Purpose -Conceptual ambiguity about the term "teacher leadership" has retarded development of useful research on this topic. The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework that researchers might utilize to clarify key assumptions embedded in their use of the term "teacher leadership," enabling members of this research community to better understand and build upon each other's work and to develop a knowledge base on teacher leadership. Design/methodology/approach -In 2016 a community of researchers convened in a conversation about their varied conceptions of teacher leadership. The authors analyzed documentation from this convening to identify key ways in which members' conceptions of teacher leadership diverged. They then drew upon the teacher-leader research literature and their own experiences with teacher-leader initiatives to propose a conceptual framework that would support researchers to define teacher leadership in ways that meet established criteria for an empirically-useful concept. Findings -Four dimensions of teacher leadership that should be referenced in an empirically-useful definition of teacher leadership are: legitimacy, support, objective and method. It is hypothesized that clarifying one's assumptions about each of these dimensions and providing descriptive evidence of how they are instantiated will address the conceptual ambiguity that currently stymies the accumulation of knowledge in this field. Originality/value -This paper presents a framework that can provide a strong foundation for the development of a knowledge base on teacher leadership, which is needed to inform education leaders' efforts to maximize teachers' leadership influence as asset for improving teaching, learning and schools.
Teacher leadership is increasingly recognized as a resource for instructional improvement. Consequently, teacher leader initiatives have expanded rapidly despite limited knowledge about how to prepare and support teacher leaders. In this context, the Teacher Leader Model Standards represent an important development in the field. In this article, we use findings from the content analyses of four preexisting teacher leader preparation programs to identify strengths and gaps in these new standards. Our aim is to invite critical dialogue about the standards to improve their utility for strengthening teacher leadership preparation, policy, and practice.
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