Teacher Leadership and School Change

¶ … Teacher Leadership and School Change

Hickey, Wesley D. & Sandra Harris. (2005). "Improved Professional Development

Through Teacher Leadership." The Rural Educator. Winter 2005. Retrieved 24 Feb 2007 at http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4126/is_200501/ai_n13591362

According to the article "Improved Professional Development Through Teacher Leadership" by Wesley D. Hickey and Sandra Harris (2005), one problem particularly prevalent in rural educational settings is a lack of leadership development opportunities for educators specifically suited to their school culture's needs and expectations. To address this problem, one rural district created a professional development plan, which was evaluated for the purposes of instituting the same program in other districts. The problem with many professional development plans is that teachers find these plans impersonal and insufficiently suited to their classroom's individual needs "as outside consultants" are brought into the community (Hickey & Harris, 2005:1). "A goal of this school district was to develop a strong cultural identity consistent with the core value of improving student achievement. The development of this culture has at its core the desire to utilize teachers as professionals, taking into account their expertise in improving the district. In the past, many of the professional development sessions within districts have only used contracted consultants, but this district's circumstances required individual skills within the district to be showcased and several positive outcomes resulted" (Hickey & Harris, 2005:5.). This article attempts to chronicle such positive outcomes, and suggest that such a program might be appropriate to school districts with a similar demographic.

However, one of the problems of the article is that, rather than focus on the specifics of the study, it frames it in a more general overview of the foundation of practitioner research, the need to regard teachers as experts, the value of collaborative efforts in school organizations and the under-utilization of teachers as leaders in change plans (Hickey & Harris, 2005:1). The study itself was based in a rural southern school of 720 students and 62 teachers...During professional development days, nine teachers were asked to present a program that focused on a particular effective teaching practice in which they excelled based upon the evaluations, both formal and informal, of the campus administration" (Hickey & Harris, 2005: 4).It was thus a school-specific professional leadership plan, not one connected to a lager leadership theory or methodology of teaching, hence, the article contends, its greater usefulness to practitioners. It also acted as a facilitator of greater collegiality amongst educators.

The sessions also had quantitatively and qualitatively-based feedback evaluation surveys. "In evaluating the experience, 63.4% of the teachers had positive feelings about professional development when teachers were used within the district to share expertise" and expressed positive feelings about being led by peers to improve school policy (Hickey & Harris, 2005: 4; 5). The district decided, as a result of this experimental change, to instate peer-based professional development into the current mode of curriculum critique and professional development, as well as providing outside consultants.