Guiding Teachers Through Leadership
New Book Offers Latest Research on How to Avoid Issues Around Role Ambiguity
The initial call for chapters for the recently released Empowering Formal and Informal Leadership While Maintaining Teacher Identity was published in Ed Prep Matters in 2020. Several contributing author teams are AACTE members.
While national competencies continue to define dispositional and knowledge base for teacher leaders, Bryan Zug elder, associate dean for academic affairs and partnerships in the College of Education at James Madison University (USA), saw a need to expand the body of scholarship on this topic.
He has over 15 years of experience working in education and is also currently working as an associate professor in the Department of Learning, Technology, and Leadership Education, where he serves as faculty and program director for the Graduate Certificate and Master of Education with a Concentration in Teacher Leadership programs. He explains his motivations and discoveries for his latest publication, Empowering Formal and Informal Leadership While Maintaining Teacher Identity:
What inspired you to create Empowering Formal and Informal Leadership While Maintaining Teacher Identity?
Zugelder: Teacher leadership is a key retention strategy that empowers teachers to demonstrate leadership without assuming a role as a school administrator. Empowering Formal and Informal Leadership While Maintaining Teacher Identity showcases examples of how teachers demonstrate leadership within the classroom, at the school level, and beyond. I have always believed that teachers, by virtue of their positions, are leaders and adding to the body of research on teacher leadership affirms the discipline.
Who will benefit from your book?
Zugelder: The book is intended for teacher educators, principal educators, and teacher leaders. It is designed to show the alignment of leadership knowledge, dispositions, and competencies that overlap with school leaders, while providing research and vignettes of those who demonstrate extraordinary leadership while not giving up their identity as a teacher.
How is this book unique from others in the field of Teacher Leadership?
Zugelder: This publication is different as it positions the discipline of teacher leadership by showcasing concrete examples of how teachers are empowered, specifically as leaders.
How has publishing Empowering Formal and Informal Leadership While Maintaining Teacher Identity changed your motivations and upcoming publications?
Zugelder: I can see that there is room for a deeper dive of teacher leadership through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
What do you see for the future of teacher leadership?
Zugelder: The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is leading the way in shaping teacher leaders throughout the United States. Consequently, some states have changed policy for teacher evaluations whereas teacher are expected to demonstrate leadership as part of their job. This is how we reform the profession. Together with the National Education Association, NBPTS, and the Center for Teaching Quality, national competencies for teacher leaders have been established; thus, standards of excellence have been established. There is now a need to continue studying the effectiveness of the enactment of these standards in practice.
To access the recently released publication in hardcover, softcover, and e-book formats. visit the publisher’s Online Bookstore, or through any major purchasing platforms, including GOBI and OASIS. This title is also included in the IGI Global e-Book Collection, which not only provides access to 6,600+ titles to institutions, but also serve as a source of Open Access funding through IGI Global’s innovative Fee Waiver Initiative for their faculty.
For information on incorporating Empowering Formal and Informal Leadership While Maintaining Teacher Identity into your course adoption, accessing this title through your institution’s library system, and current discount options, or to learn more about IGI collections and how to receive funding for Open Access publishing, contact me at grobinson@igi-global.com.
Genevieve Robinson is the markeing assistant at IGI Global.
Tags: research, teacher leaders
