Week 5 Discussion 2 Role as a Teacher- Leader or Teacher- Researcher?
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Your written response to this discussion prompt assesses your ability to evaluate the role of teacher-leaders and teacher-researchers. This discussion also supports your achievement of Course Learning Outcome 3.
Initial Post: Post an initial response that addresses the following areas:
Read Phelps (2008) article titled Helping teachers become leaders.” In this discussion forum, you will reflect upon your own leadership skills.
Choose one of these options (You can respond to both and/or synthesize your thinking around both concepts in order to further advance your thinking):
Option A: According to Danielsons framework (as cited in Phelps, 2008), what are the three areas of teacher-leaders influence? For each area, describe your leadership capacity. Which area do you see as your strength and why? Which area is your weakest and why?
Option B: According to Lieberman and Miller (as cited in Phelps, 2008), what are the three main roles of teacher/educational-leader? For each role, describe your own leadership capacity. Which role fits you the best and why? Which role is most foreign to you and why?
Week 5 Discussion 2 Role as a Teacher Leader or Teacher Researcher?
Your written response to this discussion prompt assesses your ability to evaluate the role of teacher-leaders and teacher-researchers. This discussion also supports your achievement of Course Learning Outcome 3.
Initial Post: Post an initial response that addresses the following areas:
Read Phelps (2008) article titled
Helping teachers become leaders
.” In this discussion forum, you will reflect upon your own leadership skills.
Choose one of these options (You can respond to both and/or synthesize your thinking around both concepts in order to further advance your thinking):
Option A:According to Danielsons framework (as cited in Phelps, 2008), what are the three areas of teacher-leaders influence? For each area, describe your leadership capacity. Which area do you see as your strength and why? Which area is your weakest and why?
Option B:According to Lieberman and Miller (as cited in Phelps, 2008), what are the three main roles of teacher/educational-leader? For each role, describe your own leadership capacity. Which role fits you the best and why? Which role is most foreign to you and why?
Guided Response:Answer any follow-up questions your instructor may have for you after reading your post. Read your classmates posts and respond to at least three of them. Add to their reflections by making connections or suggestions. Share specific examples from your own personal and professional experiences.
Though two replies are the basic expectation, for deeper engagement and application of the material, you are encouraged to provide responses to any comments or questions others have given to you (including your instructor) before Day 7. This ongoing engagement in the discussion will deepen the conversation while providing opportunities to demonstrate your content expertise, critical thinking, and real-world experiences with this topic.
Learning Outcomes
This week students will:
1. Explain the impact of action research has had on specific populations.
Introduction
Welcome to Week Five of EDU694! This week, you will reflect on teaching and learning. You will examine the role research plays in effective decision making about student learning and student achievement. You will also evaluate your role as an educator and leader.
In preparation for this weeks activities, it is recommended that you review the course textbook and the weekly assignments so that you have a global understanding of the expectations and pacing. It is suggested that the resources shared in this week be saved in your link library to be used for reference later in the class, future course work and professional practice.
Please be sure to take about an hour to review this weeks Instructor Guidance. There you will find a wealth of useful information that will supplement your understanding as you progress through the weeks discussions and assignments. This document can also be used as a scholarly reference in this weeks assignments. If additional guidance is needed, please access the Ask Your Instructor section of your course.
It is important to note that the Instructor Guidance has been developed to directly compliment the learning outcomes in each week of this course. As in any course, the Instructor Guidance supports the required texts and other readings but does not replace it. For your continued success in this program, it is highly recommended that you are prepared for each weeks instruction by accessing all of the available resources.
Required Resources
Article
Phelps, P. H. (2008). Helping teachers become leaders. The Clearing House, 81(3), 119-122. doi:10.3200/TCHS.81.3.119-122
This journal article describes the characteristics and professional activities that make teachers that are leaders. This resource will be used to support your work on the discussions this week (i.e., Planning for All: Differentiating Instruction) and this weeks assignment (i.e. Role as a Teacher-Leader or Teacher-Researcher?).
WEEK FIVE INSTRUCTOR GUIDANCE
Welcome to Week Five of EDU 694: Capstone 1: Educational Research.Please be sure to review the Week Five homepage for this course to see:
The specific learning outcomes for the week
The schedule overview
The required and recommended resources
The introduction to the week
A listing of the assessments
Next, be sure to read this entire Instructor Guidance page.
Overview
Week Five continues our learning about Action Research but with an emphasis on teacher leaders. This includes your role as a teacher leader in relationship to Action Research as well as, visions for research and leadership. These activities will support you as you prepare for the Week Six Final Project- The Peer Review .
Intellectual Elaboration
It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership. Nelson Mandela
American public education has existed in its current basic structure as a tax-supported system since the 1830s. From the beginning, the public education system sought to be the Great equalizer (Mann, 1848, para 9), which laid a common foundation for educating American youth. It remains as one of the great American inventions. Over 50 million students attend American public schools every day (“Back to school,” 2013).
As with any significant public endeavor, there are many ideas about how schools should operate. Citizens, education interest groups, parents, policy makers, professional education groups, and students all have a stake in public schools, and therefore have strong opinions about them. These opinions result in a lively, vivid, and sometimes contentious policy environment (Sawchuck, 2012).
Creating public policy in this environment can be challenging. The reality is that some educators do not want to engage with such a contentious environment, preferring to be left alone in their own classrooms. To those who wish to become teacher leaders (Harrison and Killion, 2007), closing their classroom door to the outside world is not an option; teachers need to engage with policy making to be more effective.
Take a moment to view this 11 and a half minute video on
Changing Education Paradigms(Links to an external site.)
by Sir Kenneth Robinson, publisher and world renowned leader on innovative solutions for human resource issues in public education. Be sure to pay close attention to the two issues impacting the continual process of education reform. Do you agree with him? Are there other issues that stem from these that you have experienced personally or professionally? Where do you see yourself positively impacting this paradigm? Consider sharing your thoughts on the video as part of your discussion responses this week.
Teacher Leader
In many school districts, the policy leadership is in the hands of the School Board and/or Superintendent. Teacher-leaders, however, can exert influence by proposing good ideas that aid in policy implementation (Barry, 2013).
Take a moment to view this five and a half minute video on
Teachers Talk Policy(Links to an external site.)
by the Center for American Progress that showcases a gathering of teachers who are sharing their views on education policy and how to have their voices heard by policymakers. Be sure to pay close attention to each teachers views on policy and input.
Where do you see yourself fitting in as a leader? If you were part of this video, what would you say? Consider sharing your thoughts on the video as part of your discussions responses this week or start a conversation in our Ashford Caf!
Atul Gawande is a surgeon, Harvard Medical School instructor, frequent contributor to The New Yorker, author of several books, health policy adviser to the Clinton White House, and McArthur genius grant award winner. While his book, Better: A Surgeons Notes on Performance (2007) is about the professional behavior of physicians, his ideas have direct application to education and education leadership making as well.
Gawande notes that professional behavior consists of Diligence, Doing Right, and Ingenuity:
Diligence is akin the dailyness of any craft; doing all the little things that need to be done, doing them consistently, doing them every day.
Doing Right simply means that we have an obligation beyond ourselves to see to the betterment of others, and doing right is a way to meet that obligation.
Ingenuity is where we put our creativity to work, facing problems head-on (p.7 8).
Society expects community institutions to be regulated with professionalism, exercising a high regard for ethics and maintaining excellent public service. As education professionals who serve the community, we have to monitor our own ethical practices and be mindful of others conventionalities; speaking out when they regress or behave in a way that contradicts the institutions obligation.
Diligence
There are many moving parts in an education; the failure or misstep of one component can alter the intent, implementation, and impact of the entire system. Diligence is required throughout the process, beginning with data collection to determine the need and ending with data collection to determine the effectiveness, to maintain consistency and diligence (McCall, 2010).
Doing it Right
Education is created by groups who believe that this new, rewritten, or change in practice does right by ending an ineffective practice, improving a current condition, or proposing a new idea (McCall, 2010). The professional focus of education should be on the concern for others, and how this Action Research will improve their lives.
Ingenuity
The ingenious sees possibilities that others do not, and is able to articulate this vision in the form of new and/or improved education. This is where making processes can take flight, and lead to improvements. In the article, Incentivizing Educational Ingenuity (Wraga, 2010), the author suggests that in recent history policymakers have failed to positively renovate public education because of their one size fits all approach to school improvement.
Wraga sums up his article by writing that education at all levels should encourageeven compellocal educators to identify the problems specific to their school settings, and then support their efforts to resolve them (Wraga, 2010, para. 17).
While Gawandes model of professionalism, with its emphasis on diligence, doing right, and ingenuity, is applied chiefly to medicine, it clearly has a link to education and Action Research. Moreover, these three characteristics remind us that professional behaviors extend to research as welland that teacher-leaders, as education professionals, can participate effectively in this process.
Closing Remarks
Have you ever heard the quote One is not born a leader, one is made a leader? Do you think this is true? Think about the following before you answer; as educators we sometimes encounter students who are natural leaders in the classroom. We recognize these students as those who gravitate towards leadership positions in groups and throughout the various clubs and activities in school. We can see these natural leaders in the earliest stages of formal education; in preschool classes. These are the students who take command of play time, dictate what others will or wont do with the blocks, and so forth. Do we call them born leaders? Or are leadership skills fostered and cultivated over even these earliest years? Think about this as you work on this weeks discussions.
Assessment Guidance
This section includes additional specific assistance for excelling in the discussions for Week Five beyond what is given with the instructions for the assessments. If you have questions about what is expected on any assessment for Week Five, contact your instructor using the Ask Your Instructor discussion before the due date.
Discussion One: Planning for All: Differentiating Instruction
For this discussion, you will be creating your own vision statement. Something that reflects how you feel and view how all students can learn. As you write your vision statement, think about the information presented in this weeks Instructor Guidance on being a teacher leader.
Remember to follow the Guided Response prompt for this and every Discussion each week.
Discussion Two: Role as a Teacher-Leader or Teacher-Researcher
In this discussion you will reflect on your own leadership style and how it affects student learning. As you read the Phelps article and the Instructor Guidance about leadership in schools think about how your own leadership is in direct concert with or contrast with your current personal or professional interests.
References
Atul Gawande(Links to an external site.)
(http://gawande.com/)
Berry, B. (2013, December). Teachers can lead without leaving the classroom(Links to an external site.)
. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/n/2013-12-24-barnett-berry-teachers-can-lead-without-leaving-the-classroom
Gawande, A. (2007). Better: A surgeons notes on performance. New York, New York: Picador
McCall, D. (2010, January 24). Policy-making processes in school health promotion, safety and social development(Links to an external site.)
. Retrieved from http://www.schools-for-all.org/page/Policy-Making Process (HS)
The RSA. (2010, October 14).
RSA Animate – Changing Education Paradigms(Links to an external site.)
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
Wraga, W. (2010, January 5). Incentivizing educational ingenuity(Links to an external site.)
. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/01/06/16wraga.h29.html
