Amanda Hefner

502H (Spring 2019)

Issues in Teacher Leadership Review

First Article (“Transformational Classroom Leadership”): Pounder (2016) synthesizes the

relationship between “teacher leadership and transformational leadership concepts” (p. 553)

and argues that future teacher leadership will need to include transformational qualities.

Pounder (2016) broke down the evolution of teacher leadership from department head’s being

de facto leaders to its current iteration of teachers becoming involved in the process of taking

on leadership roles as needed. The findings were that teacher leaders usually shared common

characteristics such as building trust, management skills, and building confidence in other

colleagues. Pounder (2016) also defined transformational leaders as those who display active

leadership behaviors that come to shape outcomes and expectations for a community, or in this

case school site. They tend to motivate others and express a deep commitment to their values

such as making conscious effort to effect change, however small. The author suggested that

based on the evidence teachers who took on leadership roles were most likely to benefit from

the perception that they are excellent teachers because they have successfully managed so

much. However, he allows that a major assumption of this hypothesis is that a classroom

community is equivalent to a small social organization from which he is applying these

characteristics and qualities.

Second Article (“Teacher Leadership is Linked to Higher Student Test Scores in New Study”):

Will (2017) discusses a new analysis of data focused on asking “questions about teaching,

learning, and working conditions in schools” in relation to testing scores (p. 1). The participants

were almost 1 million teachers from over 25,000 different schools from 16 states in the US. The

study specifically wanted to find out if schools have an instructional focus on teaching and
Amanda Hefner
502H (Spring 2019)

learning and if teachers themselves were involved in the decision-making process for this focus.

The findings were a correlation showing that since teachers are closest to students, they know

best what students need to improve. Thus, if teachers and administrators can foster a shared

vision for the school, including its best instructional needs, student achievement will increase.

The author further suggested that if schools want long-term high student achievement, they

need to include teachers in school-improvement planning and allow them the opportunities to

implement changes to school policies overall.

Third Article (“Strategies for Teaching Argument Writing”): Marshbank (2018) shared three

useful strategies in teaching argumentative writing, an important skill for students to learn

considering its appearance in the Common Core State Standards. She synthesized these

strategies through qualitative anecdotal evidence from her own students and classroom

including providing an article for students to read, complete a graphic organizer on, assess the

credibility of the author’s claim, and finally construct their own claim with supporting evidence.

The findings were that using templates, common writing moves and terminology, and other

organizational resources improved both students’ understanding of argumentative writing and

how to successfully argue their own claims. The author further suggested that showing

students how to use to argue is useful beyond the ELA curriculum because throughout their

lives they will need to persuade others to support their opinions, goals, and ideas.

Compare/Contrast Articles: These three articles suggest that incorporating teacher preferences

and choices into instructional strategies to improve student achievement in writing. However,

whereas Pounder (2016) defined transformational leadership qualities needed for successful
Amanda Hefner
502H (Spring 2019)

leadership and recommended that teachers need these roles to feel committed to a school,

Will (2017) recommended that the best way to increase student achievement is to allow

teachers more influence over the decision-making process in regards to instructional focus. Yet,

Marshbank (2018) further recommended that creating and using graphic organizers and writing

templates and collaborating on these resources with other ELA teachers is one way to promote

student achievement and ensure that teachers have control over their own instructional

strategies used in their classrooms.

How Articles Inform My Teaching Practice: These articles informed my practice because I

learned that it is vitally important for teachers to feel like they have some element of control

and ability to create change in their school site to feel fulfilled. Thus, taking on more leadership

roles and crafting instructional change in the classroom are ways that I can create my own small

changes over time.

Marshbank, A. (2018). Strategies for teaching argument writing. Retrieved from

https://www.edutopia.org/article/strategies-teaching-argument-writing

Pounder, J. S. (2016). Transformational classroom leadership: The fourth wave of teacher

leadership? Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 34(4) DOI:

10.1177/1741143206068216

Will, M. (2017). Teacher leadership is linked to higher student test scores in new study.
Amanda Hefner
502H (Spring 2019)

Retrieved from https://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2017/10/teacher_

leadership_student_achievement.html