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Leading without leaving the classroom

Tap into teachers' skills and knowledge to solve school problems

By Cathy Owens
Categories: Career pathways, Teacher leadership
June 2008
Never before has the need been so great for classroom teachers to become agents of change and position themselves as problem solvers at the school building level. Teachers are uniquely positioned to assume leadership roles on a variety of tasks that could transform schools from more traditional workplaces into professional learning communities. Schools’ most complex problems are best solved by those working in them daily and grappling with the challenging issues firsthand. Teachers’ daily experiences foster an inside view of what can be done. This inside advantage allows school-based teacher leaders to more creatively and often more quickly design solutions that get to the core of a school’s problem long before an outsider has had time to review and assess what the school may need.

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References

Barth, R. (1999). The teacher leader [Monograph]. Providence, RI: Rhode Island Foundation. Available at www.edutopia.org/teacher-leader.



Categories: Career pathways, Teacher leadership

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