Transcript Slide 1

Re-imagining novice teachers as leaders
and the role they can play in building a
community of educational
leaders/researchers.
Presentation by
S.Mthiyane & C.Grant
EMASA Conference 2011, Cape Town- Western
Cape
Introduction
Within every school there is a sleeping giant of
teacher leadership, which can be a strong catalyst
for making change. By using the energy of teacher
leaders as agents of school change, the reform of
public education will stand a better chance of
building momentum.
Katzenmeyer & Moller (2001,p.2)
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Introduction (cont.)

Aims: to ascertain what potential student
teachers’ reflective journals offer for
teacher leadership development as well
as determine whether they hold any
promise for extending, enriching and
deepening leadership development
programmes for serving educators.
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Key questions:
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How, and in what ways, do university student
teachers engage in the formal process of reflective
journaling during their teaching practice
experience?
What do these levels of engagement in the process
of reflective journaling signal about these student
teachers’ preparedness to lead when they join the
teaching profession?
How can the process of critical reflective journaling
be utilised to extend, enrich and deepen leadership
development programmes for novice and serving
educators?
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The case for leadership development
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There is worldwide recognition that schools need effective
leaders and managers to provide the best possible
education for learners (Bush, 2009; Reppa & Lazaridou,
2008; Day, 2005).
Such leaders and managers do not arise by accident, they
have to be developed and hence the need for leadership
development.
Leadership development is defined as expanding the
collective capacity of organizational members to engage
effectively in leadership roles and processes (McCauley,
Moxley and Van Velsor, 1998).
Literature on the importance of reflection for professional
practice and leadership development is well established
(Fetherston, 2007; Patterson and West-Burnham, 2005).
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Aims of reflective journals
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When our university students visit schools for teaching
practice, they are required to keep a weekly reflective journal.
Critical reflection on the following key issues constitutes the
minimum requirements for the reflective journal:
A critical personal account of whether the goals that were
identified for different lesson practices/ activities in the school
have been accomplished, outlining what led to success or
not;
A critical outline of what new activities, actions, and plans are
being developed: how, when, where, with whom, why?
A critical commentary on professional practice as seen when
observing peers in the classroom, mentor teachers, other
professional teachers;
A critical reflection of the emerging concept of the role of a 6
professional teacher in a transforming South African context.
Literature on reflection and teacher leadership
development
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Literature on the importance of reflection for
professional practice is well established
(Fetherston, 2007; Patterson and West-Burnham,
2005; Brubacher, 1994).
Gomez (2000) posits that since Schon (1983,
1987) pointed out the importance of reflective
thinking for teaching professionals faced with
complexities of teaching in a rapidly changing
society, no one has doubted that to teach reflective
thinking requires much more than the sterile
contents of an academic syllabus.
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Literature on reflection and teacher leadership
development (cont.)
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In the last decade there has been a recognition that
effective principals are those who encourage
collaborative cultures and emphasise people
management (and leadership) which is dispersed
across a broader range of teacher leaders who have
responsibilities for managing departments, particularly
subject disciplines, and student achievement at key
stages in their development (Pavlou, 2004).
This represents a recognition by principals that they
cannot do it all themselves (Day and Harris, 2002).
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Reflection and teacher leadership development (cont.)
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Briefly, when reflecting, an opportunity is provided for thinking,
contemplation, to talk about, to critique, to assess, to write in a
reflective learning journal and for silent reading of texts.
Featherstone (2007) defines reflection as the process where
the cycle of thinking, doing and reflecting is often repeated
many times and results in a new response to a particular
problem. Featherstone (ibid.) further maintains that learning
which involves reflection is very useful to teachers, especially
beginning teachers. It leads to an effective teacher who is able
to reflect critically upon the theory-in-action.
Reflection is an essential element of learning. Given the
overwhelming demands of new headship, it is unsurprising that
the space, time and opportunity are provided for reflection
which is considered the main benefit to professional
development (Bush, et al. 2003, cited in Cole and Southworth,9
2005).
Literature on reflection and teacher leadership
development (cont.)
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“…leadership, like energy, is not finite, not restricted by formal
authority and power; it permeates a healthy school culture and
is undertaken by whoever sees a need or an opportunity”
(Lambert, 1995, p.43).
Understood in this way, it can be seen that all people have
the potential to lead and the practice of leadership must
therefore be conceptualised as “a shared process which
involves working with all stakeholders in a collegial and
creative ways to seek out the untapped leadership potential of
people and develop this potential in a supportive environment
for the betterment of the school” (Grant, 2008, p. 85).
Theorising leadership in this manner creates the space for the
emergence of teacher leadership in an educational
organisation such as a school.
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Literature on reflection and teacher leadership
development (cont.)
Crowther, Ferguson and Hann (2009) convincingly
argue that a new paradigm of the teaching profession
is needed, one that recognises both the capacity of
the profession to provide desperately needed school
revitalization and the striking potential of teachers to
provide new forms of leadership in schools and
communities.
Teacher leadership has emerged as a rapidly
growing focus of research activity over the past few
decades (Wasley, 1991; Katzenmeyer and Moller,
2001; Muijs and Harris, 2003; Gunter, 2005;
Crowther, 2009).
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Literature on reflection and teacher leadership
development (cont.)
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In its simplest form, teacher leadership can be described as
“the capacity for teachers to exercise leadership for teaching
and learning within and beyond the classroom” (Harris and
Muijs, 2005, p. 9). It has also been referred to as a “form of
agency where teachers are empowered to lead development
work that impacts directly on the quality of teaching and
learning” (Harris and Lambert, 2003, p.43).
This notion of the change agency role of teacher leaders,
either in the classroom or beyond, is central to many of the
definitions of teacher leadership (Grant, 2010) and as
Crowther, Ferguson & Hann (2009) argue, teacher
leadership is not solely about pedagogical expertise,
professionalism, enthusiasm, passion, commitment and
enthusiasm.
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Literature on reflection and teacher leadership development
(cont.)
 Viewing one’s practice through the lens of reflection is
important for leadership development. The value of reflection
on learning is incisively pointed out by Dewey (cited in
Johnson, Mims-Cox and Doyle-Nichols, 2006 p.37) when he
states: ‘we don’t learn from experience - we learn from
reflecting on experience’.
 Densten and Gray (2001) assert that in leadership learning
deep reflection requires aspirant leaders to consider the
underlying dynamics of power and to question basic
assumptions and practices. They caution that when reflection
is absent there is the constant risk of making poor decisions
and bad judgements.
 Without reflection, leaders may be convinced by past
successes of their invincibility and fail to consider other
viewpoints with the possibility of disastrous consequences. 13
Method
Qualitative study.
 Documents review (reflective journals)
 Sampling:
 1 university (Faculty of Education students)
 20 students (2nd, 3rd, 4th years and PGCE
students)
 Purposive
 This selection offered us heterogeneity in
terms of gender, race and practice teaching
experience.
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Method (cont.)
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In analysing the students’ reflective journals,
we employed a multi-layered approach,
commencing from a manifest to a more indepth or latent interrogation of the evidence
in the journal. The first layer of analysis thus
involved a perusal of the sampled reflective
journals in order to ascertain exactly what
they contained. Most reflective journals
simply involved a description of what had
happened at school.
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Method (cont.)
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In trying to delve deeper into the journals, the
second layer of analysis involved linking the
evidence of the journals to the minimum
requirements for the reflective journal in order to
determine the extent to which the evidence reflects
competence in critical reflection.
In noting that students had to compile a reflective
journal, the final layer of analysis involved an
assessment of the quality of reflection on lesson
presentation and other classroom and school
management and leadership tasks.
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Method (cont.)
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Hatton and Smith’s (1994) framework on the different types
of reflective writing was used as an analytical tool. They
identified four levels of reflective writing.
The first level is descriptive writing comprising a description
of events which in essence is not reflection at all.
The second level is descriptive reflection which entails
providing reasons based on personal judgement.
The third level comprises dialogic reflection. Dialogic
reflection is a form of discourse with the self. It involves
asking questions, making judgments, advancing alternative
explanations and hypotheses.
The fourth level comprises critical reflection which involves
furnishing reasons for decisions or events which take into
account the broader historical and socio-political contexts. 17
Ethical issues
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Informed consent
Confidentiality
Anonymity
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Findings
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Journals sampled were voluminous and
contained a wealth of information about the
students’ teaching and classroom tasks.
Further, using Hatton and Smith’s (1994)
framework on the four different types of
reflective writing, we determined that of the
20 student journals we interrogated, 15
operated across the first two levels of
descriptive writing and descriptive reflection.
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Findings (cont.)
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An example of the first level of descriptive writing
is as follows: “Today I taught all my lessons and
spent my free period observing other student
teachers”. Another first level entry from a journal
was: “The teachers had to go to a Teacher Union
meeting at 11 o’clock which lasted the whole day.
Teachers were not in a spirit to teach because they
knew they would leave early.” This, to us, is first
level reflection because it merely describes events
which occurred without explaining or giving her/his
insights or reasons why they occurred or their
impact. In essence this is not reflection at all.
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Findings (cont.)
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An example of the second level of descriptive reflection
is as follows: “This lesson taught me that students hold
grudges against you. A pupil whom I had previously
reprimanded refused to give her input in this class”.
Another example of a descriptive entry is: Being at a
high school for the first time was a totally new
experience for me. I learnt that from the beginning I
need to be firm otherwise I will never gain their respect
and confidence and it would be very hard to keep
control and discipline in the classroom. I feel that this is
something I will have to work hard on. This is
descriptive writing which entails providing reasons
based on personal judgement why an event/s occurred.
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Findings (cont.)
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Only three students operated at the level of dialogic
reflection, as the following extract illustrates: “Here
you have learners whose everyday life is a struggle
yet they persevere and come to school so that their
future will be better and that of their children”.
Another example of dialogical reflection is the
following entry: “I want to apply my knowledge of
teaching and learning… I can also share my
knowledge with my peers”. Dialogic reflection is a
form of discourse with the self. It involves asking
questions, making judgments, advancing alternative
explanations and hypotheses.
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Findings (cont.)
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The final level of critical reflection was only evident in two
student journals:“Learners are future leaders and doctors
therefore, as a teacher- in- the- making, I must make sure
that I am punctual all the time … even when I enter the field
of the teaching profession, I can make a difference”.
Another example of the critical level of reflection is as
follows: I want to be a teacher to inspire our youth in
achieving their dreams. I want to be a person that can
change a student from being unmotivated into discovering
the wonderful challenges yet rewarding experience of
learning. I want to be remembered for evoking passion and
fun among my students. I also want to learn from my
students. I remember three teachers in my schooling who
continue to inspire me because they could personalize
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every lesson.
Findings (cont.)
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This quote clearly indicates that these student teachers are
reflecting critically on their practice and are acutely aware
of their change agency role, even though they are novice
teachers. Critical reflection involves furnishing reasons for
decisions or events which take into account the broader
historical and socio-political contexts.
The data revealed that students were strong at describing
what had happened in the classrooms and schools but
were less able to reflect on and provide reasons why some
things may have happened. Very few students engaged in
a discourse with themselves or grappled with a possibility
of alternative explanations. Neither did many locate their
reflections within the broader socio-political context.
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Findings
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However, from the trends that have
emerged from the data, reflective journals
have an important role to play in leadership
learning especially for novice teacher
leaders.
They allow potential leaders to reflect on
their teaching and other classroom and
school leadership tasks which have a
bearing on leadership learning over a period
of time.
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Conclusion
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Conceptualised within a distributed teacher leadership
framework, this paper has argued that novice teachers are
often an untapped leadership source as they are not viewed
as potential agents of change.
We contend that, in order to build a community of
educational leaders/researchers, these novice teachers
need to be re-imagined as teacher leaders and educated
about their valuable change agency role in the schooling
context.
Furthermore, it is imperative that the degree for which they
are registered engages with what it means for novice
teachers to enact leadership and support them in theorising
and developing critical reflective practice skills. In this way,
there is likelihood that novice teachers will be able to take26
up their leadership roles as they embark on a process of