvement. Based on personal teaching ability and experience, the participant supported teachers in local schools to identify problems in teaching. Then, the participant led subject teachers to solve their teaching problems, helped them master specific teaching abilities, and improved classroom teaching quality. Thus, the participant and local teachers collaboratively facilitated students’ effective learning. The second path is to enact volunteer teachers’ leadership for school improvement. The participant taking this path emphasized the importance of interdisciplinarity. Under the influence of this idea, this participant discussed specific teaching methods with local teachers of different disciplines in a modeling way, such as demonstrating teaching, co-teaching, and instructing teaching. In addition, the participant believed that school improvement requires the joint efforts of teachers of different subjects. To this end, this participant formulated the school’s teaching development system and regular work system (e.g., commuting time) to promote the construction of a learning-oriented school culture. Volunteer teachers’ leadership enactment aiming at cross-school improvement is the third path. The participant joined the local department of education and was responsible for improving the whole region’s education. In this case, this participating teacher directly or indirectly participated in formulating and implementing local education policies. For one thing, this teacher supported local governments in formulating education policies by conducting field research. For another thing, this participating teacher cooperated with the leaders of the department of education to construct systems and regulations related to teaching development and school improvement. Besides this, the participant focused on in-service teacher education by leading local teachers to conduct action research and professional learning.
References
Akiba, M., Murata, A., Howard, C. C., & Wilkinson, B. (2019). Lesson study design features for supporting collaborative teacher learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 77, 352–365. Campbell, T., Wenner, J. A., Brandon, L., & Waszkelewicz, M. (2022). A community of practice model as a theoretical perspective for teacher leadership. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 25(2), 173–196. Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2007). Research methods in education. London: Routledge. Duthilleul, Y. (2005). Lessons learnt in the use of ‘contract’ teachers: Synthesis report. UNESCO, International Institute for Educational Planning. Guiding opinions on deepening the reform of the professional title system for primary and secondary school teachers, Publ. L. No. 79 of Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. (2015). http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xxgk/moe_1777/moe_1779/201509/t20150902_205165.html Koerner, M., Lynch, D., & Martin, S. (2008). Why we partner with teach for America: Changing the conversation. Phi Delta Kappan, 89(10), 726–729. Landa, J. B., & Donaldson, M. L. (2022). Teacher leadership roles and teacher collaboration: evidence from green hills public schools pay-for-performance system. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 21(2), 303–328. Notice on printing and distributing the “Ministry of Education’s assistance action guidelines for supporting education in Nujiang (trial)”, Publ. L. No. 11 of National Teacher Training Programme Office of the Ministry of Education. (2020). Sinha, S., & Hanuscin, D. L. (2017). Development of teacher leadership identity: A multiple case study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 63, 356–371. Wasley, P. A. (1991). Teachers who lead: The rhetoric of reform and the realities of practice. New York: Teachers College Press. Wenner, J. A., & Campbell, T. (2017). The theoretical and empirical basis of teacher leadership: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 87(1), 134–171. Xi, J. (2022). Hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics and strive in unity to build a modern socialist country in all respects — Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. https://www.pkulaw.com/en_law/0438454351e5969bbdfb.html Yin, R. K. (2015). Case study research: Design and methods (5th ed.). Sage Publication. York-Barr, J., & Duke, K. (2004). What do we know about teacher leadership? Findings from two decades of scholarship. Review of Educational Research, 74(3), 255–316. Zhou, H., & Shang, X. (2011). Short-term volunteer teachers in rural China: Challenges and needs. Frontiers of Education in China, 6(4), 571–601.
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