teacher research paper sample

• NAEYC Login
• Member Profile
• Hello Community
• Accreditation Portal
• Online Learning
• Online Store

Popular Searches:   DAP ;  Coping with COVID-19 ;  E-books ;  Anti-Bias Education ;  Online Store

What is Teacher Research?

You are here

Teacher research is intentional, systematic inquiry by teachers with the goals of gaining insights into teaching and learning, becom­ing more reflective practitioners, effecting changes in the classroom or school, and improving the lives of children.... Teacher research stems from teachers' own questions and seeks practical solutions to issues in their professional lives.... The major components of teacher research are: conceptualization, in which teachers identify a significant problem or interest and determine relevant re­search questions; implementation, in which teachers collect and analyze data; and interpretation, in which teachers examine findings for meaning and take appropriate actions.... Teacher research is systematic in that teachers follow specific procedures and carefully document each step of the process. — " The Nature of Teacher Research " by Barbara Henderson, Daniel R. Meier, and Gail Perry

Teacher Research Resources

The resources below provide early childhood education professionals with tools to learn more about the teacher research process, explore accounts of teachers conducting research in their own classrooms, and connect with others in the field interested in teacher research.

Resources from  Voices of Practitioners

The Nature of Teacher Research Barbara Henderson, Daniel R. Meier, and Gail Perry

The Value of Teacher Research: Nurturing Professional and Personal Growth through Inquiry Andrew J. Stremmel

How To Do Action Research In Your Classroom: Lessons from the Teachers Network Leadership Institute Frances Rust and Christopher Clark

Resources From Other Publications

The resources listed here provide early childhood education professionals with tools to learn more about the teacher research process, explore accounts of teachers conducting research in their own classrooms, and connect with others in the field interested in teacher research.

American Educational Research Association (AERA) AERA encourages scholarly inquiry and promotes the dissemination and application of research results. It includes special interest groups (SIGs) devoted to early childhood and teacher research. Potential members can join AERA and then choose the Action Research or Teachers as Researchers SIGs (See “AR SIG, AERA” and “TR SIG, AERA” below.) AERA holds an annual conference with presentations of early childhood teacher research among many other sessions. www.aera.net

Action Research Special Interest Group, American Educational Research Association (AR SIG, AERA) This group builds community among those engaged in action research and those teaching others to do action research. It offers a blog, links to action research communities, and lists of action research books, journals, and conferences. http://sites.google.com/site/aeraarsig/

Teacher as Researcher Special Interest Group, American Educational Research Association (TAR SIG, AERA) This group consists of AERA members who are teacher educators and preK–12th grade educators; it aims to present teacher research at the AERA conference and elsewhere nationally. Early childhood teacher research is an important part of the group. http://www.aera.net/SIG126/TeacherasResearcherSIG126/tabid/11980/Default.aspx

The Center for Practitioner Research (CFPR) of the National College of Education at National-Louis University CFPR aims to affect education through collaborative scholarship contributing to knowledge, practice, advocacy, and policy in education. The website includes selected action research resources, including links to websites, book lists, conference information, and its online journal  Inquiry in Education . http://nlu.nl.edu/cfpr

Educational Action Research Educational Action Research  is an international journal concerned with exploring the dialogue between research and practice in educational settings. www.tandf.co.uk/journals/reac

Let’s Collaborate, Teacher Research from Access Excellence @ the National Health Museum This site includes useful supports for engaging in teacher research, including examples of K–12 research focused on science education. It offers information on starting a project, examples of teacher research projects, and links to online resources. www.accessexcellence.org/LC/TL/AR/

National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE) NAECTE promotes the professional growth of early childhood teacher educators and advocates for improvements to the field. NAECTE’s  Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education  occasionally publishes teacher research articles, including a special issue focused on teacher research (Volume 31, Issue 3). NAECTE also provides ResearchNets, a forum to foster educational research with teacher research presentations. www.naecte.org

Networks: An On-line Journal for Teacher Research at the University of Wisconsin A venue for sharing reports of action research and discussion on inquiry for teachers at all levels, this journal provides space for discussion of inquiry as a tool to learn about practice and improve its effectiveness. http://journals.library.wisc.edu/index.php/networks

Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving your Practice through Collaborative Inquiry, Student Study Guide from Sage Publications This web-based student study site accompanies a book of the same name; it provides a wealth of information on its own for teachers or teacher educators who conduct studies of their own teaching practice. http://www.sagepub.com/samaras/default.htm

Teacher Action Research from George Mason University This site offers information about the teacher research process, including resources for carrying out teacher research studies. It also contains discussion of current teacher research issues and a comparison of teacher research to other forms of educational research and professional development. http://gse.gmu.edu/research/tr

Teacher Inquiry Communities Network from the National Writing Project (NWP) This network offers information on a mini-grant program supporting an inquiry stance toward teaching and learning. It includes information about the grant program, program reports, and examples of projects (including early elementary projects). http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/programs/tic

Teaching and Teacher Education This journal aims to enhance theory, research, and practice in teaching and teacher education through the publication of primary research and review papers. http://www.journals.elsevier.com/teaching-and-teacher-education

Voices of Practitioners

How To Write A Research Paper

Step-By-Step Tutorial With Examples + FREE Template

By: Derek Jansen (MBA) | Expert Reviewer: Dr Eunice Rautenbach | March 2024

For many students, crafting a strong research paper from scratch can feel like a daunting task – and rightly so! In this post, we’ll unpack what a research paper is, what it needs to do , and how to write one – in three easy steps. 🙂 

Overview: Writing A Research Paper

What (exactly) is a research paper.

• How to write a research paper
• Stage 1 : Topic & literature search
• Stage 2 : Structure & outline
• Stage 3 : Iterative writing
• Key takeaways

Let’s start by asking the most important question, “ What is a research paper? ”.

Simply put, a research paper is a scholarly written work where the writer (that’s you!) answers a specific question (this is called a research question ) through evidence-based arguments . Evidence-based is the keyword here. In other words, a research paper is different from an essay or other writing assignments that draw from the writer’s personal opinions or experiences. With a research paper, it’s all about building your arguments based on evidence (we’ll talk more about that evidence a little later).

Now, it’s worth noting that there are many different types of research papers , including analytical papers (the type I just described), argumentative papers, and interpretative papers. Here, we’ll focus on analytical papers , as these are some of the most common – but if you’re keen to learn about other types of research papers, be sure to check out the rest of the blog .

With that basic foundation laid, let’s get down to business and look at how to write a research paper .

Overview: The 3-Stage Process

While there are, of course, many potential approaches you can take to write a research paper, there are typically three stages to the writing process. So, in this tutorial, we’ll present a straightforward three-step process that we use when working with students at Grad Coach.

These three steps are:

• Finding a research topic and reviewing the existing literature
• Developing a provisional structure and outline for your paper, and
• Writing up your initial draft and then refining it iteratively

Let’s dig into each of these.

Need a helping hand?

Step 1: Find a topic and review the literature

As we mentioned earlier, in a research paper, you, as the researcher, will try to answer a question . More specifically, that’s called a research question , and it sets the direction of your entire paper. What’s important to understand though is that you’ll need to answer that research question with the help of high-quality sources – for example, journal articles, government reports, case studies, and so on. We’ll circle back to this in a minute.

The first stage of the research process is deciding on what your research question will be and then reviewing the existing literature (in other words, past studies and papers) to see what they say about that specific research question. In some cases, your professor may provide you with a predetermined research question (or set of questions). However, in many cases, you’ll need to find your own research question within a certain topic area.

Finding a strong research question hinges on identifying a meaningful research gap – in other words, an area that’s lacking in existing research. There’s a lot to unpack here, so if you wanna learn more, check out the plain-language explainer video below.

Once you’ve figured out which question (or questions) you’ll attempt to answer in your research paper, you’ll need to do a deep dive into the existing literature – this is called a “ literature search ”. Again, there are many ways to go about this, but your most likely starting point will be Google Scholar .

If you’re new to Google Scholar, think of it as Google for the academic world. You can start by simply entering a few different keywords that are relevant to your research question and it will then present a host of articles for you to review. What you want to pay close attention to here is the number of citations for each paper – the more citations a paper has, the more credible it is (generally speaking – there are some exceptions, of course).

Ideally, what you’re looking for are well-cited papers that are highly relevant to your topic. That said, keep in mind that citations are a cumulative metric , so older papers will often have more citations than newer papers – just because they’ve been around for longer. So, don’t fixate on this metric in isolation – relevance and recency are also very important.

Beyond Google Scholar, you’ll also definitely want to check out academic databases and aggregators such as Science Direct, PubMed, JStor and so on. These will often overlap with the results that you find in Google Scholar, but they can also reveal some hidden gems – so, be sure to check them out.

Once you’ve worked your way through all the literature, you’ll want to catalogue all this information in some sort of spreadsheet so that you can easily recall who said what, when and within what context. If you’d like, we’ve got a free literature spreadsheet that helps you do exactly that.

Step 2: Develop a structure and outline

With your research question pinned down and your literature digested and catalogued, it’s time to move on to planning your actual research paper .

It might sound obvious, but it’s really important to have some sort of rough outline in place before you start writing your paper. So often, we see students eagerly rushing into the writing phase, only to land up with a disjointed research paper that rambles on in multiple

Now, the secret here is to not get caught up in the fine details . Realistically, all you need at this stage is a bullet-point list that describes (in broad strokes) what you’ll discuss and in what order. It’s also useful to remember that you’re not glued to this outline – in all likelihood, you’ll chop and change some sections once you start writing, and that’s perfectly okay. What’s important is that you have some sort of roadmap in place from the start.

At this stage you might be wondering, “ But how should I structure my research paper? ”. Well, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution here, but in general, a research paper will consist of a few relatively standardised components:

• Introduction
• Literature review
• Methodology

Let’s take a look at each of these.

First up is the introduction section . As the name suggests, the purpose of the introduction is to set the scene for your research paper. There are usually (at least) four ingredients that go into this section – these are the background to the topic, the research problem and resultant research question , and the justification or rationale. If you’re interested, the video below unpacks the introduction section in more detail. 

The next section of your research paper will typically be your literature review . Remember all that literature you worked through earlier? Well, this is where you’ll present your interpretation of all that content . You’ll do this by writing about recent trends, developments, and arguments within the literature – but more specifically, those that are relevant to your research question . The literature review can oftentimes seem a little daunting, even to seasoned researchers, so be sure to check out our extensive collection of literature review content here .

With the introduction and lit review out of the way, the next section of your paper is the research methodology . In a nutshell, the methodology section should describe to your reader what you did (beyond just reviewing the existing literature) to answer your research question. For example, what data did you collect, how did you collect that data, how did you analyse that data and so on? For each choice, you’ll also need to justify why you chose to do it that way, and what the strengths and weaknesses of your approach were.

Now, it’s worth mentioning that for some research papers, this aspect of the project may be a lot simpler . For example, you may only need to draw on secondary sources (in other words, existing data sets). In some cases, you may just be asked to draw your conclusions from the literature search itself (in other words, there may be no data analysis at all). But, if you are required to collect and analyse data, you’ll need to pay a lot of attention to the methodology section. The video below provides an example of what the methodology section might look like.

By this stage of your paper, you will have explained what your research question is, what the existing literature has to say about that question, and how you analysed additional data to try to answer your question. So, the natural next step is to present your analysis of that data . This section is usually called the “results” or “analysis” section and this is where you’ll showcase your findings.

Depending on your school’s requirements, you may need to present and interpret the data in one section – or you might split the presentation and the interpretation into two sections. In the latter case, your “results” section will just describe the data, and the “discussion” is where you’ll interpret that data and explicitly link your analysis back to your research question. If you’re not sure which approach to take, check in with your professor or take a look at past papers to see what the norms are for your programme.

Alright – once you’ve presented and discussed your results, it’s time to wrap it up . This usually takes the form of the “ conclusion ” section. In the conclusion, you’ll need to highlight the key takeaways from your study and close the loop by explicitly answering your research question. Again, the exact requirements here will vary depending on your programme (and you may not even need a conclusion section at all) – so be sure to check with your professor if you’re unsure.

Step 3: Write and refine

Finally, it’s time to get writing. All too often though, students hit a brick wall right about here… So, how do you avoid this happening to you?

Well, there’s a lot to be said when it comes to writing a research paper (or any sort of academic piece), but we’ll share three practical tips to help you get started.

First and foremost , it’s essential to approach your writing as an iterative process. In other words, you need to start with a really messy first draft and then polish it over multiple rounds of editing. Don’t waste your time trying to write a perfect research paper in one go. Instead, take the pressure off yourself by adopting an iterative approach.

Secondly , it’s important to always lean towards critical writing , rather than descriptive writing. What does this mean? Well, at the simplest level, descriptive writing focuses on the “ what ”, while critical writing digs into the “ so what ” – in other words, the implications. If you’re not familiar with these two types of writing, don’t worry! You can find a plain-language explanation here.

Last but not least, you’ll need to get your referencing right. Specifically, you’ll need to provide credible, correctly formatted citations for the statements you make. We see students making referencing mistakes all the time and it costs them dearly. The good news is that you can easily avoid this by using a simple reference manager . If you don’t have one, check out our video about Mendeley, an easy (and free) reference management tool that you can start using today.

Recap: Key Takeaways

We’ve covered a lot of ground here. To recap, the three steps to writing a high-quality research paper are:

• To choose a research question and review the literature
• To plan your paper structure and draft an outline
• To take an iterative approach to writing, focusing on critical writing and strong referencing

Remember, this is just a b ig-picture overview of the research paper development process and there’s a lot more nuance to unpack. So, be sure to grab a copy of our free research paper template to learn more about how to write a research paper.

You Might Also Like:

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Print Friendly

Teacher Leadership Research Paper

This sample education research paper on teacher leadership features: 6000 words (approx. 20 pages) and a bibliography with 44 sources. Browse other research paper examples for more inspiration. If you need a thorough research paper written according to all the academic standards, you can always turn to our experienced writers for help. This is how your paper can get an A! Feel free to contact our writing service for professional assistance. We offer high-quality assignments for reasonable rates.

As we enter the new millennium, teachers are closer than ever before to realizing their critically important and rightful position as leaders in PreK-12 education. Educational practice today requires more and increasingly varied participation by teachers in the leadership work of continual school improvement and renewal. The advances in teaching and learning that are increasingly required to maximize the growth and contributions of this next generation of children will not be realized without teachers, supported by administrators and enabled in a culture of collaborative learning, who lead among their peers.

Academic Writing, Editing, Proofreading, And Problem Solving Services

Get 10% off with 24start discount code.

An evolution in the thinking about teacher leadership has been described by Silva, Gimbert, and Nolan (2000) as three “waves.” The essence of teacher leadership in the first wave was teachers assuming formal positions, such as department chair, site committee member, or union representative, positions largely focused on increasing the efficiency of school management. Activities included scheduling, assigning classes, coordinating special events, and serving as a communication link between administrators and teachers. In this wave, conceptions of teacher-leaders focused on keeping things running smoothly.

A second wave of teacher leadership “. . . acknowledged the importance of teachers as instructional leaders and created positions that capitalized on teacher instructional knowledge” (Silva et al., 2000, p. 780). In this wave, teachers assumed formally identified leadership positions such as staff developer or curriculum specialist. Some of these instructional leadership functions were add-ons to regular classroom teaching responsibilities. Curricular and instructional leadership in the second wave was viewed as important, yet still as an extra, not central, role of teachers.

In the unfolding third wave of teacher leadership, teachers are leaders in creating and sustaining a collaborative culture of learning in the school focused on improving instructional practice (Silva et al., 2000). All teachers are viewed as potential leaders who can share the responsibility of continual professional and school development, regardless of whether they hold a formal designation of leader (Barth, 2001; Frost & Harris, 2003). An expectation for leadership is embedded within the work scope of teachers instead of being an add-on. Teachers share leadership responsibilities with the principal to shape and enact the school’s vision of advancing teaching, rather than just being communicators or coordinators. Not to be construed as revisiting the quasi-administrative functions of the first wave, nor having the prepackaged curriculum feel of the second wave, teacher leadership now explicitly holds developing learning capacity as its core function—learning for the grown-ups and students in schools.

These three waves of teacher leadership reflect an evolution in thinking about how teachers participate in school leadership and learning. This evolution has not happened in a vacuum. Increasing educational accountability, progressive conceptions of leadership as collective, and the movement to transform schools into professional learning communities are significant contextual influences.

The educational climate in the United States has become one in which not only districts and schools, but also administrators and teachers, are held accountable for the progress of students in meeting state and district standards. One indicator of teacher accountability is the prevalence of proposals for performance- or merit-based compensation structures that tie increases in teacher pay to increases in student performance (Odden & Kelley, 1997). Federal mandates within the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) also create pressure for changes at the level of classroom practice, as demonstrations of adequate yearly student progress must be documented. With changes in classroom practice being the target of improvement, teachers must be centrally involved.

More inclusive conceptions of leadership have also increased attention on how teachers can and do lead. Leadership is increasingly understood as a phenomenon shared by many individuals within organizations (Lambert, 2003). A traditional view that upholds the principal as the sole source of leadership in a school is being replaced with a view that calls for administrators and teachers to share leadership. Extending the earlier work of Ogawa and Bossert (1995), who asserted that leadership was an organizational quality, Spillane, Halverson, and Diamond (2001) have introduced the concept of “distributed leadership.” A distributed model of leadership suggests that leadership is influence (Yukl, 1994) and that the pathways for achieving influence in organizations are the relationships among its members (Louis, 2006; Yukl, 1994). Based on this argument, teachers are key school leaders because they are positioned to influence peers through collegial relationships.

The movement toward re-creating schools as learning communities for educators as well as students is another influence on the evolving leadership roles of teachers (Hord, 2004; Louis, 2006). Derived from the early work of Forrester (1961) and the more recent works of Senge and his colleagues (Senge et al., 2000), organizations in which learning is the cornerstone are considered more adaptable and, therefore, more viable. According to Senge and colleagues, every organization is a product of how its members think and interact. Organizations, like people, that continue to learn are better situated not only to adapt but also to thrive in the context of an ever-changing external environment. Additionally, Louis (2006) explains that understanding the learning organization involves “the creation of socially constructed interpretations of facts and knowledge that enter the organization from the environment, or are generated from within” (p. 81). Given that teachers are potentially the greatest collective force in schools, learning, adaptivity, and leadership from within the community of teachers are paramount to continual adaptation and viability.

Together, then, accountability demands, understandings about leadership as shared practice, and the transformation of schools as learning communities constitute a powerful set of forces shaping the nature of teaching and teachers. The time is right for taking a bolder and more encompassing stride toward firmly planting teacher leadership in the landscape of continual school renewal. As a field, we have grown in our understanding about what it means and what it takes to nurture teacher leadership. We have witnessed the powerful influence of teachers as they lead from the middle of the organizational hierarchy in schools and side-by-side with their colleagues.

In a comprehensive review of teacher leadership research, York-Barr and Duke (2004) offer the following definition of teacher leadership:

Teacher leadership is the process by which teachers, individually or collectively, influence their colleagues, principals, and other members of school communities to improve teaching and learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and achievement, (pp. 287-288)

This definition is broad enough to encompass many domains of teacher leadership practice. In this research-paper, however, we focus specifically on the role of teacher-leader in the domains of teacher learning and instructional practice, along with school development to support learning and practice. We identify and describe significant cultural influences on the enactment of teacher leadership, principles and practices that ground the work of teacher-leaders, and resources that encourage and support teacher-leaders in their work. Our purpose is to articulate what is known about how to most effectively and efficiently engage the talent, energy, and influence of teachers as a central resource for advancing teaching and learning in schools.

Lessons Learned About Teacher Leadership

In this third wave of teacher leadership, leadership is not restricted to a few select individuals, but is to be shared by many teachers. Numerous leading researchers advance the idea of building leadership capacity such that many people are involved in leading the learning work in schools and are supported in their own learning and growth to do so (Crowther, Kaagan, Ferguson & Hann, 2002; Fullan, 2007; Lambert, 2003; Louis, 2006). In this next section we offer 12 lessons intended to support the many or the few teachers who either step in or are invited to lead, along with those who support them in their leadership work.

Lessons About the Culture Within Which Teachers Lead

School cultures are complex webs of traditions and rituals that have been built over time as teachers, students, parents, and administrators work together and deal with various challenges and accomplishments. “Cultural patterns are highly enduring, have a powerful impact on performance, and shape the ways people think, act, and feel” (Deal & Peterson, 1998, p. 4). Existing cultures, depending on their specific nature, can either help or hinder ongoing leadership efforts for school improvement. Edward Demming, an icon of quality management, has been attributed with saying, “put a good person in a bad system and the system will win every time.” This emphasizes the powerful effect of existing norms, explicit or implicit, on human behavior. It also helps explain why teachers may enter a system with one set of ideals and values but over time succumb to the prevailing ones, sometimes without awareness of the gradual shift.

Schein (2004) explains, “neither culture nor leadership, when one examines each closely, can really be understood by itself” (p. 5). Leadership and culture, he asserts, are two sides of the same coin. Fullan (2001) introduced the term “re-culturing” to capture the essence of what it means to introduce and sustain change in existing school cultures. Without a doubt, teacher leadership introduces a counter-cultural presence in many schools. It should be no surprise then that principals, teachers, and teacher-leaders themselves are not exactly sure what to think and do as the idea of teacher leadership attempts translation into practice. Wilson (1993) shares that many teacher-leaders feel that current school cultures do not reward risk taking or collaboration and may perhaps even obstruct these behaviors. Described below are several lessons about cultural and professional norms that continue to plague many schools and teacher leadership.

Beware the Effects of Isolation

One of the most enduring and counterproductive cultural norms in schools is isolation (Rosenholtz, 1991). Isolation is structured into schools architecturally and temporally (Fullan & Hargreaves, 1996). Sometimes referred to as “egg carton architecture,” classrooms largely are the private practice realm of teachers and teaching. Although surrounded by students for many hours a day, teachers are separate from their colleagues. Typical school schedules leave little time during which teaching colleagues can meaningfully connect with one another about their practices. Not only does isolation diminish professional growth, but prolonged isolation reinforces a solitary orientation to one’s work and often breeds defensiveness and finger pointing. This orientation further diminishes the opportunity to establish a collaborative or collective norm for the work of teaching.

Although there are a growing number of schools in which regular opportunities and expectations for collaborative learning exist, most schools continue to struggle both for structural and psychological reasons to establish such cultures. Teachers are not used to exposing their practices; to do so is a vulnerable act requiring high levels of trust. Collaborative learning and interdependent work require a different way of thinking and behaving than isolated work. Initial efforts to chip away at the culture of isolation require intentionally designed and facilitated interactions such that participants feel safe and supported as they share with colleagues.

Stepping Up Can Be Viewed as Stepping Out of Line

Many well-intended teacher leadership initiatives are thwarted by the stronghold of egalitarian norms in schools (Lieberman & Miller, 1994; Little & McLaughlin, 1993). Egalitarian norms exert invisible pressure on teachers to retain equal status and not strive to be above their teaching colleagues. Especially when teachers assume formal positions of leadership, the “all teachers are equal” culture is threatened (Smylie, 1992). Stepping up to engage in leadership work frequently has been considered stepping out of line. Teachers who do so are regarded with suspicion and distrust. The “crab-bucket” metaphor described by Duke (1994) presents a compelling image of how relationships in the schoolhouse can be challenged by teacher leadership. When crabbing, there is no need to put a lid on a bucket of crabs because in the event that a crab tries to climb out, fellow crabs will grab hold and drag it back down. This is a disturbing, yet uncomfortably familiar, portrayal of life in some traditional school cultures.

Left unacknowledged and unaddressed, egalitarian norms impede teacher leadership efforts. This is especially true amid the current wave of school development and teacher leadership, one that aims to create school cultures that are collaborative and open to learning and improvement. In school cultures that are less conducive to collaboration and learning, commitments must be made to break down resistance by creating safe places for teachers to engage in collegial conversations about teaching and learning. When relationships between teacher-leaders and their colleagues are strong, and when teacher-leaders focus on improving their own instructional knowledge and practice as well as that of their colleagues, leaders are more likely to emerge and be encouraged and valued within their schools.

The Learning Void Reinforces Cycles of Cynicism

Historically, meaningful learning in schools has not been experienced by teachers. Irrelevant, episodic, and incoherent are terms that too often have described the staff development experiences of teachers. The adage, “I hope to die in staff development because the transition would be so seamless,” is not without a grounded base in teachers’ reality. Although there are indications of progress, high-quality learning and sustained improvement efforts have not been standard practice in schools. Many teachers have not experienced staff development that is useful for their professional practice. Further, because specific development efforts rarely have been sustained over time, full implementation of new initiatives has rarely occurred. A lot of energy and resources have been expended but nothing much has changed. And so, the cycle of cynicism continues, reflected in comments such as: “We’ve tried that before and it doesn’t work.” . . . “Wait this one out, it will go away like all the others.” . . . “It’s all theory, it will never work here.”

Until teachers experience the energy boost that comes from high-quality professional learning and see its positive impact on their teaching practices, and subsequently on student learning, cynicism and halfhearted engagement are well considered adaptive responses. But professional learning that is relevant to instructional practice, sustained over time, and socially supported through collaborative interactions with colleagues can begin to interrupt the cycles of cynicism that derail even valid initiatives. As cycles of cynicism decline, teachers feel more empowered in their work. The “if only” stories (that is, stories about how things could be different, if only . . . ) that permeate school culture will also lose their grip.

Reframe Resistance as Cultural, Not Personal

Cultures and the people living or working therein resist being tampered with. Knowing that cultures rule much of what happens in schools, what might be some productive responses on the part of leaders seeking to advance improvements in practice? First, expect resistance or push-back to attempts to introduce new practices. Isolation, egalitarianism, irrelevant and episodic staff development, and disempowerment continue as norms in many schools. No matter how unproductive they may be, they are not easily replaced with the more productive norms of collaboration, differentiation, quality learning, and teacher empowerment. Second, reframe resistance as a cultural force, not a personal rejection. Although leadership work has relational and personal dimensions, the ways in which educators either individually or as a group respond to improvement initiatives rarely hold personal malice toward the initiators.

Finally, there is good reason to believe that change and improvement are possible. Consider this thought: “People create cultures after that, cultures shape them” (Deal & Peterson, 1998, p. 85). If people create culture, then people can re-create it. Also know that teachers, like other human beings, are wired to learn and to contribute. Most teachers enter the field because they want to make a difference in the lives of children.

Lessons About the Work of Teachers Who Lead

In this section, we offer five lessons about positioning the work of teacher-leaders and engaging the colleagues of those leaders to improve teaching and learning in schools. The effectiveness of teachers in their leadership work depends on who they are as people, as teachers, and as colleagues. The relatively robust research on the characteristics of teachers who lead yields highly consistent results (see full summary in York-Barr & Duke, 2004). Such teachers are respected and viewed as credible by teaching peers when they demonstrate in-depth curricular knowledge along with significant experience and expertise as class-room instructors. Teachers who lead well tend to be learning-oriented people who take initiative and responsibility for their own learning, are effective communicators with strong interpersonal skills, and have a collaborative orientation toward working with others.

A less visible but very powerful influence on the effectiveness of teacher-leaders is a belief in the positive learning and growth potential of people, even grown-ups. Teacher resistance or reluctance to engage in new proposals about their practice can be understood as a psychological artifact of traditional school norms, as described earlier. Teacher-leaders who hold positive beliefs about the inner desire of people to learn, to feel competent, and to be socially connected are well situated to persist in making connections. Such persistence with grown-ups sometimes results in engagement and transformation, just as it does with children. Louis (2006) describes how to cultivate teacher engagement, stating that when teachers enter the profession they are engaged on various levels. Over time, demands from the profession may be stressful but can also serve to energize. She states that engagement of teachers (like students) requires “consistent positive reinforcers that are meaningful, relevant, rewarding and enjoyable” (emphasis in original, p. 115).

The work of teacher leadership cannot be separated from the ways in which individual teacher-leaders do their work. Therefore not all teachers are well suited for all types of leadership work. The many and varied leadership functions invite many and varied teachers to participate. There are, however, some lessons about the work, as well as general approaches to the work, that hold true across many areas of leadership practice.

Leading From the Middle Is a Powerful Point of Leverage

Schools and school districts, like most formal organizations, are hierarchal places. Teacher-leaders, even though most continue to be classified as teachers, are not quite positioned horizontally with teaching colleagues or with administrators. They are, organizationally speaking, “in the middle.” Leading from the middle, teachers function as

boundary spanners and networkers . . . work within and across school boundaries and structures to establish social linkages and networks among their peers and within the community . . . the influence of teachers in the system is a combination of how well they know how to work the system, their perceived expertise, [and] the influence afforded them . . . (Acker-Hocevar & Touchton, 1999, p. 26)

The great potential of leading from the middle comes from remaining connected with teachers and to ground-level practices, while at the same time developing more substantial connections with school administration and district leaders. Connected up and down, teachers have the opportunity to learn from and directly influence both other teachers and administrators. Understanding teacher culture, classroom realities, and instructional practices is necessary to inform decision making about policies, personnel, practices, and resources made at higher levels. Likewise, understanding organizational cultures, management realities, and the broad scope of development work in many schools and districts informs teachers regarding the intentional and strategic efforts to continue building organizational and professional capacities that support the work of teachers.

Some of the liabilities for teachers leading from the middle include the ambiguity of the work, a lack of transparency in some of the work, and the challenge of keeping sacred time to be present and engaged at the instructional level of practice with other teachers. First, the ambiguity of middle-level work stems from a need to grasp the complexity of instructional and organizational realities; it can be difficult to feel sure about how to progress. There are numerous variables that influence the advancement of teaching and learning. Second, a lack of full transparency occurs because there is an extraordinary amount of behind-the-scenes preparatory and follow-up work for most public leadership activities. Whether it is facilitating a workshop, presenting to the school board, or coaching a teacher after an observation, no one else sees this work. Often, work unseen is work devalued. Finally, teacher-leaders struggle to hold sacred blocks of time to be present and engaged with teachers in classrooms. Because leading from the middle involves a certain amount of flexibility in job design, such teachers are at risk for having an increasing number of responsibilities assigned to them. This results in less time for side-by-side work with other teachers, which raises questions about the notion that teacher leadership is first and foremost about the learning work for instructional improvement.

Leading from the middle of an organization can sometimes feel really big, really complex, and really lonely. Without such leadership, however, the gap between the daily life of teachers in their instructional practice and the daily life of administrators in their organizational practice is not adequately or productively bridged. Leading from the middle—serving as bridges and connectors, leveraging personnel and knowledge resources, and understanding how to advance policies and practices throughout a system—is a powerful and critically important point of leverage for continual renewal in schools.

Keep the Focus on Teaching and Learning

For teachers to be successful in the work of leadership, their core work must be significant and viewed as valid and valuable by other teachers (Little, 1988). Work that is typically valued by teachers is directly relevant to teaching and student learning. Childs-Bowen, Moller, and Scrivner (2000) explain, ” . . . teachers are leaders when they function in professional learning communities to affect student learning, contribute to school improvement, inspire excellence in practice, and empower stakeholders to participate in educational improvement” (p. 28).

In collaboration with other teachers, valued teacher leadership work might include any of the following activities:

• mapping a coherent vertical curriculum
• examining student data to identify instructional goals
• designing differentiated instruction
• developing assessments to monitor student learning and guide instructional decision making
• creating a tiered set of interventions aimed at fostering constructive affective behavior
• presenting materials for teaching high student engagement strategies
• bringing attention to culturally responsive teaching principles and practices
• modeling instructional practices
• coaching teachers as they implement new teaching strategies
• mentoring new teachers during their first three years of teaching
• facilitating formal and informal professional development gatherings in which teachers reflect and learn together.

In short, the central work of teachers who lead is the ongoing work of creating instructional improvement for students and the organizational conditions that foster such improvement.

Relationships Are the Pathways for Influence

Relationships, as a defining element of school culture, significantly affect the enactment of teacher leadership. Relationships are at the core of collaborative cultures in which continuous learning is an embedded norm. They are the pathways for influencing others, especially when one does not hold a position of formal administrative authority. Teachers who influence others have the capability to establish high trust relationships with and among their teaching peers and principals (Barth, 2001; Bryk & Schneider, 2002; Tschannen-Moran, 2004).

Teacher-leaders earn the trust of their colleagues by behaving in trustworthy ways in the context of daily interactions (Bryk & Schneider, 2002). Leaders from the middle gain and maintain the trust of colleagues by being discrete in the ways they secure, interpret, use, and transmit information. Teacher-leaders often feel the tug of unstated queries, such as, “Are you one of them or one of us?” The answer is not either-or, but both-and. The challenge lies in how to negotiate the middle leadership role by building relationships with integrity and staying grounded in purpose.

Learning inherently involves a degree of humility, meaning that one does not always know what to do. Few professionals maneuver in a more complex work environment than do teachers. It is not possible to know everything there is to know about effectively teaching many and varied students or adults in a myriad of circumstances. Tapping into the experience and expertise of teaching colleagues is an invaluable resource. And yet, many teachers are not predisposed to do so. A psychologically safe place to learn requires high levels of relational trust (Bryk & Schneider, 2002; Tschannen-Moran, 2004). When trust is present, questions can be asked and challenges shared without the risk of being viewed as inadequate. Relationships can make or break the success of initiatives aimed at improvements in teaching and learning.

Get the Learning Going!

There are at least three reasons why this lesson is a cornerstone of effective leadership practice. First, learning is the catalyst for continual improvement of instructional practice. If there is no learning, expect no improvement. Second, learning by experimenting with new practices and then observing positive results is the means by which beliefs are changed. Third, introducing learning into a frozen or stuck culture is one way for these cultures to get unstuck. Learning creates momentum. Collective learning accelerates the momentum for change.

School change expert Michael Fullan (2007) asserts that educators engaged in the work of school improvement should move to implementation sooner rather than later. He notes that too much time spent planning uses huge amounts of personal and organizational energy but results in little or no skill development or change in practice. Further, he argues, until initial use of practices begin, there is no experience base from which to make well-informed decisions about what is needed to advance the work. Thomas Guskey (1985) conducted a study that showed beliefs about practice change through personal experience with the practice. To change beliefs, engage teachers in new experiences.

An implication of this lesson is for teacher-leaders to direct a large share of their focus and energy on introducing and supporting changes in practice through the provision of high-quality professional development experiences. Expending energy to convince and cajole is energy largely wasted. The validity of new practices will be discerned through experience.

Learning Side-by-Side Models Collaborative Engagement

When teacher-leaders position themselves side-by-side with other teachers, they are positioned to be colearners, to facilitate productive collegial learning experiences, and to reinforce the assertion that teaching and learning about teaching is a career-long endeavor. Further, working in authentic instructional situations allows teachers who lead to continue developing their own instructional skills and, by doing so, to remain credible as teachers.

Learning collaboratively advances the notion that leadership is vested not only in people who have formal, titled positions but also in people at every level and in every dimension of organizational life. Opportunities to influence the development of others are not restricted to scheduled events but can and do occur through interactions in the daily work of schools. Teacher-leaders who maintain close contact with their colleagues can remain firmly grounded in their positions as teachers and in their network of collegial relationships. In their capacity as supportive colleagues, teacher-leaders embed leadership through both formal and informal points of influence (Darling-Hammond, Bullmaster, & Cobb, 1995; Heller & Firestone, 1995). Learning side-by-side, teacher-leaders inspire high levels of professional engagement among colleagues.

Lessons About Support for Teachers Who Lead

The counterculture nature of teacher leadership in schools means that much attention and intention is required to realize its potential. An overarching credo for teachers who lead is “Go-eth not alone!” Leadership work is not for the faint of heart. It requires courage and support. Although many leaders have or develop a strong internal capacity for sustaining their own learning and grounding, there is much intellectual and spiritual support to be realized through connections with others. The complex and sometimes conflicted work of leadership is well supported by an inner circle of trusted and engaged colleagues with whom leaders can openly share, learn, and re-energize. We describe three areas that offer personal and professional support for growth and renewal of teachers who lead.

Create and Insist on Opportunities to Learn and Grow

The work of leadership requires an expanded set of capacities and skills, beyond those required for excellence in classroom instruction. Some of the content areas identified as supporting teacher-leaders in their work include: advanced curricular, instructional, and assessment practices; school culture and its implications for professional and organizational improvement; adult development; and facilitation, presentation, and coaching skills required to facilitate learning and collaboration for individuals as well as with small or large groups (Lambert, 2003; York-Barr & Duke, 2004). Unfortunately, teacher-leaders sometimes are not provided with a thoughtful introduction to their leadership work, nor are they offered sufficient formal and ongoing leadership development opportunities. Below we describe three types of support to be addressed as teachers begin and continue their leadership work.

First, a formal introduction to the expected work scope of the teacher-leader and to the specific contexts within which the work will take place is an appropriate and respectful place to begin. Here are some questions to frame initial conversations between teacher-leaders and those who support their work:

• What is the work that the teacher-leader is intended to support, including the desired outcomes, products, or accomplishments?
• Who, specifically, will be involved? What is their background or expectation, and how is it anticipated that they will be involved?
• What resources are available to support the work (e.g., time, materials, development opportunities)?
• What role or roles is the teacher-leader expected to assume (e.g., facilitator, consultant, presenter, coach)?
• To whom is the teacher-leader accountable and by what means will checking in be most productive?

Further supporting an introduction to the work is an opportunity to spend time in the development context (e.g., school, classrooms, meetings) to meet key people and to listen to their understandings, interests, and concerns about the work. Interactions with these people, along with observing and listening while walking through the hallways, help discern the present culture and an array of current practice.

Second, formal leadership development opportunities should be an initial and ongoing means of supporting teacher-leaders. Are there courses, institutes, graduate programs, or workshops that provide more in-depth background knowledge about the learning work or about the teacher leadership understandings and skills for advancing the work? Are there other schools, leaders, or teachers who have been engaged in such work and who could share with the teacher-leader or leaders, or even an entire faculty?

Third, ongoing learning support in the form of opportunities to reflect and learn with teachers or other education leaders doing similar work is helpful. As Judith Arin-Krupp has been quoted saying, “Adults do not learn from experience, they learn from processing experience” (cited in Garmston & Wellman, 1997, p. 1). Time to reflect and learn must be both an espoused and realized value in the work of teacher-leaders. Leaders, like teachers, continue to improve as they reflect on, make sense of, and commit to improved future action.

Administrative Support Is Essential

About two decades ago, Judith Warren Little (1988) argued that the boundaries or expectations for teacher-leaders should be clarified, the incentives and rewards articulated, and the local policy support put in place. The principal and other administrators are, in large part, responsible for enacting this set of mandates. Principals ” . . . must know how to create conditions that foster empowerment and release their control over teachers, alter their roles, and engender commitment, trust, and respect” (Acker-Hocevar & Touchton, 1999, p. 26).

Strong relationships between teacher-leaders and their principals are widely acknowledged as a key determinant of the effectiveness of teacher leadership, with principals being the primary influence on how the teacher-leader-principal relationship evolves (Barth, 2001; Hart, 1994; Kahrs, 1996; Mangin, 2007; Smylie & Hart, 2000; Terry, 1999). Anderson (2004) describes three different ways in which relationships unfold among principals, teacher-leaders, and teachers. The most productive of the three is interactive, in which principals engage with teacher-leaders and other teachers about leadership work. Moller and Pankake (2006) emphasize that principals must intentionally develop trusting relationships with teacher-leaders, claiming that the building of such relationships is critical to the health and vibrancy of school culture as well as an enactment of providing support to them.

Mangin (2007) found that principals who had high levels of knowledge about teacher leadership and who demonstrated high levels of interaction with teacher-leaders were more intentionally supportive of those leaders. Such principals communicated with all teachers in their schools about expectations of instructional improvement, the roles of teacher-leaders as a resource for improvement, and expectations of teachers interacting in positive ways with the teacher-leaders. Teacher-leaders in this study acknowledged and appreciated this support from the principal as useful, although they expressed a desire for even greater support to meet challenges in their roles, including gaining acceptance by their peers.

As discussed previously, leading among peers can be risky business for teachers. Principals must not only be aware of this risk but also do what they can to minimize its impact. With this expectation set, principals can support the leadership work emotionally, financially through material means, or symbolically. They can protect the relationship between teacher-leaders and their peers, jointly and regularly check in about action plans, and support the development and understanding of skills for leading adults for themselves, as well as their teacher-leaders (Moller & Pankake, 2006).

The influence and support of teacher-leaders on their principals is equally as important to note as the influence and support of principals on teacher-leaders. Teacher-leaders support the instructional leadership work of principals in at least the following ways: (1) maintaining a proactive focus on teacher learning, (2) serving as a partner for reflecting on and refining the course of development work, (3) reinforcing and translating into practice expectations for improvement, (4) modeling targeted instructional practices, (5) embedding learning and inquiry among teachers (formally and informally), and (6) keeping principals up-to-date with new advances in teaching and learning. Acknowledging the reciprocal nature of influence and support between principals and teacher-leaders reinforces the power realized when principals and teacher-leaders lead side-by-side.

Pay Attention to Space and Stuff

This is a lesson that does not require much explanation. One way to unsettle a teacher is to mess with his or her space and stuff (too much messing around with schedules is also trying). In a work environment that is usually quite full—physically, psychologically, and emotionally—with 20 to 30 moving, living little beings, it is not possible to maintain high levels of order and control. Teachers and other in-action professionals have to be flexible and adapt, but there are limits and there are ways to help teachers thrive amid the chaotic life in schools. Being allocated a space that is one’s own and that allows for reasonable order of one’s stuff provides a nominal amount of steadiness that is more important than others can sometimes imagine. Attention to space and stuff is no less important for teachers who lead. Often they become the keepers of a dizzying array of resources that support the work of classroom teachers, and often they collect a large quantity of professional learning resources. In most organizations, schools among them, there is an overall press for space and usually not enough in the end. Teacher-leaders need a place to call their own with space for their stuff.

After reading this research-paper, one could reasonably ask, why would teachers choose to lead? Teachers lead because it has the potential to matter in big and small ways. Teachers who lead well are compelled, morally and intellectually, to make a difference in the lives of students (Fullan, 1993). By positively engaging their peers, such teachers enact a larger circle of support for achieving the moral purpose of advancing the learning and development of children in their journey to adulthood. Teachers who lead also have many opportunities for learning embedded in their work. Leading and learning are inextricably linked. They learn more about instructional, collegial, and organizational practices and how to influence those practices for the benefit of students. Teachers who lead learn more about themselves. Learning and contributing are strong attractors for many teachers.

Leveraging influence from the middle of the organization and learning side-by-side with colleagues, teachers who lead can shape the future of schools such that continual learning and professional renewal are defining features of what it means to be a teacher. Experienced as teachers, knowledgeable about instruction, effective in relationships, committed to personal growth, savvy about school culture, passionate about education, and caring about children—teachers who step up to lead contribute by advancing learning for grown-ups and children in schools.

The idea of teacher leadership is not new. “What is new, [however], are increased recognition of teacher leadership, visions of expanded teacher leadership roles, and new hope for the contributions these expanded roles might make in improving schools” (Smylie & Denny, 1990, p. 237). What also is new is our field’s heightened understanding about what it means and what it takes to advance teacher leadership. The time is now to apply what we know.

Bibliography:

• Acker-Hocevar, M., & Touchton, D. (1999). A model of power as social relationships: Teacher leaders describe the phenomena of effective agency in practice. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada.
• Anderson, K. (2004). Teacher leadership as reciprocal influence between teacher leaders and principals. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 15(1), 97-113.
• Barth, R. S. (2001). Teacher leader. Phi Delta Kappan, 82(6), 443-449.
• Bryk, A. S., & Schneider, B. (2002). Trust in schools: A core resource for improvement. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
• Childs-Bowen, D., Moller, G., & Scrivner, J. (2000). Principals: Leaders of leaders. NASSPBulletin, 84(616), 27-34.
• Crowther, F., Kaagan, S. S., Ferguson, M., & Hann, L. (2002). Developing teacher leaders: How teacher leadership enhances school success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
• Darling-Hammond, L., Bullmaster, M. L., & Cobb, V. L. (1995). Rethinking teacher leadership through professional development schools. The Elementary School Journal, 96(1), 87-106.
• Deal, T. E., & Peterson, K. D. (1998). Shaping school culture: The heart of leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Duke, D. L. (1994). Drift, detachment, and the need for teacher leadership. In D. R. Walling (Ed.), Teachers as leaders: Perspectives on the professional development of teachers (pp. 255-273). Bloomington, IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation.
• Forrester, J. W. (1961). Industrial dynamics. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.
• Frost, D., & Harris, A. (2003). Teacher leadership: Towards a research agenda. Cambridge Journal of Education, 33, 479-498.
• Fullan, M. (1993). Why teachers must become change agents. Educational Leadership, 50, 12-17.
• Fullan, M. (2007). The new meaning of educational change (4th ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.
• Fullan, M., & Hargreaves, A. (1996). What’s worth fighting for in your school? New York: Teachers College Press.
• Fullan, M. G. (2001). Leading in a culture of change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Garmston, R., & Wellman, B. (1997). The adaptive school: A sourcebook for developing collaborative groups. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon.
• Guskey, T. (1985). The effects of staff development on teachers’ perceptions about effective teaching. Journal of Educational Research, 78(6), 378-381.
• Hart, A. W. (1994). Creating teacher leadership roles. Educational Administration Quarterly, 30(4), 472-497.
• Heller, M. F., & Firestone, W. A. (1995). Who’s in charge here? Sources of leadership for change in eight schools. The Elementary School Journal, 96(1), 65-86.
• Hord, S. M. (2004). Learning together, leading together: Changing school through professional learning communities. New York: Teachers College Press.
• Kahrs, J. R. (1996). Principals who support teacher leadership. New Directions for School Leadership, 1, 19-40.
• Lambert, L. (2003). Leadership capacity for lasting school improvement. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
• Lieberman, A., & Miller, L. (1994). Revisiting the social realities of teaching. In A. Lieberman & L. Miller (Eds.), Staff development for education in the ’90s (pp. 92-109). New York: Teachers College Press.
• Lieberman, A., & Miller, L. (2004). Teacher leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Little, J. W. (1988). Assessing the prospects for teacher leadership. In A. Lieberman (Ed.), Building a professional culture in schools (pp. 78-106). New York: Teachers College Press.
• Little, J. W., & McLaughlin, M. W. (1993). Teachers’ work: Individuals, colleagues, and contexts. New York: Teachers College Press.
• Louis, K. S. (2006). Organizing for school change: Contexts of learning. New York: Routledge.
• Mangin, M. (2007). Facilitating elementary principals’ support for instructional teacher leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 43(3), 319-357.
• Moller, G., & Pankake, A. (2006). Lead with me: A principal’s guide to teacher leadership. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.
• Odden, A., & Kelley, C. (1997). Paying teachers for what they know and do: New and smarter compensation strategies to improve schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
• Ogawa, R. T., & Bossert, S. T. (1995). Leadership as an organizational quality. Educational Administration Quarterly, 31(2), 224-243.
• Rosenholtz, S. J. (1991). The teachers’ workplace: The social organization of schools. New York: Teachers College Press.
• Schein, E. H. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership (3rd ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Senge, P., Cambron-McCabe, N., Lucas, T., Smith, B., Dutton, J., & Kleiner, A. (Eds.). (2000). Schools that learn: A fifth discipline fieldbook for educators, parents, and everyone who cares about education. New York: Doubleday.
• Silva, D. Y., Gimbert, B., & Nolan, J. (2000). Sliding the doors: Locking and unlocking possibilities for teacher leadership. Teachers College Record, 102, 779-804.
• Smylie, M. A. (1992). Teachers’ reports of their interactions with teacher leaders concerning classroom instruction. The Elementary School Journal, 93(1), 85-98.
• Smylie, M. A., & Denny, J. W. (1990). Teacher leadership: Tensions and ambiguities in organizational perspective. Educational Administration Quarterly, 26(3), 235-259.
• Smylie, M. A., & Hart, A. W. (2000). School leadership for teacher learning and change: A human and social capital development perspective. In J. Murphy and K. S. Louis (Eds.), Handbook of research on educational administration (2nd ed., pp. 421-441). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Spillane, J. P., Halverson, R., & Diamond, J. B. (2001). Investigating school leadership practice: A distributed perspective. Educational Researcher, 30(3), 23-28.
• Spillane, J. P., Halverson, R., & Diamond, J. B. (2003). Forms of capital and the construction of leadership: Instructional leadership in urban elementary schools. Sociology of Education, 76(1), p. 1-17.
• Terry, P. M. (1999). Empowering teachers as leaders. National Forum of Teacher Education Journal, 10E(3), 1-7.
• Tschannen-Moran, M. (2004). Trust matters: Leadership for successful schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Wilson, M. (1993). The search for teacher leaders. Educational Leadership, 50(6), 24-27.
• York-Barr, J., & Duke, K. E. (2004). What do we know about teacher leadership? Findings from two decades of scholarship. Review of Educational Research, 74(3), 255-316.
• Yukl, G. (1994). Leadership in organizations (3rd ed.). Engle-wood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

ORDER HIGH QUALITY CUSTOM PAPER

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Welcome to the Purdue Online Writing Lab

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction.

The Purdue On-Campus Writing Lab and Purdue Online Writing Lab assist clients in their development as writers—no matter what their skill level—with on-campus consultations, online participation, and community engagement. The Purdue Writing Lab serves the Purdue, West Lafayette, campus and coordinates with local literacy initiatives. The Purdue OWL offers global support through online reference materials and services.

A Message From the Assistant Director of Content Development 

The Purdue OWL® is committed to supporting  students, instructors, and writers by offering a wide range of resources that are developed and revised with them in mind. To do this, the OWL team is always exploring possibilties for a better design, allowing accessibility and user experience to guide our process. As the OWL undergoes some changes, we welcome your feedback and suggestions by email at any time.

Please don't hesitate to contact us via our contact page  if you have any questions or comments.

All the best,

Social Media

Facebook twitter.

• Free Samples >
• Type of Paper >
• Research Paper

Teacher Research Papers Samples That Help You Write Better, Faster & with Gusto

Developing Research Papers is quite a challenging task on its own. Developing great Research Papers is an even more ambitious exercise. Developing an excellent Teacher Research Paper is, well, something supernatural. Yet, with the WePapers.com free directory of professionally written Teacher Research Paper examples, the job is perfectly manageable. Skim our catalog, locate a piece that satisfies your key requirements and use it as a source of content presentation and structuring ideas in order to compose your own unique Research Paper on Teacher.

In case you lack time or enthusiasm for reading numerous papers in search of inspiration or writing ideas, you can easily order an one-of-a-kind Teacher Research Paper sample custom-written particularly for you to be used as a bedrock for an entirely original academic work.

We use cookies to improve your experience with our site. Please accept before continuing or read our cookie policy here .

Wait, have you seen our prices?