From Preservice to Teacher Leadership: Meeting the Future in Educator Preparation

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Oct. 01, 2014

Source: Action in Teacher Education, Volume 36, Issue 5-6, p. 433–445, 2014.
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)

This article examines teacher leadership.
The authors ask the question: Can the seeds of teacher leadership be cultivated before a preservice teacher graduates to the school district?

Method
The participants were preservice teachers in traditional teacher preparation programs.
They read about and interact via video conferencing with teacher leaders from across the country to see if and how they think differently about the potential of leading education—from inside America’s classrooms.

Discussion

The authors were interested in developing stronger teachers, accomplished teacher leaders, and a transformed teaching profession.

The findings reveal that utilizing teacher leaders in teacher education courses, via video conference, creates opportunities for mutual responsibility of P–12 schools and higher education in the preparation of new teachers.
As this project unfolds, the authors hope to further understand the power of these real- time interactions between future teachers and teacher leaders.
They also hope to determine more about students’ motivation to teach and, in time, conduct follow-up interviews to find out if these students have continued with their career paths.
Finally, the findings of this study could have implications for the way teachers are prepared.

Moreover, the structure of teacher preparation programs could be reconceptualized to better integrate virtual communities of accomplished practice.
The integration of teacher leaders into teacher education courses, via video chat, could create opportunities for mutual responsibility of P–12 schools and higher education in the preparation of new teachers.

Updated: Apr. 12, 2015
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