A working group of BA3 Primary Education students recently took part in a workshop with the Scottish College for Educational leadership (SCEL). The session was led by Fearghal Kelly from SCEL, and explored students’ thoughts and attitudes towards the concept of ‘teacher leadership’ in practice.
The question that served as the stimulus for the innovative workshop, ‘what is effective teacher leadership and how can teachers be supported to develop as teacher leaders?’, engaged all in attendance in a deep and challenging discussion. Areas of discussion included exploring the purpose of education, what effective teacher leadership looks like and how it is organised, what barriers are there that prevent teacher leadership, what can be done to facilitate teachers to be effective leaders and why this would be important. Common ideas that were shared by students included a need for school structures to be less hierarchical. The students recognised a need for teachers, and schools, to have greater autonomy and how a ‘cultural shift’ was needed whereby faith and trust in teachers could form the basis of our educational system. Perhaps the most important aspect of teacher leadership that was agreed upon was the need for teachers to be the change they wanted to see. This was particularly pertinent to the student teachers who participated. If we are to see positive change in our education system, then we have to be prepared to be that change. This begins not only with teachers already placed in the system, but also to those who are in the process of joining the system.
The outcome of the workshop was two-fold. Participants gained insights into their own values towards teacher leadership, and as student teachers, this greatly enhanced their understanding and current stage of development. For SCEL, the workshop was part of a long run of workshops throughout Scotland retrieving data from teachers of all stages of learning. The findings of the workshops will be collated and will serve to inform policy for education in Scotland.
