An official website of the United States government
Abstract Teacher leaders influence their peers by introducing innovative instructional methods and enhancing teaching quality. They have proven invaluable to school principals as they prioritize comprehensive teacher development, bolster teacher effectiveness, and promote teacher retention. Despite their importance, little to no research—prior to the present study—has shed light on the development of teacher leaders and the evolution of their leadership identity. While science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teacher leaders offer a potential remedy for attrition in public schools, a substantial gap exists in understanding how a STEM teacher's self‐efficacy, values, and agency contribute to their transformation into effective STEM teacher leaders, especially in urban‐like learning environments. The present study focuses on STEM teacher leadership identity development and the challenges encountered. It ascertains the interplay between urban‐like learning environments, self‐efficacy, agency, the teacher leader's role within the school, and values in forecasting STEM teacher leadership identity. This research involved 100 in‐service PreK‐12 public school STEM teacher leaders. It yielded significant, positive, and meaningful relations between urban‐like learning environments, self‐efficacy/agency, teacher leader role, values, and STEM teacher leadership identity. These findings can enhance various facets of PreK‐12 STEM education, including educational programming, teacher training, and cultivating STEM teacher leadership.
more »
« less
The Reformation of Identity: What Is Present after a Science Teacher Leadership Program.
This qualitative study investigates the development of science teacher leaders during and after professional development. It examines the impactful experiences during a teacher leadership program that allowed them to explore their leadership identity and how this identity manifests in their schools’ post-program. The participants are 14 chemistry and physics teacher leaders from schools in the Southeastern U.S. who attended a five-year Noyce teacher leadership program. They are emergent leaders who entered the program with limited leadership exposure or expertise. Social learning theory provides the lens to examine during and post-program interviews with science teacher leaders. Three themes emerge from the interviews: 1) Redefining leadership, 2) Responsibility for others, and 3) Collaborative community that developed the science teacher leadership identity during and after the program. The findings from this study have theoretical and practical implications for teacher leaders, schools, and leadership development programs.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1949925
- PAR ID:
- 10625241
- Editor(s):
- Wenner, Julianne
- Publisher / Repository:
- California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. 3801 W. Temple Avenue, Pomona, CA 91768
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- International Journal of Teacher Leadership
- ISSN:
- 1934-9726
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Effective professional learning communities (PLCs) are important in supporting teacher learning. This study investigated computer science (CS) teacher leaders’ perspectives on the lessons and the challenges in supporting CS teachers through local PLCs. We purposefully selected ten CSTA chapters and conducted focus group interviews with the chapter leaders between 2020 and 2022. Our findings indicated that these PLCs offered social-emotional support, continual networking opportunities, and rich professional learning resources. Also, they amplified teachers’ voices and supported CS teachers’ professional identity building. To engage CS teachers, the teacher leaders built trust, collaborated with other PLCs or organizations, and set an inclusive PLC culture. These PLCs had challenges in recruitment, leadership development and transition, and building group identity.more » « less
-
Growing emphasis on elementary STEM education has pushed elementary teachers to face curriculum changes that focus on standards with which they are largely unfamiliar (Smith, 2020; Trygstad et al., 2013). As a result, elementary students are not always exposed to STEM subjects or integration and miss out on opportunities to access and enjoy the hands-on, inquiry-driven activities that accompany them. This deficit disproportionally impacts high-need, urban districts that serve Black and Brown children and families, thus perpetuating inequities in STEM education and careers (Tate et al., 2012). To address these issues, we designed a Fellowship program that strengthened K-12 STEM teacher leadership in local, high-need, schools. In this paper, we take a closer look at how five elementary teachers took on STEM teacher leader identities and then sustained and strengthened those even as program supports reduced. We asked: How do elementary teachers develop and sustain STEM and leadership identities through participation in a Master Teacher Fellowship? Using positional identity and selfefficacy lenses, we interpreted focus group interviews, coursework, reflections, and Fellowship meeting notes. Findings suggest that elementary teachers developed their identities gradually—first, as they recognized themselves as STEM teachers; next, as they recognized themselves as STEM leaders; and then, as others recognized them as STEM teacher leaders and positioned them to enact change in their schools and to support their colleagues. Implications for teacher educators shed light on how elementary teachers can be best supported in increasing STEM learning for their students across grade levels to effect school change.more » « less
-
The development and use of elementary mathematics specialists (EMSs) is an indispensable approach for improving mathematics instruction in schools. This holistic singular‐case study explored the teacher leadership of 26 EMSs across a three‐year period as they developed in their informal teacher leader role during a five‐year mathematics professional development program. To examine participants' teacher leader work and intended influences of these efforts, quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Findings of a teacher leader record show the prevalence, variability, audiences, and shifts in their teacher leader efforts, with the interview data illuminating complexity and extensions. In their advocacy for ambitious and equitable instruction, the EMSs sought to support students, families, teachers, administrators, and community members in particular ways. Shifts were observed as they became more comfortable with their roles and responsibilities as teacher leaders. They were increasingly positioned as holders of expertise within communities of practices in their schools, contributing to more influence in their settings. EMSs reported not only supporting teachers through leading professional development but advocating for students and best practices informally in ad hoc hallway conversations. Notably, the EMSs recognized expertise in fellow teachers and sought to elevate them as leaders.more » « less
-
Leaders in industry and government are calling for increasing innovation in STEM fields to maintain the nation's economic competitiveness [15]. Solving today's complex challenges will require cooperation among experts from many fields. Successful leaders must harness the diverse capabilities of teams composed of these experts and be technically skilled. Undergraduate engineering students can fill this need by learning how to be effective leaders during their formation as engineers. Unfortunately, many engineering students graduate with little development of leadership skills; engineering educators do not currently have a sufficient understanding of how engineering students develop into leaders. This NSF ECE supported project seeks to improve educators’ understanding of the interaction between leadership and engineering identities in the formation of undergraduate engineers. This work postulates that a cohesive engineering leadership identity should exist at the intersection of engineering and leadership identities. Now entering its second year the project is wrapping up its quantitative phase and is beginning the qualitative phase of investigation. This paper discusses the process of developing the qualitative research protocols used to explore identity formation in groups of undergraduate engineers at three different campuses. The discussion shows the formation of the protocol using prior work in leadership and engineering identity constructs from both this project and the literature. The protocol development, methods, and findings from early interviews are presented. Initial findings suggest several factors are important to engineering educators interested in developing engineers who are ready to lead. The findings include evidence of some level of conflict between engineering identity and leadership identity as well as further evidence of engineering students’ compartmentalization of leadership as outside of engineering. In addition, this paper includes the learning outcomes of three REU students who joined the project to assist with the development of the qualitative protocol. The REU students made significant contributions to initial data collection as participants and observers. The REU students were the lead authors of this paper.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- The DOI is not currently available.
