Teachers have always played one of the most important roles in schools and in the educational histories of most students. One of the greatest challenges facing education systems is implementing the changes that would increase student learning. In this paper, I seek to investigate the traditional views of school reform by redefining the roles teachers can play in school change and thus, increasing student’s learnings outcome.
How do we make change happen in education? Considering current framework in light of the ever-changing context of schooling, appear to view classroom-based teachers as having little to no authority, as being incapable of initiating school wide change according to their will. Mostly, teacher has been considered in two roles. The first role of the teacher as a receiver and implementer of the strategies & practices formulated by others, i.e. national policy efforts or principal change initiatives. The second role of the teacher as a leader of official reform initiatives, such as those found in policies created by school district and school level principal. Moreover, both roles of the teacher also place more value on the school’s context rather than on the teacher’s potential to make change independently. Under these prevailing roles of teachers, it is very hard for teachers to initiative for school improvement without the help of traditional school leaders. The time has come to enforce new role of the teachers that is more consistent with the 21st century’s learning framework and can provide better service to the students, where Teachers are more active than recipients and more central to school improvement than taking the lead on implementing externally-driven reforms. Thus, by studying the two dominant roles ...
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Many of the school reforms were resulted from the laws and ideas that became presented by the presidents or other political officials during that time. The presidents pushed for the educational system to accomplish the ideas that they had. Which would have increased the quality and successfulness of the nation’s schools
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When a teacher stops caring a student stops caring because they believe the teacher does not care about them or their education. Rose said “you 're defined by your school as slow”(155). Importance is a big aspect of a student’s growing process, but id the teacher is bored, they won’t think they are important enough. Gatto said “as school personnel they are trapped inside structures, even more rigid than those imposed upon the children”(142). Students should always feel important and the more important they feel than the better and harder they will work in school. Students and teachers are both stuck, and in order to have a successful school system we must have happy teacher. To bring exciting lesson plans and less bored students, we need happy teachers, in order to have happy teachers the government needs to allow teachers to teach how they
Slavitch and Zimbardo (2012) assert that adult learners desire to improve their understandings by adjusting their “frames of reference,” including their points of view and habits of mind. In the case of the grade change initiative, the frames of reference were shaped by the parents, students, and administration. The committee entered the situation already having used instrumental learning to arrive at a solution. Their jobs to “reframe” the teachers’ beliefs and practices was able to work through the committee’s use of modified andragogy, allowing the teachers to discover their own truths as educators (Mezirow, 1997). Although entering the situation with an already-decided, seemingly autocratic decision in place, the committee was able to use their passionate transformative skills to win the teachers over to their side. The teachers’ self-discovery then enabled them to believe their decision was a wholly democratic one, which was not quite the case. As cited in Slavitch and Zimbardo (2012), Bass and Riggio’s (2010) explanation of transformational leadership perfectly embdodies DKJA’s grade change initiative: the follows were inspired to be a part of a shared vision, they had to challenge themselves to be problem solvers, and their leaders both challenged and supported them at all times. The teachers’ decision to “put themselves on the line” and “take one for the team” showed their allegiance to the group and their desire to be a part of something authentic, fulfilling, and true to themselves as both humans and
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According to Lashway (1999) educators once saw educational reform as cyclical. Every ten years or so one could expect a public outburst followed by frantic efforts to mend a broken system. However, in the last twenty years there seems to have been a perpetual reform.
In schools learners are oppressed, they are not given an opportunity to take part in their learning. The teachers are always feeding learners with information and do not give learners an opportunity to raise their voices and their opinions. This was evident in the teaching strategies that were used by the teachers during the school observations. The teaching strategies that were used by the teachers were not emancipatory.
My journey to the path of leadership began as a middle science school teacher at Intermediate School 55 in the projects of Brownsville in Brooklyn, New York. I was exposed to the leadership of Mrs. Allman Manning who championed classroom management, punctuality and perfect attendance. At the time, I was so focused on teaching that I never gave leadership a second thought even though I was surrounded by competent and supportive school leaders. It was while I was at Teachers Preparatory Secondary School in Brownsville Brooklyn, New York that I blossomed and had the opportunity to be a teacher leader. I had excellent role models in Dr. Michael Alcoff, Mrs. Carmen Simon, Ms. Felina Backer and Ms. Carrie Datillo-Burdick.
This study examined to what extent, if any, a correlation existed between school administrators’ leadership styles and tenure of special education teachers. The results of this study did not convey a strong significant correlation between the two variables. Therefore, this quantitative study allowed for future research in the following areas: • Future research on how special education teacher
The role of teacher leader has been defined as “teachers who aspire to stretch beyond their classrooms to engage in leadership roles that take many shapes and forms, both “informal and formal”. (ECS, 2010). Teacher leadership has also been described as “the process by which teachers, individually and collectively, influence their colleagues, principals, and other members of the school community to improve learning practices with the aim of increased student learning and achievement.” (ECS, 2010). In years past, a majority of teacher leadership roles took the form of department chair, committee chair, grade level chair, etc. It was more of a representative role versus a leadership role. Their responsibility primarily involved dispersing information from administration to their counterparts and taking information back to administration from the group. Their position lacked decision-making power and true leadership that brings about “real” change. These tasks are still viewed as opportunities for teacher leadership; however, recently, the
In a book written by Farr (2010) book, Teacher as Leadership: the Highly Effective Teachers Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap, effective teachers are ...
Leadership is an important factor in managing change in organizations (Sarros & Santora, 2001). Leadership is one of the most vital success factors in organization (Murphy & Ensher, 2008). At any time in history of any community, there has always been a great leader and leadership has always been practiced (Leech & Fulton, 2008). For all successful organizations, there has been an effective leader who is able to mobilize all the resources in the organization to achieve its goals (Malusu, 2003). Schools, like other organizations, require effective leadership to achieve their goals (Barnet, McCormick & Conners, 2001). In an educational system, a principal as the coordinator of all educational and training activities
Education is a very important aspect in the life of a child. The level of success a student has in the classroom is greatly influenced by their teachers. Students, as well as their parents, depend on the teachers to guide them through their education. But who guides a teacher to perform successfully in the classroom? Principals and teachers play an important role in schools. A good relationship among school leaders and teachers is necessary and play an important role in making improvements in the school. Leadership refers to the “process in which one person successfully exerts influence over others to reach desired objectives”. (Okoji, 2015) Good leadership involves honesty, vision, confidence and commitment. It is the ability to inspire a
Another important social contribution made by teachers to society is the aspect of leadership and guidance (Singh and Samiti). Teachers are perhaps, the best examples of guiders and leaders in a community. As such, teachers demonstrate to the society how a dynamic leader should behave and act (Collay 32). Apart from being...