My name is Jim Ellis, I currently am a program director in the K-8
Section of the Division of Elementary, Secondary, and Informal
Education in the National Science Foundation. However, for the past
dozen years I have been a Principal Investigator on several teacher
enhancement projects funded by NSF. It is in my capacity as a recent
PI that I join the discussion.
A point of confusion for me over the past few years has been the
meaning of the word leadership. Leadership often seems to mean a
teacher who provides inservice for other teachers. In projects in
which I have been involved, I have found few teachers who are
interested in or prepared to provide inservice workshops, but many who
become leaders in the broad sense. When I ask participating teachers
what they have done as leaders, I get little response. When I ask
them to talk about what they have done to share what they have learned
with other teachers, I hear stories like... (1) our team set up a
special science resource room for all teachers in the building to use,
(2) I organized a science day (like a field day) where all students in
the building moved around to different classrooms and participated in
science investigations, and (3) I set up my learning center in the
library so all students (and teachers) would have an opportunity to
become involved in hands-on science. These teachers did not think of
these kinds of activities as leadership. What is the purpose of the
leadership we claim to be cultivating? What roles and
responsibilities are these leaders to fulfill?
When I hear colleagues talking about the professional development of
teachers, I often hear them emphasize teacher empowerment when
discussing leadership projects. In my experience with teachers, I am
concerned that we are overselling and misrepresenting what we, as
teacher educators, can do to empower them. We tell them that we will
empower them and that we expect them to go back and be leaders of the
reform of school science programs. What does it mean to empower a
teacher? Who empowers teachers? My understanding is that to be
empowered a leader must have time, positional authority, and control
over resources (people, space, materials) required to achieve assigned
goals. The school system controls all of the power and has sole
responsibility for empowering teachers. Knowledge and skills enable a
leader to be successful, but do not empower without system support. A
critical issue in leadership projects is how to connect the leadership
development with all other components of the school system. Who other
than teachers should be involved in the leadership development
activities? What role and job will the lead teachers play in the
administrative system within the school and district? What resources
will the system allocate to the lead teachers? What responsibilities
and authority will the system delegate to the lead teachers?
In my work with teachers and school systems, I have found that
collaborative planning with the school system is a critical element of
leadership projects that are successful at promoting school change. I
have found my role to be more than an instructor for a teacher
development workshop; my role becomes more like an external consultant
on the process of improving the school science program. Once the
roles, responsibilities, and system supports are clearly defined for
the teacher leaders, then the content and learning activities for the
professional development program can be delineated clearly. If the
school system will not support lead teachers as staff developers, then
content related to that topic could be reduced. If the school system,
will support teachers as peer coaches and building curriculum leaders
then knowledge and abilities related to those roles could be
emphasized.
However, I do wish to reinforce the view expressed by others in this
discussion list that the professional development program must include
a balance between learning to teach science and learning to lead the
reform of science teaching. Before one can lead, one must have a
clear vision of where one is going. Just because a project has
recruited expert teachers, one can not assume that these teachers have
a common shared vision of good science teaching. It is important to
work with teacher leaders to develop a shared vision. Fortunately,
there is a synergism between learning to be a leader and learning
about good science teaching. By involving the participants in quality
experiences designed to develop understanding of good science
teaching, we model the experiences we wish them to provide for other
teachers. The examples of teacher development we provide as our model
provide fodder for analysis and reflection on the best designs for the
professional development of teachers.
-Jim Ellis
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James D. Ellis, Ph.D.
Program Director
Division of Elementary, Secondary and Informal Education
The National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Boulevard, Room 885S
Arlington, VA 22230
Phone: (703) 306-1616 ext: 6862
FAX: (703) 306-0412
Email: jellis@nsf.gov
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TEECH Leadership Development Discussion
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