Teacher Leadership: Collective Growth Through Collaboration
Introduction
Much has been written about the promise and potential of teacher leadership to improve learning outcomes for students and develop a professional culture within schools, yet there remains a lack of consensus about what constitutes a teacher leader. As a classroom teacher, the concept of teacher leadership had always inspired me but felt far removed from my daily experience. I didn’t see a natural connection between leadership and my practice.
After joining a STEM education non-profit where I had an opportunity to delve into the research on professional development for mathematics and science teachers, my perspective began to shift. Seeing the limitations of short, pull-out professional development, I became interested in exploring how teachers could both maintain a classroom teaching practice and assume leadership to influence change.
Motivated to develop a deeper understanding of teacher leadership, I embarked on a small exploratory project to document the stories of classroom teachers who self-identified as teacher leaders. How did they define teacher leadership, and what did it look like in practice? Through documenting and sharing their stories, I hoped to better define teacher leadership, explore connections to research, and offer actionable takeaways for teachers interested in elevating their leadership work.
Defining Teacher Leadership: Key Findings
Definitions of teacher leadership in the research literature vary widely from a discrete set of roles that classroom teachers take on in addition to their classroom responsibilities, to a collaborative practice taken up by groups of teachers to investigate and reflect on their classroom practice (Wenner & Campell, 2017; Butler, Schneller & MacNeil 2015; Harris, Jones & Ismail, 2022). While there are many studies exploring the concept of teacher leadership, fewer focus on teacher leadership within discipline-specific contexts, such as mathematics and science (Wenner & Campbell, 2017).
I interviewed 15 mathematics and science teacher leaders from a range of school and community contexts across the United States and abroad, gathering their perspectives on what defines teacher leadership and what leadership can look like in these disciplines. My interview protocol included questions about if the teachers saw themselves as leaders and why, what makes someone a mathematics or science teacher leader, and how they would describe their own leadership work. As I reviewed the data, three important findings emerged:
- Teacher leadership happens in community. Rather than being defined by a title or specific set of skills, the teacher leaders I spoke with felt that leadership was defined by developing their teaching practice in collaboration with other teachers.
- Teacher leadership requires vulnerability. Many of the teacher leaders said sharing and reflecting on their practice openly with colleagues was critical to support their own and others’ learning.
- Teacher leadership is an emergent process. Implementing new ideas and practices within a supportive and collaborative community is a process that requires time and persistence. The teacher leaders I spoke with approached this process from a learner’s stance—framing challenges as opportunities for growth that could support them in deepening their leadership work.
To illustrate what teacher leadership can look like in practice, and to explore each of these findings and their connections to the research literature, I share lightly edited excerpts from my interviews with Tanya, a high school mathematics teacher, and Malory, a high school science teacher. I chose to share their stories because they provide very different examples of how teacher leadership can unfold, as well as actionable takeaways for teachers who see themselves as aspiring leaders. They also highlight the experiences of teachers who are at very different points in their leadership journeys—Tanya, who had held a titled leadership role for several years, and Malory, who was in the early stages of building a culture of collaboration with her colleagues.
Tanya’s Story
Tanya had been teaching high school mathematics for 20 years. In addition to her classroom teaching responsibilities, she served as both the mathematics and science department chair and worked on numerous committees in her school and district. She had also been awarded Teacher of the Year in her state. During our conversation, she reflected on what makes someone a teacher leader and on her own leadership journey.
I think that the most important part of being a teacher leader is seeking out professional development and research around best practices. This is how I’ve evolved as a teacher. My classroom has become a collaborative community where students are building an understanding of math together. My students are comfortable with making mistakes and asking questions, where before I felt like that was not the case. Early in my career, conceptual understanding was completely lacking in my class.
For Tanya, the role of teacher leader emerged from her desire to continually learn and develop her teaching practice. Throughout her career, she took a learner’s stance toward her practice, embracing new ideas with curiosity and openness, trying out new approaches to support her students in developing conceptual understanding, and reflecting on those approaches with colleagues. Like Tanya, almost all the teacher leaders I spoke with named a commitment to ongoing learning as one of the most important attributes of a teacher leader.
I began to shift my practice 15 years ago. I would seek out colleagues that were using a more student-centered approach and I would watch, and then I’d try to implement something similar. Over time, I started inviting people into my classroom and I realized people were coming to me a lot. They would ask, ‘can you tell me how that would work in this lesson?’ I realized people were starting to look to me. I think that’s when I started to see myself as a teacher leader.
If I’m doing a good job as the department chair, I’m creating and cultivating leaders within the department.
Tanya collaborated with colleagues to develop her practice at every stage of her teaching journey. Early on, she learned from colleagues by observation. She practiced incorporating others’ ideas and shared her experiences and her teaching practice with colleagues. In this way, Tanya’s professional community supported her to develop and refine her practice, which in turn enabled her to step into a leadership role and support others.
There are a lot of people who come into my classroom to observe. The beautiful thing is that this makes me more accountable. Verbalizing why I make the decisions I make requires me to reflect on my practices and intentions within every single lesson. I create curriculum that is student centered, and I share it with everybody in the district. This sharing felt uncomfortable at first. But vulnerability is very important. As a leader, you must be vulnerable and take risks.
Another thing that’s really important to me is building other people up to be leaders. At my school there have been two department chairs in mathematics in the last 27 years. In the past this has been a role that teachers take over until they retire. I’m the third chair and I am breaking that cycle. I’ve told my colleagues I’ll keep the position for three years, maybe four years maximum, and then it’s time for a new leader. If I’m doing a good job as the department chair, I’m creating and cultivating leaders within the department.
Research Connections
Tanya’s experiences align with research on how teacher leaders influence change. York-Barr and Duke (2004) found that by maintaining a focus on teaching and learning, establishing trusting and constructive relationships with colleagues, and interacting with them through both formal and informal points of influence, that teacher leaders could act as change agents. By inviting colleagues into her classroom and sharing materials, Tanya exerted influence informally, while her work as department chair represented a formal point influence.
Actionable Takeaways from Tanya’s Story
- Start building a supportive community by seeking out colleagues who share an interest in sharing and developing their teaching practice. Tanya built community slowly over several years by finding colleagues who she could observe and learn from and then by sharing her practice with others.
- Embrace vulnerability as a part of leadership and learning. Tanya made herself vulnerable through sharing and reflecting openly about her practice with her colleagues. This sharing allowed her to build a sense of trust and support collective learning.
- Look for informal points of influence, recognizing that these build the connection and communication with colleagues that is necessary to drive meaningful change.
It’s difficult to be a true leader without learning and humility.
Malory’s Story
Malory, a high school science teacher with over 20 years of experience teaching physics, chemistry, astronomy, and environmental science, had recently begun collaborating with her colleagues to improve science teaching and learning in her school. During our interview, she shared how she defined teacher leadership and what her leadership work looked like in practice.
I think a teacher can become a teacher leader at any point in their career. It has more to do with a willingness to be authentic, curious, and vulnerable, and invite others to join in learning together. It’s difficult to be a true leader without learning and humility. Who will follow you, if you are coming from a place of arrogance? I think we learn together and become leaders together.
I don’t feel comfortable with a hierarchical structure or feeling like I’m telling people what to do. So, I try to take a reflective tone, and use comments like “I wonder how this would look if we…” or “what if we thought about it like…” This really comes from a place of wanting to understand where everyone is coming from and what will be professionally useful for them. It has always been frustrating to me when someone in a formal leadership position tells me what to do without understanding my situation. It’s similar to how I view my role as a teacher—it’s not very effective to provide answers to questions that no one is asking! (Or instructions for tasks that aren’t seen as relevant.)
Malory invited her colleagues to share their perspectives and experiences and used this data to inform and structure collaboration. Malory shared more about what collaboration looked like in her setting.
One of our department goals for this academic year was to align the Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) across the three years of science courses that students take. At one of our team meetings after school, we felt like we were trying to meet certain expectations from our admin team, but I also wanted to make sure it was a good use of everyone’s time on a practical level. I started to wonder out loud what it would look like to use our upcoming lessons as a sort of case study to look at which SEPs would be most applicable. The biology teacher was planning a unit about genetic mutations, and I was teaching about fertilizers and sustainable agriculture—it turned out that we both saw the SEP about “Asking Questions & Defining Problems” to be very relevant. This opened the door for a productive discussion between myself and my biology colleague about how we can support each other in developing student skills in these areas.
This shift in perspective helped me recognize that any teacher can be a leader, and that leadership is grounded in relationships.
Research Connections
Malory’s view of leadership as a collective rather than individual process aligns with the concept of distributed leadership, which has been shown to support collaboration, and the adoption of innovative practices (Philips et. al, 2023). By reframing the task from their school’s administration team, Malory and her colleagues were empowered to take ownership of this work together.
Like Tanya, Malory also mentioned vulnerability in the context of sharing and learning with colleagues. This aligns with Abeita and Melton’s (2022) finding that, “vulnerability, self-worth, and teacher identity are hugely important aspects of not only being a teacher but also being a teacher leader” (p. 2). For both Malory and Tanya, part of assuming the identity of teacher leader involved navigating their own vulnerability so that they could share and reflect on their practice openly with others. This sharing allowed them to lay the groundwork for trusting and constructive relationships with colleagues that York-Barr and Duke (2004) noted are critical for influencing change. Developing a sense of trust and social respect within the professional community of a school is a key resource for reform and has been linked to marked improvements in student learning (Bryk & Schneider, 2003). By listening to understand where her colleagues were coming from and taking a reflective tone, Malory established this sense of trust and respect.
Actionable Takeaways from Malory’s Story
- When thinking about ways to structure collaborative work, listen to colleagues, and take their experiences and perspectives into consideration.
- Identify points of connection with colleagues to structure collaboration. Malory found connection through looking closely at the Science and Engineering Practices and finding one that was relevant to both her and her colleague’s upcoming units of study.
Conclusion: New Perspectives, Questions, and Future Directions
I used to associate teacher leadership with formal titles that distinguished leaders from their teaching colleagues. These interviews led me to understand that a title doesn’t define a teacher leader, but rather the actions a teacher takes to support collective growth and leadership over time. This shift in perspective helped me recognize that any teacher can be a leader, and that leadership is grounded in relationships. Establishing a sense of trust and mutual respect and embracing vulnerability are necessary to influence change. This change doesn’t happen all at once. As Tanya and Malory’s stories illustrate, leadership is an emergent process of growth.
As my perspective shifted and my understanding of teacher leadership deepened, new questions emerged about how to support and sustain teacher leadership in schools. My research focused on teacher leaders’ work with colleagues, but understanding the role of administrators also feels crucial. I have new questions to research. How can school leaders support the development of teacher leadership in schools, and how can teacher leadership inform the work of administrators? Developing a deeper understanding of these relationships will shed more light on ways to lead lasting change together.
Citation
Sussman, A. (2026).Teacher leadership: Collective growth through collaboration. Kaleidoscope: Educator Voices and Perspectives, 13(1), URL NEEDED.