"Hanging On With Both Hands": Teacher Leaders and Small School Reform

Abstract

Because many schools that are naturally small have experienced successful student outcomes, there has been a recent trend of converting large, comprehensive schools into smaller units, with the idea of replicating these successes. These smaller schools have a higher demand for teacher leadership, yet little is known about the characteristics and experiences of those teachers who choose to take informal leadership roles. This study interviewed 23 participants from four schools, two districts, and an outside support agency in order to understand the relatively unexplored intersection of informal teacher leadership and small school reform. Common themes and similarities were tracked across the four schools and analyzed in order to identify the aspects of leadership that were shared among teachers of the different school contexts.