Teacher Leadership as a Change Agent Essay -- york barr,education syst

Teachers have always played one of the most important roles in schools and in the educational histories of most students. One of the greatest challenges facing education systems is implementing the changes that would increase student learning. In this paper, I seek to investigate the traditional views of school reform by redefining the roles teachers can play in school change and thus, increasing student’s learnings outcome. How do we make change happen in education? Considering current framework in light of the ever-changing context of schooling, appear to view classroom-based teachers as having little to no authority, as being incapable of initiating school wide change according to their will. Mostly, teacher has been considered in two roles. The first role of the teacher as a receiver and implementer of the strategies & practices formulated by others, i.e. national policy efforts or principal change initiatives. The second role of the teacher as a leader of official reform initiatives, such as those found in policies created by school district and school level principal. Moreover, both roles of the teacher also place more value on the school’s context rather than on the teacher’s potential to make change independently. Under these prevailing roles of teachers, it is very hard for teachers to initiative for school improvement without the help of traditional school leaders. The time has co me to enforce new role of the teachers that is more consistent with the 21st century’s learning framework and can provide better service to the students, where Teachers are more active than recipients and more central to school improvement than taking the lead on implementing externally-driven reforms. Thus, by studying the two dominant roles ... ... 1993.Change Forces: Probing the depths of educational reform .London: Falmer Press Fullan, M. 2011.The new meaning of educational change. (4th ed.).New York: Teachers College Press. Harris, A .2002.Building the capacity for school improvement. Hargreaves, A. 2007. Five flaws of staff development and the future beyond. Journal of Staff Development 28: 37-38. Jilek, J., Loadman, W., &Derby, L. 1998.ohio’s P-12 systematic educational reform: Implications for the preparation of teachers and administrator. Murphy, J. 2005. Continuing teacher leadership and school improvement .Thousand Oaks, CA: Crownie Press Rogers, E.M. 2003.Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York: Free Press. York-Barr, J. & K. Duke (2004) what do we know about teacher leadership? Findings from two decades of scholarship. Review of educational research 74(3), 255-316.