Introduction

Effective leadership is an important factor in teacher development. In recent years, teacher leadership has become the centre of educational research on improving educational practices (Beycioğlu & Aslan, 2010; Kilinç, 2014). Teacher leaders serve a variety of roles such as discovering their potential to influence student learning, improving teaching ability, influencing peer teachers and impacting policy decisions (Berg et al., 2014; Wenner & Campbell, 2017). In today’s information age, the advent of generative artificial intelligence has affected education profoundly (Hui, 2020). The challenges of the times call for teachers to cultivate teacher leadership, facilitating professional development and collaborative efforts to collectively confront digital challenges.

Storytelling is a novel educational method that facilitates knowledge obtaining (Scott et al., 2013). Storytelling has potential for enhancing teacher education, including as a means for exploring moral commitments and beliefs and for generating theories about teaching and learning (Bullough, 2010). Storytelling can encouraged novice teachers to think more like experts, to recognize an instructional event as an instance of a known category of problems. However, there are still relatively few studies that are set out from the pre-service teachers’ perspective and explore how storytelling can cultivate their teacher leadership.

Review of the teacher leadership literature shows that little is known about how teacher leadership manifests itself in action, especially in pre-service teachers (Muijs & Harris, 2006; Lai & Cheung, 2015). This gap leads to the focus of this study, which sets out to examine how to utilize storytelling to cultivate teacher leadership among pre-service teachers. To do this, this study built on the model of “the four Dempsey images” and uses grounded theory as an empowerment approach, to encourage teacher educators to design educational storytelling activities to foster pre-service teachers’ leadership. This study provides an instructional investigation into fostering pre-service teachers’ educational leadership through university-based teacher training. By using storytelling as the pedagogical method, this study demonstrates how to integrate the objective of building pre-service teacher leadership into the teacher education practices through pedagogical innovation. It is hoped that this case study can provoke theoretical discussions on how to harness the instructional pedagogy of educational storytelling as a meaningful practice in fostering pre-service teacher leadership.

Theoretical Framework

Dempsey (1992) offers a conceptual framework concerning teacher leadership, which consists of four images. In this study, Dempsey’s framework is also used to support the pre-service teachers’ leadership course design and as a data analysis tool for interpreting results. Image 1: Teacher as Fully Functioning Person suggests that teacher leaders must possess the ability to adapt, change, and grow. They must be fully committed to education while also continuing to strengthen their beliefs. Image 2: Teacher as Reflective Practitioner suggests that teacher leaders need to be reflective practitioners in order to foster substantial change when needed. Image 3: Teacher as Scholar notes that teacher leaders must be continual and flexible learners who apply knowledge both inside and outside of the classroom. Image 4: Teacher as Partner in Learning implies that teacher leaders take up the challenge of making collaborative communities of learning where not only students learn, but also where teachers, administrators, and parents learn.

Pre-service teachers need the ability to learn and adapt to new ways to teach their content. They need to enhance their skills to support the development of students’ learning needs. Meanwhile, they must collaborate with colleagues and parents to improve teaching practices. The four Dempsey images with adaptations to pre-service teachers served as the model of this research: pre-service teacher as fully functioning person, pre-service teacher as reflective practitioner, pre-service teacher as scholar, and pre-service teacher as learning partner.

The research design stems from a university curriculum named “Ethics of Education and Social Responsibility”, which aims to develop pre-service teachers’ leadership. A teacher educator from Shanghai Jiao Tong University participated in the design of this course programme. The teacher educator and one master student also worked as researcher and participated in the data collection and data analysis in this study. The participating pre-service teachers in this study are master students in a national degree named “Educational Professional Master”, which is the mainstream track to prepare students to enter the teaching profession in China. In total, 50 pre-service teachers participated in this programme. In this program, pre-service teachers engaged in a comprehensive project-based learning activity that spanned the entire course duration. They were tasked with conducting interviews with an educator whom they considered to have a model effect on their development, aiming to capture and share impactful educational stories from a uniquely personal perspective. This task not only provided them with practical teaching experience but also encouraged a profound exploration of the teaching philosophies employed by exceptional educators. The interviews and written materials presented by pre-service teachers during their reports were systematically collected. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight students teachers to collect information concerning their reflections on enhancing teacher leadership through storytelling in the course. To complement the data above, this study also collected the artefacts that the teacher educator and pre-service teachers have produced throughout this course programme. Artefacts can convey many messages in which the cultural and contextual dynamics are manifested (Schein, 1992). These artefacts include the training materials that teacher educator designed on her own; the personal reflective writings provided by pre-service teachers; the textual feedback and exchanges among the participating teachers.

The results of this paper are summarized into three strands. Firstly, the paper shows that by integrating the theoretical framework of teacher leadership, educational storytelling is an effective approach for pre-service teachers to support the cultivation of these multifaceted leadership qualities. The art of crafting educational stories serves as a dynamic tool in addressing the diverse roles expected of teacher leaders. Through storytelling, pre-service teachers absorb theoretical knowledge, engage in reflective practices, adapt to the changing educational situations as well as forging dynamic partnerships for collective learning. In this way, they are able to establish a relatable framework for effectively grappling with complex educational scenarios in the future, which is a significant aspect of effective teacher leadership. Secondly, this paper reveals that the impact of educational storytelling extends beyond conventional instructional methods by creating a more immersive and engaging learning experience. The narrative format captivates the attention of pre-service teachers and allows them to connect emotionally with the interviewed teachers, making it more likely for them to internalize essential educational concepts, apply the acquired knowledge in practical teaching situations and strengthen their educational beliefs. With this emotional resonance, pre-service teachers are better equipped to foster a deeper understanding of their roles and responsibilities as future teacher leaders. Thirdly, this paper observed that the collaborative learning in storytelling contributes to the professional development, which aligns with the multifaceted nature of teacher leadership. By analyzing and sharing stories from excellent teachers, pre-service teachers engage in a collective exploration of educational strategies and philosophies. This collaborative aspect enhances their capacity to lead by example, influence their peers positively, and contribute collectively to the improvement of teaching practices.

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